Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. Feeling faint when God's got power for you. Got no might? God has strength for you. We all have this in common.
We all get tired. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted. Isaiah 40, 30. The strongest, the fittest, the fastest. We all grow tired.
Jesus was tempted to give up. Why should we ever be surprised when we feel like throwing in the towel? But as you wait expectantly on the Lord, You will renew your strength. You will mount up with wings like an eagle. You shall run and not be weary.
You shall walk. and not faint. I bless you today. to wait on the next updraft. and to spread your wings.
and to soar. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. We all need Romans 8:1. Amos told of a coming day of the Lord. Joel said, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh.
Joel wanted to die, but God sent him a fish to scoop up the condemned prophet. Habakkuk said, The just shall live by faith. And John the Baptizer came and he pointed and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light.
I'm Daniel Britt. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series More Than Conquerors, a study of Romans 8 as presented at Renulda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries.
So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Just contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Or call 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But now, as we get started with today's teaching, sitting here with Pastor Alan, with some context for today's message, sometimes visual aids are used to illustrate a point, and that's certainly the case today.
So, we have a video that was shown during the message of an experiment with a psychologist with a mother and baby and various different facial expressions, I'll put it that way. And there's a lot of references to this video throughout the message.
So, no matter where you're joining us in this message, you may hear something relating to a video or mothers and facial expressions and babies. And we wanted to put that in context for you. When a mother smiles, we now know from studies of neuroscience that something lights up on the inside the baby's brain. We're designed for that. And so this experiment shows what happens when a mother's smile is suddenly gone.
It can be so troubling for an infant. And we're, in a sense, Using this as an ongoing metaphor to think about the smile of God and the glorious Assurance of Romans 8:1, there's no condemnation for us in Christ.
Now, with today's teaching, no more condemnation. Here's Pastor Alan Wright. Because we are made for love and honor and affection and attention and Attachment. and joy When we don't get it, And it's withheld. We're no different than that little girl.
We'll point, we'll smile, we'll have antics, we'll throw a fit, we'll do whatever we can. But people will run a little faster and jump a little higher if you withhold your affirmation of them. But what will it do to them? What will it do to them? That's why he had such a big problem with the Pharisees.
He said, you search the world over for a convert. And you find one. And you make him twice the son of hell that you are. Said you you you get him in here and you then you you withhold affirmation until they have perfected themselves in the law. And you're missing the whole heart of God.
The the fourth thing I see in th that video is that It demonstrates.
Now, this is going to sound weird and harsh, but stay with me. It demonstrates that children are born in sin. What? The child didn't do anything wrong.
Well... Yeah, yeah. And here's what it was: it's not the evil things, it's not the crying, it's not the throwing or tampered death. That's not so much what sin is. I'm talking about sin with the capital S.
I'm talking about the sin nature, the problem of humanity. is that we misunderstand because we do not see accurately. And what you can see in that picture was The mother had not stopped loving her child. She was in an experiment. And it wasn't going to go on for very long.
But the baby doesn't know it.
So the baby's interpreting. Right? What really our issue is is that we come into the world. And we do not have the spiritual capacity to fully understand or experience the love of God. And we misinterpret all the signals of life.
We're misinterpreting them all the time.
Something bad is happening, and we're saying God doesn't love me anymore.
Something goes on in our lives, and we think, well, there's a problem with me, you see. And so we're just. Misinterpreting much like that little baby.
So, sin is characterized by our inability to see correctly. I got I have Been married to Anne for thirty eight years. And From the first time that we ever dated. I haven't even come close, never could imagine coming close to being unfaithful to her, and she knows that. But what if she didn't know that?
What if for some reason she thought I had been? It would Sabotage the whole relationship. for her just misunderstanding it.
So It's the misunderstanding. That is Which is why we need the eyes of our hearts opened up, right? We can't see God properly. The next thing I learned from this is that You can tell in that little two-minute video that in some Just by seeing a blank face on her mother's face That The baby is internalizing the message in some way. she's internalizing the mother's distance is saying something about me.
that the infant whose mother isn't silent is saying, Something is wrong here. But we instinctively think something's wrong with me. Because see a little baby like that, like any toddler, if mom's having a bad day. Uh she doesn't she doesn't say.
Well, mom's having a stressful time. The dishwasher broke this week. I know she just got off a stressful Zoom call just a few moments ago. And I know that things between her and dad have been a little tense lately. But I'm sure that You know, she's got a appointment with her therapist on Friday.
She'll work all that out. But one thing's for sure, it's not about me. The baby doesn't think like that. We don't think like that.
So what were all the messages we got? We we we didn't understand it. We didn't understand it. We interpret it and it becomes internalized. Within us, and we start thinking: if I'm not celebrated, the reason I'm not celebrated is I'm not worthy of a celebration.
I need to try harder in order to be worthy of a celebration.
Something wrong with me. That's why I'm not getting smiles. What do I gotta do to get them? People will join a gang. To have somebody look at them with a sense of acceptance.
And it breaks my heart. That's why I just got to preach the gospel to my dying breath. We got to tell them. They don't know. God has a smile.
I just, you know, that feeling you get when you watch that little baby for just 20 seconds and you feel sorry for the baby. It's what God's done to my heart for this world. I can't. not feel it. When you experience the love of God, Don't you want everybody to have it?
Yeah. And sixthly, from this video you learn this most basic truth That through the simple smile of a primary caregiver. A child is transformed. Which takes me back to number six. The LORD spoke to Moses, said Speak to Aaron.
He's talking to the priests now. Thus you shall bless the people of Israel. He's describing the will of God for his people. If you want to know the will of God for his people, here it is. Say to them, Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you. And be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I'll bless them. This is who I am to my people. My face shine upon them. This is why The appeal to God is rooted in this blessing. The psalmist cries out in Psalm 102: Hear my prayer, O Lord, let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Psalm 27:7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, Seek my face. That's what God wants. Look for my smile everywhere.
Hallelujah. My heart says to you, Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help.
It's the Lord's will. What I'm saying is that All of creation has been groaning and travail down through the corridors of history. From the dawn of time To hear Paul, under the unction of the Holy Spirit, say. There is, therefore, now No condemnation in Christ Jesus. It's the best news.
Effer. Its radical freedom and acceptance that comes only from a new system of grace. The second verse of our text: the law of the spirit of life has set you free. In Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death. The law Now here, not talking about the Mosaic law, but just the principle, the force.
and guiding principle Yeah. Trying to keep law. But being sinful and it just leading to more condemnation and death, that in Jesus Christ for the believer has come to an end. Why would you ever want to put yourself back under it? Don't ever put yourself back under it.
And don't let a preacher put you under it, and don't let a friend put you under it, and don't misread the Bible and put you under it. The condemnation does not exist. and you are not under law. You're under grace. That's Romans.
That's not me, that's Romans. And This law of the Spirit of life is a fulfillment of what God has always willed for his people. Ezekiel's famous prophecy, chapter 36, 25, I'll sprinkle clean water on you. And you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses. And from all your idols I'll cleanse you.
And I'll give you a new heart. and a new spirit I'll put within you. And I'll remove the hardest stone from your flesh. And I give you a heart of flesh, a soft heart. and I'll put my spirit within you.
and cause you to walk in my statutes, to be careful to obey my rules. He said I'm going to change the system. I'm going to bring grace into your life, and then you can be filled with my own life.
So, God. As he's always planned and always promised, does these two things in Christ? He makes you clean in his sight, and then he gives you his own life, his own spirit.
So that you can live. Because you're designed to live. And all obedience flows out of that. Obedience for the Christian does not flow out of fear of God or fear of punishment. Obedience flows out of joy in a relationship.
Obedience with God Is much more like when the baby saw her mother smile again, she quit fussing. That's what obedience is like. Verse 3 of our text, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do.
Okay, By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, in the likeness, not sinful, but. in the flesh, tempted as we are in every way. 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.
So we're, Jesus fulfilled all righteousness, and we're in Christ, and therefore we are credited with his righteousness. The reason Paul reiterates this here after Romans 8:1 is he's reminding us there's only one way. to get Romans 8 1 and that is remember both these things. Just as Ezekiel prophesied, I'll sprinkle the clean. I'll give you my spirit.
And it's because a whole new system has come. It's not Law, sin, condemnation, and death. It is grace, my spirit, and therefore your joyful obedience. There's not another way for it to happen. This is the way it happens.
From the beginning. We've been waiting on it. I'm talking about When Adam and Eve sinned against God And they immediately felt the condemnation. I felt it inwardly. The serpent who had promised them that they'd be more like God.
Suddenly, on behalf of all of hell, heaped condemnation on them. And they began hiding from each other. and hiding from God. God came and said, Adam, where are you? I said I was afraid.
Condemnation makes us afraid.
So God made the first sacrifice. killed an animal, shed some innocent blood to make some clothing out of the skins of the animals to cover them. giving you a glimpse of the heart of God. He didn't want his people feeling condemnation. And they had two sons, Cain and Abel.
And they both made offerings to the Lord. And you could debate What was behind the reason that God gave approval and he really liked Abel's offering, but Not Keynes. He didn't reject Cain. You didn't stop loving Cain. He just said I like Abel's offering in The spirit of condemnation came upon Cain.
came heavy on him. The shame came heavy. was so bad that he just couldn't stand it. He rose up and killed his brother. And God said, His blood cries up out of the ground to me.
The whole world's been waiting for Romans 8.1. Noah came. To be the representative of God as the most righteous on earth, because no one was righteous. And God had him build a big boat that had one door. Come through the one door.
Well there is not condemnation, for there's a flood everywhere else. Joseph was shamed by his brothers, hated by his brothers. couldn't stand him, they couldn't stand his multicolored tunic. They couldn't stand his dreams. They sold him off into slavery in Egypt.
When by Providential miracle. They come to Egypt and they meet Joseph and don't recognize him at first. And Joseph's in command of Egypt now, when they do Finally, realize it's Joseph. What happens to them? The spirit of condemnation comes all over them.
They are just terrified. And Joseph says, I'm going to he spoke kindly to them. He said, don't be afraid. But you know that even at the end of that story, When When Jacob, when their father died, they became terrified again. And Joseph had to speak to him again.
He said, I forgive you.
So powerful is the spirit of condemnation, the whole world's been waiting for Romans 8.1. Moses came and to be a deliverer of the people of God. And They were instructed in their Hebrew hut. to put blood over the door. Because it was the only way out of Egypt.
The only way out of condemnation is the blood. Isaiah prophesied, Biah's stripes were healed. And he said, Comfort my people, comfort my people. Jeremiah. said the day is coming which i'll give you a new covenant it's not like the old covenant that I gave your fathers, it is a new covenant.
Then which I will I will put my law into your hearts. And no longer will people say to one another, know the Lord, for they'll know me. It's a new covenant. Hosea was instructed to marry a woman of unfaithfulness. and Gomer had so much shame and so much condemnation that she went back to her old life style, and God said Love her anyway.
Because we all need Romans 8.1. Amos told of a coming day of the Lord. Joel said, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh. Jonah wanted to die, but God sent him a fish to scoop up the condemned prophet. Habakkuk said, The just shall live by faith.
And John the baptizer came and he pointed and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Because The whole world has been waiting for Romans 8.1. I spent my whole life waiting for Romans 8:1. I've been preaching for 17 weeks to get to Romans 8:1. I just love Romans 8:1.
I want the whole world to know Romans 8:1 and why it's possible. I want everyone to hear it, shout it from the mountaintops, tell it to yourself in the morning, go to bed on your pillow at night with it in your lips. There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Say it with me. There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and that's the gospel.
Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message, No More Condemnation from the series More Than Conquerors, a study of Romans 8. And by the way, the video that is referenced, if you'd like to see that, simply come to pastorallen.org and search for that full video teaching No More Condemnation. That's at pastorallen.org. And Pastor Alan's back here in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Stay with us.
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There's so much waiting for you. Visit pastorallen.org today. That's pastorallen.org. Back here with Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day as we come to the conclusion of the teaching no more condemnation. Pastor Alan.
All of history has been building, I think, towards the moment that Paul would say there is therefore now no condemnation. It is an announcement that There is a whole new system in place. is called grace. That there's a way of relating to God that does not depend on any of your righteousness, but is entirely. depended upon the merits of Christ himself.
that what the law couldn't do couldn't clean us up, couldn't empower us. Jesus came in the flesh to do. Lived perfectly, was crucified in the flesh, so that we who trust in him experience his own freedom, his own life.
So what The world's been longing for ever since Adam and Eve were hiding in shame after they sinned in the garden. All through the history and the ages and eons, coming down the corridors of time, we've been waiting for that moment. to hear someone say, it's possible that all the condemnation could be lifted from you. And that is the good news of the gospel. There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those.
We're in Christ Jesus. Today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
