Romans Chapter 8:2-3

Ephesians 5 18 says, Don't be drunk with wine.

I'm not taking that one on this morning, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. Let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. And the Greek tense in this Ephesians verse means that we're continually being filled with the Spirit.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is the senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. You know, one of the important parts of following Christ is seeking the Holy Spirit on a regular basis and asking to be filled to overflowing. Find out more about this relationship between you and the Holy Spirit as Pastor David continues in the book of Romans chapter 8. But before we get into today's teaching, the devil is able to influence so many Christians today because they simply don't know their Bibles. And if the enemy can keep you ignorant about God's word, he can keep you weak. That's why we want to send you Pastor David's DVD message, Romans from Rome, recorded in the heart of ancient Rome.

This eye opening teaching will show you beyond a doubt the historical accuracy of the Bible. Romans from Rome is our way of saying thank you for your gift today to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So go to crossthebridge.com to request your copy.

Again, that's crossthebridge.com. Now here's David McGee with his teaching, Choose Life and Peace. Romans chapter 8, verse 2 says, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Jesus wants to rescue us from the law. Jesus wants to rescue us, set us free from our sin. See, sin doesn't, and this chapter is talking about, sin doesn't dictate to a believer what he does.

It shouldn't. See, we have this thing and we've been talking about it, yield to God, yield to your sin. When you're yielding to your sin, you're not yielding to God. When you're yielding to God, you're not yielding to your sin.

And we have that decision. God wants to set us free from all that and we've been made free. But sin waits at the door and it'll capture again if you let it. You can give in to the flesh or the selfish desires and stuff. And God doesn't just set us free to meet the minimum requirements. We can live above the law, not above the law and that we're free to break it. No, I mean, we can exceed the requirements of the law through the Holy Spirit. The law of gravity, it's there.

I mean, it's there. If you doubt it, just, you know, jump off the top of this building. And whether you believe in the law of gravity or not, it doesn't matter.

You're going to go splat. But an airplane, because of the law of aerodynamics, can rise above the law of gravity. That's what we can do. When we read the Bible and we go, oh, I don't know if I can do that.

Oh yeah, you can. The Wright brothers probably, there was part of them that thought, man, this ain't going to work. We're going to try it, but I don't know if it's going to work. But part of them said, no, no, I think it will work. And it did.

And it does. And we can rise above the minimum requirements, if you will. That's the life lesson. You can rise above the requirements of the law through the power of the Holy Spirit. You can rise above the requirements of the law through the power of the Holy Spirit. If you've been with us a few weeks, you're going, well, pastor, when we were going through chapter 7, you said we couldn't do this. That's right. You can't.

You still can't. God, through the power of his Holy Spirit, can't. It's interesting to me. The first seven chapters of Romans mention the Spirit four times. The Holy Spirit's mentioned 21 times in this chapter. God is trying to give us the key.

He's trying to show us what we need and how we need it. And the Holy Spirit is working. If you've come to the Lord, ask him to forgive you of your sins. Then the Holy Spirit is inside of you, working to release you, to deliver you, to set you free from sin. And you can give into the Holy Spirit and be set free, or you can struggle with him and live in defeat. Ask him to fill you.

Ask him to fill you afresh. I know some people get freaked out about that. They're filled with the Spirit. Oh, this is one of those churches. People are going to start running around doing crazy things. Now, the Bible talks about being filled with the Spirit.

Forget what you've seen on TV or heard on the radio or whatever. This is the Bible. It encourages us to be filled with the Spirit. Does it encourage us to be filled with the Spirit once?

No. Why? Because you, the Spirit leaks out of you. You've got to be filled every day, man. This is what the Bible says. Ephesians 5 18 says, Don't be drunk with wine.

I'm not taking that one on this morning because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. Let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. So asking God to fill you with the Spirit, awesome thing. And Jesus, he dealt with our fears because he mentions in the passage, he says, look, you know, a father is not going to give somebody a stone if they want a piece of bread. And then he ties that and he says, how much more your Heavenly Father will give you the Holy Spirit to what? To those who ask him. It lets us know we need to be asked. We need to be asking to be filled with the Spirit. And the Greek tense in this Ephesians verse means that we're continually being filled with the Spirit. We're under the law.

The law is not achievable while we're walking in our flesh. But you know what? With the Holy Spirit, man, you can love your enemies. You can take care of the poor. You can you can be made free.

I walked to a great deal. I see this in my own life this past week. You know, somebody said this. And you know what?

I wish him well. Now, that's not my flesh. My flesh, my selfish nature, my old nature. I don't want to pray that God would bless them. My flesh wants to do whatever, you know. But through the power of the Holy Spirit, I think, man, I hope God blesses that person or those people.

I can do that. That's not me. That's God's Spirit setting me free from me. And notice God is he's given us the tools in this chapter, if you will, if I can use that phrase. But too many think we're going to be made happy by what's outside of us. That's not going to happen.

I know I've been through the drill. Well, I'll be happy when, fill in your blank, I'll be happy when I get a new job. I'll be happy if I get a better job. I'll be happy if I get that promotion. I'll be happy if I get through college. I'll be happy if I get the new car.

I'll be happy if I get that new house. How many times in your life have you said something like that? And then when it happened, it was like, huh, that wasn't what I thought it would be.

I've got a good friend in Cleveland. His father was a top fuel drag racer, and he ended up one year winning the Nationals, beat Big Daddy Don Garlits, if you kind of follow that thing. And you know what his comment was after he won the Nationals? I thought I'd be happy. I thought I'd be happier than I am. The same thing with him is two months later, he was diagnosed with cancer.

Four months later, he was gone. See, we set these things up. Well, if this happens, I'll be happy. If that happens, I'll be happy.

I've done it before. If I find success in music, I'll be happy. If I get this, I'll be happy.

And I would find those things and go, wow, this is it? This year isn't what I thought it'd be. Friend, if you're living like that, you can be set free from that. Happiness doesn't depend on what happens.

It depends upon the Lord. You have, if you know Jesus as your Savior, you can have joy. You don't have to say, well, I'll be happy if, I'll be happy when. No, you can be happy this morning. If you don't know Jesus, guess what? You can be happy this morning because I'm going to give you a chance before we get finished here to come to Jesus. And if you're chasing it, oh, no, no, that ain't going to work.

Ain't going to happen. Do you think, oh, my goodness, God loves you so much, he's going to say, oh, well, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to kind of tease you like that little carrot stick thing.

And happiness depends on you getting a raise and you getting a house and you getting, oh, it's out there. Oh, you're close. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. When I was a little kid and learning how to swim, you know, my cousin go, hey, swim to me, you know, and I put my head down and start swimming and I'd look up and he'd be farther away. And he kept doing it. I was like, dude, what are you doing?

He thought I wouldn't notice, I guess. Yes, I had a tragic childhood. God's not like that. God, to each and every one of us today right now is going, here, here it is. Here's joy. Here's happiness.

Here's forgiveness. But we go, oh, well, I'm going to go look somewhere else. It's an amazing thing. Yeah, I've mentioned cars and mechanics lately.

Imagine and I heard one teacher talking about this. Imagine if you went out and you tried to start your car and it wouldn't start. But instead of trying to look at the battery and stuff, you just got out of the car and poured a fifth of liquor on it. That ought to help. Are you twisted up a doob and set it up on the roof? Or maybe you put a laptop with porn on it in front of it. Oh, that'll help.

Or maybe set some cash on the hood. Oh, Pastor David, come on now. Who would try to fix a problem like that with booze or with dope or with porn or with money? Too many, friend.

Way too many. God here says, here's your solution. He's not running away from you.

He's running to you and saying, gang, here it is. Well, I think I'll try to fix it on my own. I've tried.

It didn't work. You're listening to Pastor David McGee on Cross the Bridge. He'll be back with more powerful insight from God's word in just a moment.

But first, so many people today are losing faith simply because they don't know how much real evidence there is for the truth of the Bible. We want to help you strengthen your faith so that you can live the abundant life God has for you by sending you Pastor David's DVD message, Romans from Rome. This insightful teaching recorded in the heart of the ancient city of Rome will help you see the Book of Romans in its historical context and confirm your faith in the truth of God's word. Romans from Rome is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So go to crossthebridge.com to request your copy today.

Again, that's crossthebridge.com. Now, back to today's teaching. Verse three, for what the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. I'm reading from the New King James. I'll give it to you in the New Living translation says the law of Moses could not save us because of our sinful nature. But God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own son in a human body like ours, except ours are sinful.

God destroyed sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins. See, God came in the form of Jesus Christ, 100 percent man, 100 percent God. He was fully God. He was fully man. Why was why did he live as a man?

Because he had, as this verse points out, he needed to condemn sin in the flesh. He lived a perfect life. He's the only one.

He's the only one. And he died for our sins. He condemned, if you will, he condemned sin in the flesh is what it says. It's amazing to think about. That we can live a life. That overcomes sin. I'm not saying we do it. But I'm saying through this verse, through this chapter, apparently it's possible.

It's possible. Well, where do we go off track? Why do we sin? Well, we choose sometimes regrettably to let sin control us. The old nature, instead of letting the new nature of the Holy Spirit control us, we get to choose. God is a gentleman. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. The Holy Spirit is not going to make somebody do something.

He will not violate free will. I understand. You know, I had a neighbor who I was trying to minister to. And every time, you know, I mentioned the Holy Spirit, he, you know, tents up. And I was so finally like, dude, what's up with the Holy Spirit?

And you're tensing up. And he said, well, I guess it's a guy I work with. And he came and he started talking about the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit one night in his church threw him to the floor and he was paralyzed.

He couldn't move. And he said, and it just freaked me out. And he said, it didn't really sound like the Holy Spirit.

And I said, friend, that's not the Holy Spirit. See, you always have a choice. Sometimes you'll sit there and go, well, I shouldn't do this. And that's God saying, don't do it. And we make the choice.

Here's the life lesson. We can choose to let sin control us or the Holy Spirit to control us. Who should we let control us? The Holy Spirit. Now, again, he's not going to take over your will. You have to give your will to him and say, OK, God, I know you want me to do this. Again, some of you probably really didn't want to come here today, but you yielded to God and you're here. That's awesome, because the more you yield to God, the stronger that becomes.

The more you yield to sin, the stronger that becomes. One of them's got to go. That old saying, you can become a butterfly, but that cocoon's got to go.

It's got to go. So you let go of that old nature. If we let the Holy Spirit control us, are we going to be paralyzed on the floor for several hours?

No, no. What does the Bible say the fruit of the Spirit is? Galatians 5, 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law. I don't know about you, but I look at that list and go, well, that sounds pretty good. It sounds pretty good to be loving, joyful, peaceful, to be willing to put up longsuffering, to be kind, to be good, to be faithful, to be gentle. That's the life of the Holy Spirit. That's the life allowing Him. See, God not only forgives us, but He gives us a new nature, new desires.

You know how awesome that is? It's not just, okay, well, you say this prayer and boom, you're forgiven. No, just go on the way you were doing.

No, no, no, no. You ask God to forgive you and God goes, okay, now I'm going to give you a new nature. That's why after you get saved, you go to do the old things and you go, wow, this isn't that much fun. I don't know why I always thought this was cool. And you start to let go of it.

Why? You got a new nature. God has imparted to you a new nature, a new way to live, if you will. Jesus didn't just show up and say, hey, follow me and I'll give you a ticket to heaven.

That's not what He said. He said, follow me, and then He gave us things to do as we follow Him. He said, as you follow me, this is what's going to happen. I was thinking about something the other day. Jesus, and we recognize this in the body of Christ. Jesus came to die for our sins, right? Well, why didn't He just pop up one day and then die the same day? If it was all about just dying for our sins, why didn't He do that?

Because He was teaching us how to live. You know what? This is what life can be like as you follow me. You can love people. You can be gentle. You can be kind. You can tell people the truth in love. Jesus wants to do that.

He's not finished. I mean, I know positionally, theologically, you come to the Lord, you ask Him to forgive you of your sins, your sins are cleansed, but really the sanctification, God cleaning you up for His purposes, then begins through yielding to His Holy Spirit. And Jesus wants to show us how to live. And, you know, it's surprising when I talk to people, and sometimes, you know, I'll run into somebody that just is, you know, I'll mention the church or something, and they're just like, oh. And I'll know when they do that, I'm almost sure somebody wounded them. I don't sit there and go, oh, you Gentile heathen dog, you're going to hell. I wonder, man, what happened?

What happened? And when I get in that situation, and remember this, friend, talk about Jesus. Don't talk about church. Because when you talk about church, you're digging at a wound. But when you talk about Jesus, I've met a lot of people who don't like the church, and sorry to say, we've probably given them some reasons. But I've never met anybody that didn't like Jesus. Oh, they may be disturbed by some of the things He said. But the things about Jesus, hey, do you want to be more like that? Oh, absolutely.

Well, how do you do that? Well, first you get saved, and then you allow God's Spirit to work into you. Gang. God has given us a way to live, and that's the life lesson. Jesus shows us how to live. Jesus shows us how to live. Now, that may sound like a simple statement, but you know what?

I think really we forget this. We think, well, no, no, Jesus is all about forgiveness. Yeah, Jesus is about forgiveness, but what happens then?

I've talked about it before. When somebody comes forward to ask Jesus to save them, and they're born again, and we don't know what's going on in their heart, but God says that He won't reject anybody that really comes to Him and believes them. But they're still here. They don't go poof, and they're gone. God leaves them here. Why?

Because He's starting His work in them. I want to be more like Jesus. I'm sure many of you want to be like Jesus. People listening, radio and television, satellite and different, they want to be like Jesus. I want to be like Jesus. The way He treated people, man, I look at that and go, golly, I want to be more like that. But, you know, of course what we think is everybody else needs to be more like Jesus. Have you ever noticed how everybody else is not like Jesus? Well, they're looking at you, noticing how you're not like Jesus.

And we want everybody else to be more loving and more kind, but, well, it doesn't really apply to us. You've heard the story of two young brothers. Mother's making pancakes, you know, and the kids, they're not ready yet, and the two brothers start to fight over the pancakes. And she decides to use it as a teaching opportunity. She said, Brandon and David, you guys need to just be more like Jesus, be more loving and be more kind. And the boy said, well, what do you mean, Mom? Well, you know, what you should be doing is offering. Jesus would offer the other one, the pancakes. The little boys looked at each other, and the oldest one said, Brandon, you be Jesus.

So I can get the pancakes. See, that's why we go through life like that. Oh, I want you to be like Jesus. No, Jesus wants you to be like Jesus. And He's saying this is how it's done by the Holy Spirit, by giving yourself over to the Holy Spirit.

You can rise above your human nature. You can defeat the law of gravity, if you will, in the new life, in the Spirit, capital S. See, and I'm not just here to teach the Bible. I am here to teach the Bible. But I'm here to teach the Bible so that we can grab hold of this stuff, Bible study, leading the Bible doing, so that you can discover a better way to live, a way to live for God, a way to be set free from all this stuff. And God's not holding secrets.

He's saying, look, this is it. Here's how it's done through Him dying. Like that song we sing sometimes, I'm forgiven because you were forsaken.

I'm accepted. You were condemned. And this not only gives us the opportunity to be forgiven of our sins, it allows us to live a new life. We're saved by grace, no doubt about it.

Let me clarify. You come to God. You don't deserve it.

You've not earned it. God's willing to forgive you. But then the process starts of you becoming more like Jesus. And again, somebody said, well, somebody just prays and asks God to forgive them, and never any changes are made.

I'm not God, but it concerns me for that person. Because Spurgeon said something, he said, the grace that does not change your life cannot save your soul. When you come to the cross and Jesus forgive me of my sins, it's like, oh, forgive me of my sins. Why did he die on the cross? He died on the cross because of my sins. Because of my sins. That's what put him on the cross. I won't keep doing those things.

I'm going to let go of those things. I'm going to do the Holy Spirit rise above those things. Let's look at verse four, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So this is the phrase that, again, is in verse one in some Bibles, and it's not there in some. But that's a whole nother discussion. But it says, do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

What is he talking about? Your fleshful desires, your selfish nature. You have a selfish nature. If you've asked God to forgive you of your sins, you also have a spirit nature. And there's a war going on, and this chapter is going to talk about that.

And God is working in you. A new living translation in this verse says, he did this so that the requirement of the law would be fully accomplished for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the Spirit. This chapter is such a wonderful balance in teaching the grace of God, and yet also teaching the new nature in that we've got to let go of things. And we need to let go of things.

Those things will hold us down, they'll crush us. And this chapter is filled with qualifiers, if you will. If you follow the Spirit, the law has been fulfilled. When you come to Jesus, you start to live different. You start to change your mind about God. You start to change your mind and your heart about church. We have a lot of people that come to church here that didn't go to church before.

But they came, they visited, they got saved, and now, man, they're like here, like before the sun comes up. I love church. Why do you love church?

I just do. That's God in you loving church. Your selfish nature would still have you at home in bed. This is so awesome because it's not just, oh, God forgive me. God forgive me and give me the power to live for you. You don't have to live the way you used to live. You don't have to walk around angry and depressed and bitter and cynical and condemned. I don't know about you, but I think the title Good News certainly applies to this chapter, doesn't it? Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that He died. to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask Him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned. And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said He would not turn anybody away who comes to Him, and He came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can call us toll-free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. Before we go, we want to help you strengthen your faith so that you can experience the power of truly knowing and believing God's Word. And that's why we want to send you Pastor David's DVD message, Romans from Rome.

This insightful resource, recorded in the heart of the ancient city of Rome, gives you a much deeper understanding of the historical context of the entire New Testament, meaning you'll know God's Word better. Romans from Rome is our gift to thank you for your donation to help more people on this station and beyond cross the bridge from death to life. So go to crossthebridge.com now to request your copy today.

Again, that's crossthebridge.com. You know each day comes with its share of stresses. So what better way to wake up than with an encouraging word from the Lord? Visit crossthebridge.com and sign up now for David Magee's email devotionals. Each devotion includes Scripture and a message from the heart of David Magee. It's easy and it's free. Sign up today at crossthebridge.com. And be sure to join us next time on Cross the Bridge with David Magee to hear more from the book of Romans. We'll see you then.