Podcasts about verse one

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Twelve and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Eleven and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Ten and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Nine and Verse One

Microsoft spricht offiziell über die nächste Xbox. EA streicht Stellen bei den «Battlefield Studios». Wir haben die ersten Folgen der neuen «One Piece»-Staffel geschaut und besprechen, wie ausdauernd «Marathon» wirklich ist.

After some time away, I'm returning with a simpler format: short, calm episodes centered around the Tao Te Ching one verse at a time.In this first episode, we begin with Verse One, a reminder that the deepest parts of life can't always be captured in words, labels, or names.This is a space for quiet reflection, a cup of coffee, and a few honest thoughts.No rush. No pressure. Just a little room to breathe.Verse featured: Tao Te Ching, Verse OneTheme: The unnamed, the mystery, and letting life be what it isVerses are read from Stephen Mitchell's translation of the Tao Te Ching.Thanks for listening. I'll be back soon with the next verse.

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Eight and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Seven and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Six and Verse One

El pop franc

The Martin Garrix Show #581Mix 11. Deadmau5 - Ameonna [mau5trap]2. Meduza - No Sleep [EXPERTS ONLY]3. HAYLA x Nelly Furtado - Faded [WHITE LABEL]4. Odd Mob & OMNOM & HYPERBEAM - System [INSOMNIAC]5. Yolanda Be Cool - Get Down feat. Traxman [SWEAT IT OUT]6. Shermanology x Champion – Badder (Instrumental) [D'EAUPE]7. Chapter & Verse - One & Done feat. Jayelle [THE MYTH OF NYX]8. Tensnake & Gerd Janson - Push [ARMADA]9. G-POL & ARTA - Discoteka [HEXAGON]Mix 210. R3HAB - In My Head [CYB3RPVNK]11. Moksi & Eleganto - Me Against The World [FUTURE HOUSE MUSIC]12. Alesso - Destiny (with SACHA) [UMG]13. NOME. - Like Fire [PROTOCOL]14. Nicky Romero & Sick Individuals - Hold On [PROTOCOL]15. DubVision - Rise Again [STMPD RCRDS]16. Don Diablo x Fitz and The Tantrums - Radio Baby [TH3RD BRAIN]17. Martin Garrix & Saksham feat. Scott Quinn - Ain't Letting You Down [STMPD RCRDS]A weekly selection of tracks that I love to listen to at home or play out at a party. New episodes uploaded weekly

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Five and Verse One

JOIN US HERE instagram.com/djekg instagram.com/milanlieskovsky TRACK OF THE WEEK John Summit - Where You Are (Millero Extended Remix) EKG PLAYED Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head (RELOVA Edit) Prospa, Kosmo Kint - Love Songs (feat. Kosmo Kint) Jaguar Jaguar, Grigoré, Samm (BE), Serve Cold - Dancing (Samm Remix) Alex Wann, Malachiii, bees & honey - Moon (Extended Mix) Pendulum - The Island (STEIN & Sixtone Remix) Reznik, Jesse Boykins III - Cloudy Eyes (Dance Tonight) (1) ZEMMCO - FAIRY LADY- Original Mix (SK TRACK) Corey James & MorganJ ft Tyoz - Jungle (Original Mix) Manufactured Superstars & Vedic - Diva (Donny Graves Remix) John Summit, HAYLA - Shiver (N.O.Y & Guy Katch Extended Remix) MILAN LIESKOVSKY PLAYED 01, Zen Freeman, Gan - God Only Knows 02, Like Mike & Tom Zeta - In My Ear 03, HÄWK & Penn Brothers - Circus 04, Tujamo x RELOVA - Jump Into The Bag 05, AFROJACK - Take Over Control (feat. Eva Simons) [Antoine Delvig x NLW Remix] 06, Calvin Harris, Jessie Reyez - Ocean (Max Robinson Remix) 07, Chapter & Verse - One & Done ft. Jayelle 08, Cheyenne Giles - San Diego 09, VICE & LOML - Mr. Brightside 10, Strokeed - Missing Pieces ft.Elianne 11, BLOND:ISH, Stevie Appleton - Never Walk Alone 12, Voost - Memories GUESTMIX IBIZA AWARDS SPECIAL David Guetta, Kehlani, Hugel, Daecolm - Think Of Me (Extended Mix) KEINEMUSIK- CESARA LINA (FRANKY RIZARDO REMIX) Noir & Haze - Around (Cyava Edit) The Martinez Brothers, Marc E. Bassy, Louie Vega - Let It Go feat. Marc E. Bassy (Vintage Culture Extended Remix) Argy, Anyma (ofc), Son of Son - Voices In My Head WEEKEND ANTHEMS BY JUST DAVE 1.⁠ ⁠Samm x SHM - Body Language x Moth To A Flame (Flex Orlando Edit)  2.⁠ ⁠HUGEL, Niconé & Sascha Braemer, Tony Romera, Mydoz - Caje  3.⁠ ⁠Lana del Ray - Summertime Sadness (Adrian forsen Afrotech remix 4. David Guetta Feat. Kelly Rowland - When Love Takes Over (Heliograph & Palau Remix)  5.⁠ ⁠Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl (ESSUN Remix)  6.⁠ ⁠Toman - Verano En NY  7.⁠ ⁠Bob Sinclar, Gary Pine, Jesus Fernandez, Daveartt - Love Generation (YuB & Keys Afro Edit)  8.⁠ ⁠James Hype & Shamiya Battles - 7 Seconds  9.⁠ ⁠DAFT PUNK - AROUND THE WORLD (WESTEND EDIT) 10.⁠ ⁠Diplo, Miguel, FISHER, bbyclose - Don't Forget My Blackberries (YuB & ARNA Tool) 11.⁠ ⁠The Pussycat Dolls & Busta Rhymes with BLOND_ISH - Don't Cha 12.⁠ ⁠The Chemical Brothers - Galvanize (Chris Lake Extended Remix) 13.⁠ ⁠SIDEPIECE - Cry For You 14.⁠ ⁠Daft Punk - One More Time (Valmer Edit) 15.⁠ ⁠Kylie Minogue - Can't Get You Out Of My Head (RELOVA Edit) 16.⁠ ⁠Fatima Yamaha - What's A Girl To Do (IsGwan Edit)

1: WESTEND, DARLA JADE - Lighter2: ALEX GAUDINO, DYNORO, CHUCK D - "Funky Beat" (Extended Mix)3: FISH56OCTAGON, ISSEY CROSS - Dreaming (Feelings) (Club Mix)4: HARLEY GIRL – Turn Up The Sound5: PROSPA - Love Songs ft. Kosmo Kint (Extended Mix)6: JENGI, ALUNA  - Love The Right Way (Extended Mix)7: CHAPTER & VERSE - One & Done (feat. Jayelle) [Extended Mix]8: CHRISSY MEECHAN - Falling In Love Extended LISTENERS' CHOICE8:         Rank 1 - Awakening (Cosmic Gate Remix) 10: SALUTE - Love Has Come Again11: GADDI, HILLS (US) - Afterparty (Extended Mix)12: OPPIDAN - Darwin13: JYYE & JULIA TEMOS - Running Back (Extended) TRIED & TESTED14: KETTAMA - Man With A Second Face  15: TOURIST - Embrace16: EFESIAN – The Funk17: EL KHATIB & ROLAND CLARKE - Sound Of Freedom (Extended Mix) GUEST SELECTION: WOODY VAN EYDEN I Do Both Jay and Jane (Woody Van Eyden Vocal Club Mix)Woody van Eyden & Judge Jules – The Fiddle THE WARM UP SELECTION 18: NICO DE ANDREA & LILLY AHLBERG - Everytime We (Extended Mix)19: KEVIN KNAPP – West Coast20: ANNA TUR, HIBERNATE & VICTORIA GYDOV - Lux Tua (Extended Mix)21: M-HIGH - Secrets THE MAINSTAGE MIX  22: TIËSTO - RVN (Raven) [Extended Mix]  23: NILSIX, ORJAN NILSEN, AND MARK SIXMA - Blast From The Past (Extended Mix)24: LIGHTFORCE & BRYAN KEARNEY – Join Me25: LUVSTRUCK - Do You Think About Me 26: MADDIX - Move It 2 The Drum  27: MAURO PICOTTO, CRW & STEVE DEKAY - I Feel Love (Extended Mix)28: CHRIS METCALFE - Spacecraft29: DRIFTMOON X XIJARO & PITCH - Rise Again 

Welcome to The Daily, where we study the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, every day. Support our mission to teach every verse of the Bible. Read more here: Project23 Our text today is Judges 3:31 After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel. — Judges 3:31 Can one person really make a difference? Shamgar barely gets a verse. No long backstory. No detailed battle plan. Just a man with an oxgoad—a farmer's tool, not a warrior's weapon. Yet with it, he struck down 600 Philistines and saved Israel. That's it. No fanfare. No epic speeches. Just simple faith, raw courage, and God's power behind an ordinary tool. Sometimes God writes his biggest stories with the smallest brushstrokes. Shamgar's life reminds us: impact isn't about having the best weapon, but about putting what's in your hand into God's hand. Stop waiting for perfect conditions or better tools. God's not asking for what you don't have. He's asking for what you do have. Your oxgoad might be a kind word, a simple prayer, a skill you think is too small to matter. But in God's hands, ordinary becomes extraordinary. Never underestimate the difference one willing man or woman can make when they give God their tool and their trust. ASK THIS: What's the “oxgoad” in my hand that I've overlooked as insignificant? Do I believe God can use my ordinary life for extraordinary impact? Where is God calling me to step up, even if I feel unprepared? How can I trust God today to multiply my small obedience into big impact? DO THIS: Take one small, practical step of obedience today using whatever “oxgoad” God has placed in your hand. PRAY THIS: Lord, take what I have—even if it feels small—and use it for your glory. Make me bold like Shamgar to step into the fight with what you've given me. Amen. PLAY THIS: "Available."

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Four and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Three and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter Two and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Acts Chapter One and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Twenty One and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Twenty and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Nineteen and Verse One

“The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want.” God knows what we need better than we do and when we're following & trusting God (as our Lord & Shepherd)…if we don't HAVE it - we don't NEED it! -----Official WebsiteInstagramTwitterFacebook

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Eighteen and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Seventeen and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Sixteen and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Fifteen and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Fourteen and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Thirteen and Verse One

This week, Sha Stimui and Boardwalk Brown dissect Andre 3000's otherworldly lyrical display on the classic "The Art of Storytellin', Pt. 4" Topics discussed: The poetic format and construction of 3 Stacks' story Being the antithesis of what is considered a "real one" in the Black community The top tier wordplay and entendres Links mentioned in this episode: https://youtu.be/5QA9xcbMJFI?si=TgctvUFV0GnHCbv7 http://hashtaglegday.com This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Twelve and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Eleven and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Ten and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Nine and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Eight and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Seven and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Six and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Five and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Four and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter Three and Verse One

Psalm 23

Verse by verse study through the book of John Chapter One and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Micah Chapter Seven and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Micah Chapter Six and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Micah Chapter Four and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Micah Chapter Three and Verse One

Verse by verse study through the book of Micah Chapter Two and Verse One

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. God, first of all, we just thank you for the kids of Mosaic, and just what a tremendous blessing that they are. God, we pray for them, we pray for their families. We pray that You would bless the kids' summer nights this year and everybody that's working so hard to put that together. Lord, we thank You for all the brothers and sisters in Christ that are not only working on that, but are down in Mini Mosaic every week just being a blessing and service to our children. God, we thank You for these kids, but we thank You also that You have made us Your kids, that You have made us Your heavenly father through Your son, Jesus Christ. You have adopted us into Your family. God, I just pray that You would help us to grasp what good news that truly is for us, that our salvation is not contingent upon anything that we have done or need to do, but fully upon what You have done for us in Christ. And that Lord, just as we did nothing to contribute to our conception or physical birth, we can do nothing to save ourselves, but it is Your spirit alone who regenerates hearts and causes us to be born again. We enter Your household by sheer grace through faith in Your son Jesus Christ and we thank You for this amazing grace. We pray also Lord, that Your grace taught us would not be in vain, that You have done a great work for us and we pray now that You do a great work in us, so that by the power of your Holy Spirit, You could do a great work through us for the sake of Your mission, Your kingdom, and Your glory. Lord, we thank You for this time. We pray that You just speak to us today through this amazing passage of scripture that we have. We pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. All right. Well, today is an exciting day. I think first of all summer is officially here and so you might see me breaking a sweat up here today, but that's not really why I'm excited. I'm excited because we finally have made our way to Romans Chapter Eight. If you were here at the beginning of the series of Romans, we talked about how the Bible, holy scripture, is without comparison, the most important, the most influential book in human history. Nothing else even comes close. You cannot begin to understand the world as it is today if you have not read the Bible. But within the Bible, we talked about how the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, is arguably most influential letter within the most influential book. Today, as we come to Romans Chapter Eight, if you are familiar with the Book of Romans, you know that within the Book of Romans, this is a halfway point, it's the summit, it's the peak, it is the crowning jewel of Paul's letter. It is arguably the most influential chapter, within the most influential letter, within the most influential book, that has ever been written. This chapter has been called the inner sanctuary within the cathedral of the Christian faith. Have you ever had a really exciting story to tell, and you just can't wait to get to the point of it, but you know that you can't do that because if you just jumped straight to the point that the people that you're telling this to, they're not going to grasp the full weightiness of just how great of a point that you're trying to make? A few weeks ago, my son Owen is 10 years old, he just finished up the baseball season this past week. And a few weeks ago during baseball, Owen got a base hit. That's the point of the story. But if that's all I tell you, you haven't even begun to grasp the point. And so let me set this up. A few weeks ago, Owen's team began the playoffs. It's a double elimination tournament and they lost their first game. What that meant is they went into the loser's bracket and if they lost one more time, their season would be over. And so in the second game of the playoffs, they're losing the entire game. It's the bottom of the last inning, there are two outs, but there are runners on second and third. The team had been down the whole game. They made a little bit of a comeback in the last inning, but victory was just within grasp, but not quite there, and Owen is up to bat and he has three balls and two strikes, full count. This next pitch is going to determine everything. If he strikes out, the inning is over, the game is over, the season is over, they finish last place and he becomes that poor kid that struck out in the last inning and blew the game for everyone. The pressure was insane. Now, within that context, you understand the weightiness, the gravity of my words, when I say Owen got a base hit and he hit in, drove in the winning runs to win that game. Actually his team, after that, they came back and they made their way all the way up to the championship game and they beat the defending team in the first game 26 to seven, and then they lost the second game, which ruins the story. But you get the point. You can't just jump straight to the point, sometimes you need some context. And what Paul has been doing in his letter to the Romans is you can sense his excitement as he gets to Romans Chapter Eight, as he gets to the big idea, to the big point, but he's taken his time for the last seven chapters setting up the context so that we can really feel how great, how good, this good news really is. In the first couple of chapters, he presents, he lays out the human problem that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin is death. He builds this argument, this case that proves that we all actually know that. Deep down in our hearts and our souls we know that we are not as we ought to be, and that we are deserving of judgment. Then for a couple chapters, he presents the divine solution, that even though we have all sinned and that the wages of sin is death, that we can be justified freely by grace through Jesus Christ, because Christ has made propitiation for our sins on the cross. But then right as he gets there, he takes this unexpected detour, and for a couple of chapters Paul begins to answer the objections that he is anticipating from his critics. He does this in order to show definitively how bad our problem really is. That it's not just that we're sinful, it's that we are sinful beyond all measure, and that even something as good and perfect and holy as the law of God, this is Romans Chapter Seven, even the law is powerless to save us. The law cannot make us good. It can show us what is good, but all it can really do for us is show us how far from good we really are. Paul brings us back down deep into the pit, right up to the brink of utter hopelessness and despair. At the end of Romans Chapter Seven, he just says, "Wretched man that I am. Who can deliver me from this body of death?" What hope could we possibly have to overcome the presence and the power and the penalty of our sin, of our depravity, that we are all guilty, we are all without excuse, we have no defense, we are not worthy of anything but judgment, and judgment is coming and deep down we all know it. Then all of a sudden in Romans Chapter Seven, Verse 25, Paul makes this sudden shift, and it's like in a symphony, he begins this crescendo in verse 25 and he says, "But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord," and then he launches into Chapter Eight of our text today with this triumphant proclamation that, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." How can he say that? That's what we're going to be looking at in our text today. If you would please look at Romans Chapter Eight, we're going to be looking at verses one through four together this morning. This is Romans Eight and beginning in Verse One. The apostle Paul says this, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done, with the law, weakened by the flesh could not do, by sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." This is the reading of God's holy word for us today. As we look at this text, I have three questions that I want you to ask yourself this morning. First of all, what has God done for you? Do you know what God has done for you? Second, what is God doing in you? And then thirdly, what could God do through you? The first question that we need to ask, it's not what must we do for God in order to justify ourselves or be saved? It's what has God done for us? We all know this, but this is what sets Christianity apart from every other worldview, every other philosophy, every other religion, is this idea of grace. Going back to the beginning of Romans, Paul begins Romans Chapter One, and he tells us that, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." This is good news, in a strange way. It's bad news for us. It's good news because what this means is that God is good and because God is good, God is just, and in order for God to be just, then He must condemn sin. But now that's bad news for us because we are sinners. Why is Paul so excited in Romans Chapter Eight? Well, we get a clue to that a little bit later on when he gets to Romans Chapter Three. He says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." And why did He do that? He says, "This was to show God's righteousness," because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just, and the justifier of those, of the one who has faith in Jesus. This is the miracle of the gospel, that through Christ God is both just and justifier, that God upholds His justice by properly condemning sin on the cross, proving Himself to be just, but He also in upholding His justice is upholding His mercy as well, by taking that condemnation upon Himself, proving to also be the justifier of those who have faith in Christ. And this is what God has done for us. And the question is why would God do that? Why would He sacrifice so much to justify us who are so unworthy? 1 John Four, the Apostle John in Verse Nine, says, "In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His own Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." What is it that makes you a Christian? Are you a Christian because you love God? If you think that loving God is what makes you a Christian, scripture says you might not be a Christian. That God doesn't love you because you're loving. He doesn't love you because you're lovely. Your love for God, yeah, that may show that you are a Christian, but you are not a Christian because you love God. The only reason you are a Christian is because God has loved you. That God first loved you. He chose you. He adopted you as His own. And so does that mean that God's love, sometimes we hear this phrase God's unconditional love, is God's love unconditional? No, not exactly. God's love is not universal. It's not unconditional. It is actually completely conditional, but the good news is that it's not conditional upon us. It's conditional upon the character of God the Father. It's conditional upon the sacrifice of God the Son, that God is love. We do not define the love. Love is defined by the character of God. And He has manifest His love by sending His Son to come, to seek, and to save us who were lost. And so back to our passage, Paul says at the very beginning, he just kind of bursts into this excitement of, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." In Greek, what he actually says, "Is no therefore now condemnation," which doesn't make a whole lot of sense in English. But if you understand the way that Greek sentences are structured, the point is he is trying to powerfully emphasize the no, the noneness of our condemnation, which stands in total contrast to the fullness of the condemnation that we actually deserve. We talked about this earlier, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's Romans 3:23. That the wages of that sin is death. That's Romans 6:23. And so how can Paul say now that there's no condemnation? Well, he goes on in Verse Three and he tells us, "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." That where there was no hope, where there was no way, God made a way. He made a way to justly condemn sin in Christ on the cross, while at the same time mercifully justifying sinners. And this is the gospel. He says that God the Father sent God the Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And notice that word likeness there. Jesus did not come in sinful flesh. Jesus never sinned. Jesus was fully God, and yet he was fully man. He took on flesh. He was incarnate. But like Adam before the fall, Jesus did not have a sin nature. And so what that means is that Jesus faced all the limitations of a human body. He faced all the temptations that we experienced in a fallen world, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, He lived every moment of His life from the cradle to the grave without sin. He loved the Lord His God with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength continually and loved His neighbor as Himself perfectly. And so being fully man, Jesus had to be fully man, because what this meant was that He could stand as a worthy substitute in humanity's place. He was one of us. He could represent us. But being fully divine, He could also stand as a worthy sacrifice, capable of actually paying that debt and in doing so, He actually defeats Satan, sin, and death itself. So Verse Four says that by sending Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, that this is the reason that God sent Christ, this is the reason He came, was to deal with our sin. God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus in order that the righteous requirement of the law may actually be fulfilled in us, that Jesus took our condemnation and exchanged it for His justification, that God the Father declares Jesus guilty so that we could be declared perfectly righteous. That all the penalty that our sin deserved was placed on Christ. It was imputed to Him at the cross and there, and all of His righteousness is imputed to us, all the glory that His righteousness deserved is given to us by grace, through faith. That the curse of our lawbreaking fell on Him so that the blessing of His law keeping could be given to us. And so before we begin to consider what God wants to do in us or through us we need to just sit in this and be immersed, be overwhelmed, by what God has done for us. That God has done what even the law weakened by our flesh could not do. He's saved us from the penalty of our sin. And He has now hidden our lives in Christ. That's the language that Paul uses in Ephesian, that your life in Christ, you are hidden in Christ. And so think of it like this. We're going to talk a bit about sanctification. Sanctification is the power of Christ's life in you. Justification is the position of your life hidden in Christ. That if you are in Christ, that right now, when God the Father looks at you, He sees Christ's perfection, that all of your sins past, present, future, they were nailed to the cross. It's done. It's finished. They're forgiven, forgotten, cast to the bottom of the sea. Scripture says removed as far as the east is from the west. That all of our debt was transferred to Christ on the cross and He paid it in full with His blood. And now by grace God credits Jesus righteousness to us and it is sitting on our ledger, that you are in Christ and Christ is in you. And so now do you begin to understand why the Apostle Paul is so excited? Do you remember who this guy was like? This is Paul, the persecutor of Jesus Christ, the persecutor of the church, the murderer of Christians, the blasphemer, that this man, now in Christ, has been given the full assurance of the Father's eternal unfailing love. The full assurance that God the Father is never going to rub his sin in his face again. And it's not just that Paul got a second chance. We're not talking about a blank slate where you can go and try to do better next time. What we're talking about is actually Paul's given Jesus' slate. It's like imagine Jesus is the big brother. Paul's the little brother. Paul's the class clown. He's failing out of every subject in school. Jesus is the is the valedictorian and on the way home to Dad, to show their report cards, Jesus takes them, He swaps the names. Paul gets to go home and show this perfect record to the Father and experience the perfect pleasure of the Father. Not because of what he's done, but because of what His brother Christ has done for him. And you begin to get, get a sense of what has Paul so excited in this chapter. Psalm 103, 11 and 12 says that, "As high as the heavens are above the earth so great as His steadfast love to those who fear Him. As far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgressions from us." This is why we sometimes sing Amazing Grace or we sing the song Scandalous Grace, that this is amazing, this is scandalous. It seems almost too good to be true. And really the reason that Paul had taken that detour around Chapter Six and Seven is to answer the objections of those who were claiming that, "Yeah, this actually is too good to be true, that you can't preach this, that you can't go around telling people this message of grace, this message of complete forgiveness, that there's no condemnation. Because if you go around talking about this amazing grace, well then aren't you just taking away people's motivation to not sin? Aren't you just going to encourage them to sin more?" And Paul says, "No. If that's what you think, then you've still yet to understand grace." And that brings us to the second question today, that God's grace doesn't set us free in order to sin or for sin. God's grace sets us free from sin. And so Paul goes on and he says, Romans back to Romans 8:1, "There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." That grace, it takes us out of this impersonal realm of religion and law and it brings us into the personal realm of relationship and love. And this is pretty easy for us to understand if we think about it in human terms. Like if I sin against my wife and I go and I beg her for forgiveness and she forgives me, I don't think, "That was so easy. I'm going to go do that again because now I know she's just going to forgive me. And so I can just keep doing." No. I think, "Wow, I didn't deserve that forgiveness and I never want to hurt her like that again. I never want to do that again." That forgiveness and that grace actually motivate me to not sin again. Why? Because we're in a relationship, because we love one another, and this is what the gospel does. It brings us into this relationship with God the Father. I said this earlier, but justification is the position of your life in Christ and sanctification is the power of Christ's life in you, that the reason there is no condemnation for us is because our lives are hidden in Christ. But now the reason that we can fight the good fight of faith and put our sin to death is because we have the power of Christ living in us. And so if you remember last week we were in Chapter Seven and Chapter Seven is, it's kind of a lot to wrap your mind around, but we talked about how the big idea that Paul is getting here is he's trying to illustrate that as good and as holy as the law was, the chapter is really showing us that it was weak and it was incapable of saving us from our sin. And if Chapter Seven, Paul wrote that to show us the weakness of the law, then Chapter Eight, he wrote us to show us the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. And so in Chapter Seven, you see law, law, law, over and over and over, and here in Chapter Eight, you see he's just talking about the spirit, the spirit, the spirit. And the first thing that we need to understand here, Paul talks about the law of the spirit of life compared to the law of sin and death. In the Book of Romans, Paul uses the word law in two different ways. And so sometimes when he uses the word law, he's referring to God's law, the Mosaic law, the 10 Commandments. Other times he's using the word law in a more general sense. It's like a governing principle. It's like a power. Like we would think of the law of gravity. And so that is the way that he's actually using it in these verses, that the law of the spirit of life, the law of the sin and death, in the flesh, the law of sin and death, this was the governing power, principle, in our life. That before Christ, sin had this, it was like the gravitational pull of the sun and our lives revolved around sin and we were slaves to that orbit. There's nothing that we could do to escape the power of sin's gravity on our lives. And so when I picture what Paul is describing here, it's as if Christ has come and He has just ripped us out of that orbit around sin. He's broken the power of sin's gravity on our lives and He's now placed us in a new orbit, that we have this new governing principle, this power that he calls the law or the power of the spirit of life. That we were once under the power of sin that led to death, but now in Christ, our lives revolve around the spirit who gives abundant and eternal life. Now here's the tension that we live in as Christians. We've been ripped out of one orbit, we've been placed into this other orbit. Now does that mean that after you come to Christ that you're never going to feel the pull of temptation again? Does that mean that after you come to Christ that you're never going to sin again? No, of course we know that. But so then just as your life will no longer revolve around sin, it doesn't mean that you're never going to experience sin again. 1 John 1:8 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." We talked about this a little bit last week, that we are never going to be perfect and without sin on this side of eternity. That until Jesus comes back and gives us our resurrected, glorified bodies, that sin is going to continue to be this constant threat and presence in our lives, that none of us are ever going to in this life, none of us are ever going to come close to fulfilling the greatest commandment, which is the love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind and all of your strength. I can't even imagine doing that perfectly for a few seconds, let alone a lifetime. And the second commandment, which is to perfectly love your neighbor as yourself. We're never going to be sinless, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. That's the big idea. Pastor Jan said this last week that you will never be sinless, but as a Christian, you should be sinning less, that there is a real change, a real difference, a real distinction, between your life and the flesh before Christ and your life in the spirit in Christ. And that difference is you now for the first time have the power to say no to sin, to fight back against your sin, and to put the flesh to death. That before, you were powerless, that sin was your master. You were its slave. Your mind was set on it, your life revolved around it. But when Christ became your master, He set you free. And in setting you free, He deals a death blow to sin. And so on the one hand, sin is not dead, but it is dying and it's power over you should be growing less and less as you progress in your sanctification. And so sin is no longer your master, but it is still very much your adversary. This is why we still need to be on constant alert. Peter tells us that our enemy is He's roaming around like a roaring line seeking someone to devour. God told Cain in Genesis 4:7, He said, "Cain, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it" And that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have to rule over our sin. We're told that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. If we draw near to God, God will draw near to us. So in Romans 7:4, Paul asked the question, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" And then in Romans Eight, he tells us. Who will do this? God sent Christ to deliver us from the penalty of our sin, but also that Christ sent the Holy Spirit to deliver us from the power of sin in our lives and we need to fight in that power to rule over sin. And so the practical question right now for all of us is what is your life revolving around? What is your mind set on? We're going to talk about, Tyler is going to talk a little bit more about this next week when we get to the next passage, but in Romans 8, five and six, Paul says that those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. What is your mindset? What is your mind set on? And the question is what are the practical rhythms that you are placing in your life right now in order to set and to reset your mind over and over on the things of the spirit? Now you're here right now. That's a pretty good start, right? Gathering for worship with the church, with the communion of the saints. This should be a habit. This should be a rhythm of our lives. And not only that, we show up here on once a week and worship together. But when you do, do you have your mind set on it? Are you thinking about it? Are you looking forward to worship all week? Are you preparing yourself to come and to be present and to be focused and to be attentive, to actually sing God's praise and to apply your mind to His word during worship. We need to do that. Daily, just reading God's word, abiding in God's word, being constant in prayer. It's another habit we need to have to set our mind on the spirit. Serving the body of Christ. Having fellowship with the believers. Are you committed to a community group? Are you dedicated and are you consistent in your participation with other believers and their lives? These are all very practical things, but they're practical things we need to do because the Holy Spirit uses these practical things in very profound ways to sanctify us in our fight against sin. Now, I want to take a moment to just talk about something else that is going on in Romans Chapter Eight. As we think about these things, most of us at one time or another have probably had a concern, a question, come and linger in our mind. And that is if all these things are true, if we are saved, if we are in Christ, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we are adopted into the family of God the Father, if we have truly been set free from the law of sin and death, then why do we still experience sin and death? As a Christian, do you still face temptation? Yeah. As a Christian, do you still sometimes sin? Yeah. As Christians, we still suffer. As Christians, we still die. And I believe that these concerns, these questions, are actually the reason that Paul is writing this chapter. He's anticipating these thoughts because if all of this is true, then we're going to ask then why is the Christian life so hard? And Paul is writing to a people who have suffered and they know how hard it is. Paul himself is a man who knows how hard. He had suffered so much as a Christian for his faith. But if you look at Romans Chapter Eight and you just sit down and just read the entire thing and just kind of zoom out on it, you see Paul begins the chapter with this promise, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then he ends the chapter with another promise that there's also no separation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that nothing in heaven on earth can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. That Romans Eight, what he's doing is he's giving hope, he's giving comfort, he's giving assurance to Christians and to us that the trials and the temptations that we face in this life, these are not a sign that we're still condemned. They're not a sign that we're not saved. They're not a sign that God has forsaken us or left us. And they are not a sign that God is not in control. That this pain that we experience as Christians in this life, these are not the pangs of death that we're experiencing. These are the pings of birth. And that's what he says towards the middle of Chapter Eight, that this pain is real, but we need to understand that there is a purpose in this pain that is bringing about something so good that the pain is soon going to be totally forgotten. That's the hope that Paul wants to give us and he wants us to hold onto as we read Romans Chapter Eight, because, yeah, we are saints, but we're also sinners. We have eternal life, and yet we see Christians still die. We are more than conquerors, and yet we still face suffering and persecution. And if God has not chosen to just kind of teleport us off this earth and give us our glorified bodies as soon as we get saved, then it's because He has work for us to do here until Christ returns, that His good purposes for us in this world are not yet complete. And so that brings us to the last question we need to ask ourselves today. If that is true and if God has you here for a purpose, for a reason, then what will God do through you? What does God desire to do through you? Have you stopped to just imagine what God could do in your life? One of the things that I didn't mention earlier when I told the story about Owen's baseball team is that one of the reasons that moment was so tense, and one of the reasons that the outcome was such a big deal, is that for the first half of the season he had not gotten a single hit, I don't think. He was really struggling to hit the ball this year. This was the first year that he was doing kid pitch instead of coaches pitch, so the kids are pitching the whole time. And what that means is all the batters, they need to develop a new skill. And that skill is how do you bat against a pitcher who's not just, he's not just going to throw consistent strikes over the plate, some of these pitches are going to be all over the place. Actually, there were a few games where I think the pitchers were hitting the batters more than the batters were hitting the ball. And so, it's a new skill you got to develop, is how do you choose your pitches and how do you know when to swing, when not to, but he was struggling with this. And what it meant was he was striking out most of his times at bat. About halfway through the season, though, something changed. There was a turning point. Owen's coach rented some batting cages and for just several hours, there was just intense, focused, practice over and over and over with hitting the ball. And when he came out of that practice and went back out into the field, he started hitting the ball really consistently for the rest of the year. And practice is important. Practice makes perfect. There is a work that needs to be done in us, but what good would all of that have practice have been for him if he had never gone back out and applied those new skills on the field in a real game? And one of the temptations that we face as Christians is that a lot of times we'd rather practice than play the game. That when the coach calls us in, we would rather sit the bench, and it's a lot more comfortable to study the Bible theoretically in a simulated environment than it is to live it out in real life with real people and real problems. And this is one of the reasons that we intentionally want to try to keep things simple here at Mosaic. We talk about love Jesus simple, that really at Mosaic, we just focus on really three main things and we make them a priority. We worship together. That is a priority. We need to make it a priority. Every week we gather for worship together. We serve together. It's another important priority, that Jesus Christ did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. That He was a servant and we need to be servants. And then thirdly, we gather in homes and have community groups together. That is another priority. But beyond that, we really don't want to pack people's schedule full with a whole bunch of like churchy stuff. Like one hand, we know how busy people's lives are in the city already, but we don't want to just cram and just have people where all they're ever doing is going from seminar to class to study to one thing after another, because all those can be very good things, and necessary things at times, but you can't win championships if you never leave the batting cage. That's the point that I'm trying to make, that we all need enough margin in our lives to actually go out and do something on the field. And this city is a field. This is our mission field. If you remember, earlier in Romans, really the big idea of Romans is this idea that justification comes by grace through faith. And Paul, the way that he proves this case is by pointing all the way back to the example of Abraham, that this is how God had always intended it to be, that we are justified not by our works, but by grace through faith. But do you remember what God said to Abraham the very first time He speaks to him, when He calls him? This is Genesis Chapter 12, One through Three. It says, "Now the Lord said to Abraham, 'Go from your country and from your kindred in your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you, all the families on earth shall be blessed.'" Romans Chapter Eight can really be read as a list of the blessings that we have in Christ. That in Christ we have the blessing of justification. In Christ, we have the blessing of adoption into the family of God. In Christ we have the blessing of sanctification and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. That in Christ we have the blessed hope of glorification that Christ is going to return and make all things new. But God's grace toward us, God's blessings toward us, and God has been incredibly gracious toward us, but his blessings toward us should not be in vain. That like Abraham, there is a greater purpose in all of these blessings than just the way that they bless us individually. That God has blessed us in Christ in order to make us a blessing to all the nations, as he said to Abraham. And the nations are in this room. The nations are right outside our door. And so what that means is on the one hand we cannot give up this inner battle of the work that Christ is doing in us. We need to fight against sin. We need to grow in sanctification. But we also cannot forget we have an outward mission to the world, to share the gospel of what Christ has done for us, to testify to the reality of what Christ is doing in us and to allow Christ to work through us by making disciples of all the nations. We say this in our membership class a lot, but if you haven't taken the class for a while, if you've been a member for a while, just a reminder, if you are a Christian living in Boston, Massachusetts, then the chances are when you go to school, when you go to work, when you see your neighbors, chances are that you are the only Christian that they personally know living in this city. You may be the only person they know who has the answers to the meaning of life. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? How should we live? You may be the only person they know who is filled with the Holy Spirit of God, that you have been set free by the law of the spirit of life from the law of sin and death. You can show them what that looks like. To live a life in the power of the Holy Spirit, without guilt, without shame, with no condemnation, to the love sacrificially, to forgive people quickly from the heart, and to extend people grace in a graceless world, to tell them why you have hope, why you have peace, why you have joy, and why you are different. You may be the only person who can be the hands and the feet and the words of Christ to them that can come and say, "Come and see what God has done for you. Come and see what God wants to do in you and come and imagine what God could do through you." Later on in Romans Chapter 10, the Apostle Paul tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Then he asks some questions. How will they call on him, in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching, and how are they to preach unless they are sent. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. As a Christian you need to know that you have been saved in order to be sent, in order to be that blessing. And so, as we close today, just a couple of things, as you prepare to go out and live your lives this week, first of all, I just want you to remember that it is by grace alone, through faith alone, that you are in Christ. That you are loved, you are chosen. There is no condemnation for you. There is no accusation that the enemy can bring against you. That there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That you are in Christ. And approach this week with that mindset, that you are in Christ. But also approach this with your mind set on the spirit, with the mindset that as much as you are in Christ, that Christ is in you. And if Christ is in you, then what might He desire to do through you in this coming week, in this coming season, in this life? And then, finally, if you're here today and you are not a Christian, and you want to experience what this means, that there can be no condemnation for you? And the way you do that, you just simply repent, turn and put your faith in Jesus Christ, call on the name of the Lord, as the Apostle Paul said, and you will be saved. You can do that today, as we close in prayer. So let's pray and we'll continue and worship. God, we thank you for this good news. We thank You for saving us. We thank You for sanctifying us, for adopting us into Your family, for giving us a future and a hope and an eternal inheritance through Christ Jesus. God, we pray that the good work that You began in us, both individually and as a church, that You would carry on to completion until the day that Christ returns. And Lord, I pray that if there is anyone here today that has not been justified by Your grace, that You would save them, that You would give them faith and that they would put their faith in Christ and what He's done for them, that Your spirit would fill them and begin a good work in them, that their lives would become a testimony to Your grace, and Your power would work mightily through them. For the sake of Your name and glory, we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.God, first of all, we just thank you for the kids of Mosaic, and just what a tremendous blessing that they are. God, we pray for them, we pray for their families. We pray that You would bless the kids' summer nights this year and everybody that's working so hard to put that together. Lord, we thank You for all the brothers and sisters in Christ that are not only working on that, but are down in Mini Mosaic every week just being a blessing and service to our children. God, we thank You for these kids, but we thank You also that You have made us Your kids, that You have made us Your heavenly father through Your son, Jesus Christ. You have adopted us into Your family. God, I just pray that You would help us to grasp what good news that truly is for us, that our salvation is not contingent upon anything that we have done or need to do, but fully upon what You have done for us in Christ.And that Lord, just as we did nothing to contribute to our conception or physical birth, we can do nothing to save ourselves, but it is Your spirit alone who regenerates hearts and causes us to be born again. We enter Your household by sheer grace through faith in Your son Jesus Christ and we thank You for this amazing grace. We pray also Lord, that Your grace taught us would not be in vain, that You have done a great work for us and we pray now that You do a great work in us, so that by the power of your Holy Spirit, You could do a great work through us for the sake of Your mission, Your kingdom, and Your glory. Lord, we thank You for this time. We pray that You just speak to us today through this amazing passage of scripture that we have. We pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.All right. Well, today is an exciting day. I think first of all summer is officially here and so you might see me breaking a sweat up here today, but that's not really why I'm excited. I'm excited because we finally have made our way to Romans Chapter Eight. If you were here at the beginning of the series of Romans, we talked about how the Bible, holy scripture, is without comparison, the most important, the most influential book in human history. Nothing else even comes close. You cannot begin to understand the world as it is today if you have not read the Bible. But within the Bible, we talked about how the book of Romans, the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans, is arguably most influential letter within the most influential book.Today, as we come to Romans Chapter Eight, if you are familiar with the Book of Romans, you know that within the Book of Romans, this is a halfway point, it's the summit, it's the peak, it is the crowning jewel of Paul's letter. It is arguably the most influential chapter, within the most influential letter, within the most influential book, that has ever been written. This chapter has been called the inner sanctuary within the cathedral of the Christian faith.Have you ever had a really exciting story to tell, and you just can't wait to get to the point of it, but you know that you can't do that because if you just jumped straight to the point that the people that you're telling this to, they're not going to grasp the full weightiness of just how great of a point that you're trying to make? A few weeks ago, my son Owen is 10 years old, he just finished up the baseball season this past week. And a few weeks ago during baseball, Owen got a base hit. That's the point of the story. But if that's all I tell you, you haven't even begun to grasp the point.And so let me set this up. A few weeks ago, Owen's team began the playoffs. It's a double elimination tournament and they lost their first game. What that meant is they went into the loser's bracket and if they lost one more time, their season would be over. And so in the second game of the playoffs, they're losing the entire game. It's the bottom of the last inning, there are two outs, but there are runners on second and third. The team had been down the whole game. They made a little bit of a comeback in the last inning, but victory was just within grasp, but not quite there, and Owen is up to bat and he has three balls and two strikes, full count. This next pitch is going to determine everything. If he strikes out, the inning is over, the game is over, the season is over, they finish last place and he becomes that poor kid that struck out in the last inning and blew the game for everyone. The pressure was insane.Now, within that context, you understand the weightiness, the gravity of my words, when I say Owen got a base hit and he hit in, drove in the winning runs to win that game. Actually his team, after that, they came back and they made their way all the way up to the championship game and they beat the defending team in the first game 26 to seven, and then they lost the second game, which ruins the story. But you get the point. You can't just jump straight to the point, sometimes you need some context. And what Paul has been doing in his letter to the Romans is you can sense his excitement as he gets to Romans Chapter Eight, as he gets to the big idea, to the big point, but he's taken his time for the last seven chapters setting up the context so that we can really feel how great, how good, this good news really is.In the first couple of chapters, he presents, he lays out the human problem that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin is death. He builds this argument, this case that proves that we all actually know that. Deep down in our hearts and our souls we know that we are not as we ought to be, and that we are deserving of judgment.Then for a couple chapters, he presents the divine solution, that even though we have all sinned and that the wages of sin is death, that we can be justified freely by grace through Jesus Christ, because Christ has made propitiation for our sins on the cross. But then right as he gets there, he takes this unexpected detour, and for a couple of chapters Paul begins to answer the objections that he is anticipating from his critics. He does this in order to show definitively how bad our problem really is. That it's not just that we're sinful, it's that we are sinful beyond all measure, and that even something as good and perfect and holy as the law of God, this is Romans Chapter Seven, even the law is powerless to save us. The law cannot make us good. It can show us what is good, but all it can really do for us is show us how far from good we really are.Paul brings us back down deep into the pit, right up to the brink of utter hopelessness and despair. At the end of Romans Chapter Seven, he just says, "Wretched man that I am. Who can deliver me from this body of death?" What hope could we possibly have to overcome the presence and the power and the penalty of our sin, of our depravity, that we are all guilty, we are all without excuse, we have no defense, we are not worthy of anything but judgment, and judgment is coming and deep down we all know it.Then all of a sudden in Romans Chapter Seven, Verse 25, Paul makes this sudden shift, and it's like in a symphony, he begins this crescendo in verse 25 and he says, "But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord," and then he launches into Chapter Eight of our text today with this triumphant proclamation that, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." How can he say that? That's what we're going to be looking at in our text today.If you would please look at Romans Chapter Eight, we're going to be looking at verses one through four together this morning. This is Romans Eight and beginning in Verse One. The apostle Paul says this, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done, with the law, weakened by the flesh could not do, by sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." This is the reading of God's holy word for us today.As we look at this text, I have three questions that I want you to ask yourself this morning. First of all, what has God done for you? Do you know what God has done for you? Second, what is God doing in you? And then thirdly, what could God do through you? The first question that we need to ask, it's not what must we do for God in order to justify ourselves or be saved? It's what has God done for us? We all know this, but this is what sets Christianity apart from every other worldview, every other philosophy, every other religion, is this idea of grace.Going back to the beginning of Romans, Paul begins Romans Chapter One, and he tells us that, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." This is good news, in a strange way. It's bad news for us. It's good news because what this means is that God is good and because God is good, God is just, and in order for God to be just, then He must condemn sin. But now that's bad news for us because we are sinners.Why is Paul so excited in Romans Chapter Eight? Well, we get a clue to that a little bit later on when he gets to Romans Chapter Three. He says, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith." And why did He do that? He says, "This was to show God's righteousness," because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just, and the justifier of those, of the one who has faith in Jesus.This is the miracle of the gospel, that through Christ God is both just and justifier, that God upholds His justice by properly condemning sin on the cross, proving Himself to be just, but He also in upholding His justice is upholding His mercy as well, by taking that condemnation upon Himself, proving to also be the justifier of those who have faith in Christ. And this is what God has done for us. And the question is why would God do that? Why would He sacrifice so much to justify us who are so unworthy?1 John Four, the Apostle John in Verse Nine, says, "In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His own Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."What is it that makes you a Christian? Are you a Christian because you love God? If you think that loving God is what makes you a Christian, scripture says you might not be a Christian. That God doesn't love you because you're loving. He doesn't love you because you're lovely. Your love for God, yeah, that may show that you are a Christian, but you are not a Christian because you love God. The only reason you are a Christian is because God has loved you. That God first loved you. He chose you. He adopted you as His own. And so does that mean that God's love, sometimes we hear this phrase God's unconditional love, is God's love unconditional? No, not exactly. God's love is not universal. It's not unconditional. It is actually completely conditional, but the good news is that it's not conditional upon us. It's conditional upon the character of God the Father. It's conditional upon the sacrifice of God the Son, that God is love. We do not define the love. Love is defined by the character of God. And He has manifest His love by sending His Son to come, to seek, and to save us who were lost.And so back to our passage, Paul says at the very beginning, he just kind of bursts into this excitement of, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." In Greek, what he actually says, "Is no therefore now condemnation," which doesn't make a whole lot of sense in English. But if you understand the way that Greek sentences are structured, the point is he is trying to powerfully emphasize the no, the noneness of our condemnation, which stands in total contrast to the fullness of the condemnation that we actually deserve.We talked about this earlier, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's Romans 3:23. That the wages of that sin is death. That's Romans 6:23. And so how can Paul say now that there's no condemnation? Well, he goes on in Verse Three and he tells us, "For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." That where there was no hope, where there was no way, God made a way. He made a way to justly condemn sin in Christ on the cross, while at the same time mercifully justifying sinners. And this is the gospel.He says that God the Father sent God the Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And notice that word likeness there. Jesus did not come in sinful flesh. Jesus never sinned. Jesus was fully God, and yet he was fully man. He took on flesh. He was incarnate. But like Adam before the fall, Jesus did not have a sin nature. And so what that means is that Jesus faced all the limitations of a human body. He faced all the temptations that we experienced in a fallen world, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, He lived every moment of His life from the cradle to the grave without sin. He loved the Lord His God with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength continually and loved His neighbor as Himself perfectly. And so being fully man, Jesus had to be fully man, because what this meant was that He could stand as a worthy substitute in humanity's place. He was one of us. He could represent us. But being fully divine, He could also stand as a worthy sacrifice, capable of actually paying that debt and in doing so, He actually defeats Satan, sin, and death itself.So Verse Four says that by sending Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, that this is the reason that God sent Christ, this is the reason He came, was to deal with our sin. God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus in order that the righteous requirement of the law may actually be fulfilled in us, that Jesus took our condemnation and exchanged it for His justification, that God the Father declares Jesus guilty so that we could be declared perfectly righteous. That all the penalty that our sin deserved was placed on Christ. It was imputed to Him at the cross and there, and all of His righteousness is imputed to us, all the glory that His righteousness deserved is given to us by grace, through faith. That the curse of our lawbreaking fell on Him so that the blessing of His law keeping could be given to us.And so before we begin to consider what God wants to do in us or through us we need to just sit in this and be immersed, be overwhelmed, by what God has done for us. That God has done what even the law weakened by our flesh could not do. He's saved us from the penalty of our sin. And He has now hidden our lives in Christ. That's the language that Paul uses in Ephesian, that your life in Christ, you are hidden in Christ. And so think of it like this. We're going to talk a bit about sanctification. Sanctification is the power of Christ's life in you. Justification is the position of your life hidden in Christ. That if you are in Christ, that right now, when God the Father looks at you, He sees Christ's perfection, that all of your sins past, present, future, they were nailed to the cross. It's done. It's finished. They're forgiven, forgotten, cast to the bottom of the sea. Scripture says removed as far as the east is from the west.That all of our debt was transferred to Christ on the cross and He paid it in full with His blood. And now by grace God credits Jesus righteousness to us and it is sitting on our ledger, that you are in Christ and Christ is in you. And so now do you begin to understand why the Apostle Paul is so excited? Do you remember who this guy was like? This is Paul, the persecutor of Jesus Christ, the persecutor of the church, the murderer of Christians, the blasphemer, that this man, now in Christ, has been given the full assurance of the Father's eternal unfailing love. The full assurance that God the Father is never going to rub his sin in his face again.And it's not just that Paul got a second chance. We're not talking about a blank slate where you can go and try to do better next time. What we're talking about is actually Paul's given Jesus' slate. It's like imagine Jesus is the big brother. Paul's the little brother. Paul's the class clown. He's failing out of every subject in school. Jesus is the is the valedictorian and on the way home to Dad, to show their report cards, Jesus takes them, He swaps the names. Paul gets to go home and show this perfect record to the Father and experience the perfect pleasure of the Father. Not because of what he's done, but because of what His brother Christ has done for him. And you begin to get, get a sense of what has Paul so excited in this chapter.Psalm 103, 11 and 12 says that, "As high as the heavens are above the earth so great as His steadfast love to those who fear Him. As far as the East is from the West, so far does He remove our transgressions from us." This is why we sometimes sing Amazing Grace or we sing the song Scandalous Grace, that this is amazing, this is scandalous. It seems almost too good to be true. And really the reason that Paul had taken that detour around Chapter Six and Seven is to answer the objections of those who were claiming that, "Yeah, this actually is too good to be true, that you can't preach this, that you can't go around telling people this message of grace, this message of complete forgiveness, that there's no condemnation. Because if you go around talking about this amazing grace, well then aren't you just taking away people's motivation to not sin? Aren't you just going to encourage them to sin more?" And Paul says, "No. If that's what you think, then you've still yet to understand grace."And that brings us to the second question today, that God's grace doesn't set us free in order to sin or for sin. God's grace sets us free from sin. And so Paul goes on and he says, Romans back to Romans 8:1, "There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." That grace, it takes us out of this impersonal realm of religion and law and it brings us into the personal realm of relationship and love. And this is pretty easy for us to understand if we think about it in human terms. Like if I sin against my wife and I go and I beg her for forgiveness and she forgives me, I don't think, "That was so easy. I'm going to go do that again because now I know she's just going to forgive me. And so I can just keep doing."No. I think, "Wow, I didn't deserve that forgiveness and I never want to hurt her like that again. I never want to do that again." That forgiveness and that grace actually motivate me to not sin again. Why? Because we're in a relationship, because we love one another, and this is what the gospel does. It brings us into this relationship with God the Father.I said this earlier, but justification is the position of your life in Christ and sanctification is the power of Christ's life in you, that the reason there is no condemnation for us is because our lives are hidden in Christ. But now the reason that we can fight the good fight of faith and put our sin to death is because we have the power of Christ living in us.And so if you remember last week we were in Chapter Seven and Chapter Seven is, it's kind of a lot to wrap your mind around, but we talked about how the big idea that Paul is getting here is he's trying to illustrate that as good and as holy as the law was, the chapter is really showing us that it was weak and it was incapable of saving us from our sin. And if Chapter Seven, Paul wrote that to show us the weakness of the law, then Chapter Eight, he wrote us to show us the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. And so in Chapter Seven, you see law, law, law, over and over and over, and here in Chapter Eight, you see he's just talking about the spirit, the spirit, the spirit.And the first thing that we need to understand here, Paul talks about the law of the spirit of life compared to the law of sin and death. In the Book of Romans, Paul uses the word law in two different ways. And so sometimes when he uses the word law, he's referring to God's law, the Mosaic law, the 10 Commandments. Other times he's using the word law in a more general sense. It's like a governing principle. It's like a power. Like we would think of the law of gravity. And so that is the way that he's actually using it in these verses, that the law of the spirit of life, the law of the sin and death, in the flesh, the law of sin and death, this was the governing power, principle, in our life. That before Christ, sin had this, it was like the gravitational pull of the sun and our lives revolved around sin and we were slaves to that orbit. There's nothing that we could do to escape the power of sin's gravity on our lives.And so when I picture what Paul is describing here, it's as if Christ has come and He has just ripped us out of that orbit around sin. He's broken the power of sin's gravity on our lives and He's now placed us in a new orbit, that we have this new governing principle, this power that he calls the law or the power of the spirit of life. That we were once under the power of sin that led to death, but now in Christ, our lives revolve around the spirit who gives abundant and eternal life.Now here's the tension that we live in as Christians. We've been ripped out of one orbit, we've been placed into this other orbit. Now does that mean that after you come to Christ that you're never going to feel the pull of temptation again? Does that mean that after you come to Christ that you're never going to sin again? No, of course we know that. But so then just as your life will no longer revolve around sin, it doesn't mean that you're never going to experience sin again. 1 John 1:8 says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous."We talked about this a little bit last week, that we are never going to be perfect and without sin on this side of eternity. That until Jesus comes back and gives us our resurrected, glorified bodies, that sin is going to continue to be this constant threat and presence in our lives, that none of us are ever going to in this life, none of us are ever going to come close to fulfilling the greatest commandment, which is the love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind and all of your strength. I can't even imagine doing that perfectly for a few seconds, let alone a lifetime. And the second commandment, which is to perfectly love your neighbor as yourself. We're never going to be sinless, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. That's the big idea. Pastor Jan said this last week that you will never be sinless, but as a Christian, you should be sinning less, that there is a real change, a real difference, a real distinction, between your life and the flesh before Christ and your life in the spirit in Christ.And that difference is you now for the first time have the power to say no to sin, to fight back against your sin, and to put the flesh to death. That before, you were powerless, that sin was your master. You were its slave. Your mind was set on it, your life revolved around it. But when Christ became your master, He set you free. And in setting you free, He deals a death blow to sin. And so on the one hand, sin is not dead, but it is dying and it's power over you should be growing less and less as you progress in your sanctification. And so sin is no longer your master, but it is still very much your adversary. This is why we still need to be on constant alert. Peter tells us that our enemy is He's roaming around like a roaring line seeking someone to devour. God told Cain in Genesis 4:7, He said, "Cain, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it"And that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have to rule over our sin. We're told that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. If we draw near to God, God will draw near to us. So in Romans 7:4, Paul asked the question, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" And then in Romans Eight, he tells us. Who will do this? God sent Christ to deliver us from the penalty of our sin, but also that Christ sent the Holy Spirit to deliver us from the power of sin in our lives and we need to fight in that power to rule over sin.And so the practical question right now for all of us is what is your life revolving around? What is your mind set on? We're going to talk about, Tyler is going to talk a little bit more about this next week when we get to the next passage, but in Romans 8, five and six, Paul says that those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. What is your mindset? What is your mind set on? And the question is what are the practical rhythms that you are placing in your life right now in order to set and to reset your mind over and over on the things of the spirit?Now you're here right now. That's a pretty good start, right? Gathering for worship with the church, with the communion of the saints. This should be a habit. This should be a rhythm of our lives. And not only that, we show up here on once a week and worship together. But when you do, do you have your mind set on it? Are you thinking about it? Are you looking forward to worship all week? Are you preparing yourself to come and to be present and to be focused and to be attentive, to actually sing God's praise and to apply your mind to His word during worship. We need to do that. Daily, just reading God's word, abiding in God's word, being constant in prayer. It's another habit we need to have to set our mind on the spirit. Serving the body of Christ. Having fellowship with the believers. Are you committed to a community group? Are you dedicated and are you consistent in your participation with other believers and their lives? These are all very practical things, but they're practical things we need to do because the Holy Spirit uses these practical things in very profound ways to sanctify us in our fight against sin.Now, I want to take a moment to just talk about something else that is going on in Romans Chapter Eight. As we think about these things, most of us at one time or another have probably had a concern, a question, come and linger in our mind. And that is if all these things are true, if we are saved, if we are in Christ, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit and we are adopted into the family of God the Father, if we have truly been set free from the law of sin and death, then why do we still experience sin and death?As a Christian, do you still face temptation? Yeah. As a Christian, do you still sometimes sin? Yeah. As Christians, we still suffer. As Christians, we still die. And I believe that these concerns, these questions, are actually the reason that Paul is writing this chapter. He's anticipating these thoughts because if all of this is true, then we're going to ask then why is the Christian life so hard? And Paul is writing to a people who have suffered and they know how hard it is. Paul himself is a man who knows how hard. He had suffered so much as a Christian for his faith. But if you look at Romans Chapter Eight and you just sit down and just read the entire thing and just kind of zoom out on it, you see Paul begins the chapter with this promise, that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.And then he ends the chapter with another promise that there's also no separation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that nothing in heaven on earth can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. That Romans Eight, what he's doing is he's giving hope, he's giving comfort, he's giving assurance to Christians and to us that the trials and the temptations that we face in this life, these are not a sign that we're still condemned. They're not a sign that we're not saved. They're not a sign that God has forsaken us or left us. And they are not a sign that God is not in control. That this pain that we experience as Christians in this life, these are not the pangs of death that we're experiencing. These are the pings of birth. And that's what he says towards the middle of Chapter Eight, that this pain is real, but we need to understand that there is a purpose in this pain that is bringing about something so good that the pain is soon going to be totally forgotten.That's the hope that Paul wants to give us and he wants us to hold onto as we read Romans Chapter Eight, because, yeah, we are saints, but we're also sinners. We have eternal life, and yet we see Christians still die. We are more than conquerors, and yet we still face suffering and persecution. And if God has not chosen to just kind of teleport us off this earth and give us our glorified bodies as soon as we get saved, then it's because He has work for us to do here until Christ returns, that His good purposes for us in this world are not yet complete. And so that brings us to the last question we need to ask ourselves today. If that is true and if God has you here for a purpose, for a reason, then what will God do through you? What does God desire to do through you? Have you stopped to just imagine what God could do in your life?One of the things that I didn't mention earlier when I told the story about Owen's baseball team is that one of the reasons that moment was so tense, and one of the reasons that the outcome was such a big deal, is that for the first half of the season he had not gotten a single hit, I don't think. He was really struggling to hit the ball this year. This was the first year that he was doing kid pitch instead of coaches pitch, so the kids are pitching the whole time. And what that means is all the batters, they need to develop a new skill. And that skill is how do you bat against a pitcher who's not just, he's not just going to throw consistent strikes over the plate, some of these pitches are going to be all over the place. Actually, there were a few games where I think the pitchers were hitting the batters more than the batters were hitting the ball.And so, it's a new skill you got to develop, is how do you choose your pitches and how do you know when to swing, when not to, but he was struggling with this. And what it meant was he was striking out most of his times at bat. About halfway through the season, though, something changed. There was a turning point. Owen's coach rented some batting cages and for just several hours, there was just intense, focused, practice over and over and over with hitting the ball. And when he came out of that practice and went back out into the field, he started hitting the ball really consistently for the rest of the year. And practice is important. Practice makes perfect. There is a work that needs to be done in us, but what good would all of that have practice have been for him if he had never gone back out and applied those new skills on the field in a real game?And one of the temptations that we face as Christians is that a lot of times we'd rather practice than play the game. That when the coach calls us in, we would rather sit the bench, and it's a lot more comfortable to study the Bible theoretically in a simulated environment than it is to live it out in real life with real people and real problems. And this is one of the reasons that we intentionally want to try to keep things simple here at Mosaic. We talk about love Jesus simple, that really at Mosaic, we just focus on really three main things and we make them a priority.We worship together. That is a priority. We need to make it a priority. Every week we gather for worship together. We serve together. It's another important priority, that Jesus Christ did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. That He was a servant and we need to be servants. And then thirdly, we gather in homes and have community groups together. That is another priority. But beyond that, we really don't want to pack people's schedule full with a whole bunch of like churchy stuff. Like one hand, we know how busy people's lives are in the city already, but we don't want to just cram and just have people where all they're ever doing is going from seminar to class to study to one thing after another, because all those can be very good things, and necessary things at times, but you can't win championships if you never leave the batting cage. That's the point that I'm trying to make, that we all need enough margin in our lives to actually go out and do something on the field. And this city is a field. This is our mission field.If you remember, earlier in Romans, really the big idea of Romans is this idea that justification comes by grace through faith. And Paul, the way that he proves this case is by pointing all the way back to the example of Abraham, that this is how God had always intended it to be, that we are justified not by our works, but by grace through faith. But do you remember what God said to Abraham the very first time He speaks to him, when He calls him? This is Genesis Chapter 12, One through Three. It says, "Now the Lord said to Abraham, 'Go from your country and from your kindred in your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you, all the families on earth shall be blessed.'"Romans Chapter Eight can really be read as a list of the blessings that we have in Christ. That in Christ we have the blessing of justification. In Christ, we have the blessing of adoption into the family of God. In Christ we have the blessing of sanctification and the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. That in Christ we have the blessed hope of glorification that Christ is going to return and make all things new. But God's grace toward us, God's blessings toward us, and God has been incredibly gracious toward us, but his blessings toward us should not be in vain. That like Abraham, there is a greater purpose in all of these blessings than just the way that they bless us individually. That God has blessed us in Christ in order to make us a blessing to all the nations, as he said to Abraham.And the nations are in this room. The nations are right outside our door. And so what that means is on the one hand we cannot give up this inner battle of the work that Christ is doing in us. We need to fight against sin. We need to grow in sanctification. But we also cannot forget we have an outward mission to the world, to share the gospel of what Christ has done for us, to testify to the reality of what Christ is doing in us and to allow Christ to work through us by making disciples of all the nations.We say this in our membership class a lot, but if you haven't taken the class for a while, if you've been a member for a while, just a reminder, if you are a Christian living in Boston, Massachusetts, then the chances are when you go to school, when you go to work, when you see your neighbors, chances are that you are the only Christian that they personally know living in this city. You may be the only person they know who has the answers to the meaning of life. Who are we? Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? How should we live?You may be the only person they know who is filled with the Holy Spirit of God, that you have been set free by the law of the spirit of life from the law of sin and death. You can show them what that looks like. To live a life in the power of the Holy Spirit, without guilt, without shame, with no condemnation, to the love sacrificially, to forgive people quickly from the heart, and to extend people grace in a graceless world, to tell them why you have hope, why you have peace, why you have joy, and why you are different. You may be the only person who can be the hands and the feet and the words of Christ to them that can come and say, "Come and see what God has done for you. Come and see what God wants to do in you and come and imagine what God could do through you."Later on in Romans Chapter 10, the Apostle Paul tells us that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Then he asks some questions. How will they call on him, in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching, and how are they to preach unless they are sent. As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news.As a Christian you need to know that you have been saved in order to be sent, in order to be that blessing. And so, as we close today, just a couple of things, as you prepare to go out and live your lives this week, first of all, I just want you to remember that it is by grace alone, through faith alone, that you are in Christ. That you are loved, you are chosen. There is no condemnation for you. There is no accusation that the enemy can bring against you. That there is nothing in heaven or on earth that can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That you are in Christ. And approach this week with that mindset, that you are in Christ. But also approach this with your mind set on the spirit, with the mindset that as much as you are in Christ, that Christ is in you. And if Christ is in you, then what might He desire to do through you in this coming week, in this coming season, in this life?And then, finally, if you're here today and you are not a Christian, and you want to experience what this means, that there can be no condemnation for you? And the way you do that, you just simply repent, turn and put your faith in Jesus Christ, call on the name of the Lord, as the Apostle Paul said, and you will be saved. You can do that today, as we close in prayer. So let's pray and we'll continue and worship.God, we thank you for this good news. We thank You for saving us. We thank You for sanctifying us, for adopting us into Your family, for giving us a future and a hope and an eternal inheritance through Christ Jesus. God, we pray that the good work that You began in us, both individually and as a church, that You would carry on to completion until the day that Christ returns. And Lord, I pray that if there is anyone here today that has not been justified by Your grace, that You would save them, that You would give them faith and that they would put their faith in Christ and what He's done for them, that Your spirit would fill them and begin a good work in them, that their lives would become a testimony to Your grace, and Your power would work mightily through them. For the sake of Your name and glory, we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.

Rev. Brian L. Kachelmeier  In this lecture, we conclude our conversation about the prophet Jonah, and we set our eyes on Jesus the One who is greater than Jonah. Download this lecture by clicking on the link below: Lecture: Jonah … Continue reading →