More Than Conquerors [Part 3]

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. 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. 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, the study of Romans 8 as presented at Reynolda 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 Alan Wright Ministries.

So as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Just contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.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, 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're 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 what Jesus, that's why he had such a big problem with the Pharisees. He said, you search the world over for a convert and he'll find one and you make him twice the son of hell that you are.

He said, you get him in here and then you withhold affirmation until they have perfected themselves in the law and you're missing the whole heart of God. The fourth thing I see in 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, yes she did. And here's what it was. It's not the evil things, it's not the crying, it's not the throwing a tamp, that's not so much what sin is. I'm talking about sin with a 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 have been married to Ann for 38 years and from the first time that we ever dated, I haven't even come close and 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 way, 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 didn't understand it. We didn't understand it.

We interpreted 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 I've got to do to get them people will join a gang to have somebody look at them with a sense of acceptance. I'll do anything and it breaks my heart. It's why I just got to preach the gospel to my dying breath.

We got to tell them I don't know. God has a smile. I just, you know, that feeling you get when you watch that little baby for just a 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? 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 and said, speak to Aaron. He's talking to the priests now. Thus you so 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 one Oh two. Hear my prayer. Oh Lord, let my cry come to you. Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress.

Psalm 27 seven here. Oh 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. Oh, you have been my help. It's the Psalm'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. It's the best news ever.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. It has been called the most influential letter ever written. Every word written by the Apostle Paul and his epistle to the Romans is dripping with the astounding news of what God has done for you in Jesus. Answering the two biggest questions of life.

What went wrong and how has God made it right? Discover the richness of those answers and enhance your Bible journey today. Make a donation to Alan Wright Ministries this month and unlock our Romans reading guide paired with the ESV Scripture Journal. Immerse yourself in the word and capture personal insights, prayers and reflections directly alongside the powerful text.

These sleek portable journals amplify your study, enrich group sessions and deepen personal reflections. Elevate your spiritual Odyssey and forge a stronger connection with the scriptures. Help Alan Wright Ministries reach the world with the good news of the gospel with your gift today and receive these essential tools that will elevate your study, enrich your prayer life and deepen your understanding of the Book of Romans. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. It's 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 you're not talking about the Mosaic law, but just the principle, the force and guiding principle of 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 let, 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 uncleanness 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 heart of stone from your flesh and I'll 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 gonna change the system. I'm gonna, I'm gonna 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 as 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 and 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 three of our text 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, 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 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 eight, one is he's reminding us there's only one way to get Romans eight, one, and that is remember both of these things just as Ezekiel prophesied, I'll sprinkling 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. It 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?

He 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 Cain's. He didn't reject Cain. He didn't stop loving Cain. He just said, I like Abel's offering and the spirit of condemnation came upon Cain, came heavy on him. The shame came heavy.

It 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 where there is not condemnation for there's a flood everywhere else. Joseph was shamed by his brothers, hated by his brothers. They couldn't stand him. They couldn't stand his multicolored tunic.

They couldn't stand his dreams. They sold them off into slavery in Egypt. And when by providential miracle, they come to Egypt and they meet Joseph and don't recognize him at first in 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, 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 eight, one, Moses came in to be a deliverer of the people of God. And they were instructed in their Hebrew huts to put blood over the door because it was the only way out of Egypt. It was the only way out of condemnation is the blood Isaiah prophesied by his 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 in which I will, I will, I'll 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 lifestyle and God said, love her anyway, because we all need Romans eight, one 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, 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 eight, one. I spent my whole life waiting for Romans eight, one. I've been preaching for 17 weeks to get to Romans eight, one.

I just love Romans eight, one. I want the whole world to know Romans eight, one and why it's possible. I want everyone to hear it. Shout it from the mountain tops. 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. That's pastor Alan Wright, our good news message. No more condemnation from the series more than conquerors, a study of Romans eight. And by the way, the video that is referenced, if you'd like to see that simply come to pastor alan.org and search for that full video teaching no more condemnation. That's at pastor alan.org and Pastor Alan's back here in the studio, sharing his parting good news thoughts for the day.

In just a moment, stay with us. It has been called the most influential letter ever written. Every word written by the apostle Paul and his epistle to the Romans is dripping with the astounding news of what God has done for you in Jesus answering the two biggest questions of life.

What went wrong and how has God made it right? Discover the richness of those answers and enhance your Bible journey today. Make a donation to Alan Wright Ministries this month and unlock our Romans reading guide paired with the ESV scripture journal. Immerse yourself in the word and capture personal insights, prayers and reflections directly alongside the powerful text.

These sleek portable journals amplify your study in rich group sessions and deepen personal reflections. Elevate your spiritual odyssey and forge a stronger connection with the scriptures. Help Alan Wright Ministries reach the world with the good news of the gospel with your gift today and receive these essential tools that will elevate your study, enrich your prayer life and deepen your understanding of the book of Romans. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.

Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website, PastorAlan.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. It's called grace. That there's a way of relating to God that does not depend on any of your righteousness, but is entirely dependent 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 who are in Christ Jesus. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at pastorallen.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries.