Would you take a moment and pray with me? Father, thank you for Pastor Chad. Thank you for, Lord, as he is away. God, thank you for just letting him be refreshed and encouraged and strengthened in you.
God, we thank you for the message today, Father, that may be delivered in a way that connects with the hearts of those who are listening. In Jesus' name, when everybody said, amen, amen, amen. Well, we've been in Romans chapter seven in a second. We're going to be in Romans seven, verses four through six. So if you want to get there in a second, I'm going to create a little bit of context, but we're going to be there in Romans chapter seven. We're basically covering that chapter. We're going to focus on verses four through six here in a moment. It's important that you bring your Bible or have a Bible. How many of you have the old school paperback Bible? Lift them up. Those old school ones right there.
Ain't no school like old school, right? All right? And then how many of you have one on your phone? You have it on your phone?
All right. How many of you have it tattooed? You have it tattooed? The whole Bible. Your body is the Bible. Anybody here?
All right. So I just want to challenge you to make sure you're in the word of God every day. Read the Bible every day as much as you can. There's great Bible apps that are out there that makes it easy. I use a one-year Bible.
It has a little bit of the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs, so I encourage you to be in that. Well, this is the apostle Paul, and he is right in the church in Rome. And this is around A.D. 57.
He's currently at this time we believe in Corinth. And Paul was an interesting character because before his name was Paul, his name was Saul. And he was a Pharisee, which was a group of religious men, and there were Jewish men in Israel, and they were obsessed with living perfectly. They wanted to make sure that they never broke God's commandment. In fact, in the Old Testament, we have the Torah, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, and those were written, we believe, by Moses around 1500 B.C.
So, you know, roughly 3500 years ago, give or take, okay? And the Pharisees were so obsessed, they would also, not only would they follow the Torah, but they wrote Talmud, which were a bunch of rules to make sure they didn't break the law. And so they even had, like, the number of steps that you could walk on a Sabbath day. Or if you remember in the Bible and the Gospels, the Pharisees and religious leaders, they complained about the Jesus disciples because on the Sabbath, they were walking through fields of grain, and they had hand-picked some of the wheat and were rubbing the wheat together with their fingers to get the grain to eat it, and they said they were breaking the law because this was work, right? So Saul was this guy that was aiming to live perfectly by the law of Moses, right? And in fact, so much so that he was persecuting Christians.
In fact, it says that when Stephen was martyred, that Saul was standing there watching over the garments of those who were stoning Stephen. He was out killing Christians, literally. And in fact, he was so zealous for it that he got permission and he got letters from the religious leaders in Jerusalem to go to Damascus, north of Jerusalem, to persecute the believers that he heard were there. He really felt they were blaspheming the word of God by saying that Jesus was the son of God. And so on his way to Damascus, Christ appears to him, literally knocks him off of his donkey, he goes blind for a few days, and Saul becomes Paul. He becomes this individual that becomes, instead of persecuting Christians, he begins to preach Christ.
He's obsessed with Christianity. And in fact, around the late 1840s to early 50s, he begins to travel around the Roman world into what is modern-day Turkey. And at that time, it was several things. It was Bithynia and Asia Minor and Cappadocia.
It was several things, but today it's just modern-day Turkey. He began to plant churches there. He went to what is today modern-day Greece, and that's where he was when he wrote this letter.
He was in Corinth, which is a narrow isthmus of land between the northern and southern part of Greece, Achaia and Macedonia back in the day. And he's writing to the church in Rome because he's heard about these Jewish believers. And the early church, the earliest church, was all formerly Jewish people.
In fact, they met in synagogues until they got kicked out and then they met in homes. And Paul is writing to them because he wants to establish for them that they no longer have to live under the law. He was an expert in the law, and he begins to write to them in chapter 7 about the law. And throughout Romans, he describes the difference between living under the law or living under grace, living under the Spirit of God. And in fact, in the beginning of Romans 7, he compares believers to a woman who is married, who is bound to that man by contract, by law, while he's married. But then the husband dies, and they are free from being bound by that law to their husband. And he compares that to Christians who are no longer bound by the law because of dying to it through Christ.
And so he begins to share with them this idea that we're no longer living under the law. Would you stand with me once again? I know I've had you up and down like an aerobics instructor. Nobody does aerobics anymore.
It's an 80s thing, isn't it? It'd be something else. Pilates?
Would it be Pilates? I don't know. All right. Romans chapter 7 verses 4 through 6, I'm reading from the ESV. We're going to read this passage, and then we're going to read out loud verse 6 together.
You ready? Likewise, my brothers, the Greek word is adulthoi, brothers and sisters, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ. Remember, he was comparing to a woman who had been married to someone. So that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. I want you to read verse 6 out loud.
Are you ready? But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Amen.
You may be seated. My God has blessed the reading of his word. The New Living Translation says it this way in verse 6. But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. The Message Bible, the Message Bible is great.
It's got a recipe for Rice Krispies Treats and it's incredible. It says, but now that we're no longer shackled to that domineering maid of sin and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine prim, we're free to live a new life in the freedom of God. And Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, 6, for the letter kills, the law kills, but the Spirit gives life. If I was to summarize chapter 7 of Romans, I would say it this way.
This is my main point if you're a note taker. God's law condemns us. God's Son redeems us. God's Spirit empowers us. Now, there's a fundamental philosophy when it comes to human beings, and particularly in the biblical world view, is that there's an inherent sense of right and wrong that we have within us. Right?
And even if we don't know exactly what the law is, we are guilty of breaking it. In fact, a few years ago, my wife and I were sponsored by someone. They gave us a trip to Italy and we had a fantastic time. And we were in Tuscany, which I'm not a wealthy man, but if I could live in Tuscany, it was just gorgeous, fantastic. Right? And I rented this cool little Italian car and it was a five-speed and I got to drive it all over Tuscany and we had a great time.
Right? And I came back to America. About a month later, I got this really cool Italian letter from the city of Florence. And I thought, man, this is amazing. They must have really appreciated me being there as a tourist. So I read this Italian letter for a while and realized once I'd gone to Google Translate, it was a speeding ticket.
And, you know, my wife, she's a bad, no, it was me. I was driving the whole time. And I was like, oh, man, what do I do with this?
So I didn't pay it for like a year and a half. I was like, I'm in America. I'm in the land of the free, home of the brave. Can't tie me down. On a steel horse, I ride.
There's a reference to Desperado. Anyway. And so I eventually paid the ticket because I thought, I'm going to be one day somewhere in the world and get arrested, right, for the speeding ticket. I didn't know. Honestly, all the speed limits were in foreign languages that I didn't know. And I thought I was obeying the speed limit, but I wasn't.
Right? So even though I didn't know the law, I was guilty of it. And the Word of God says that you and I, whether or not we know exactly what God's law says, we are guilty of it. In fact, in philosophy, they have this rule. They call it the law of nature or sometimes moral law or natural law. And it's this idea that all human laws that are written are based upon unwritten laws that are inherent in human beings. Right? That we have a sense of right and wrong. That's why if you say there is no sense of right and wrong or there are no absolute truths, which is an absolute truth in and of itself when you say that. Right?
Then it can't be true. Because if you say to somebody, if that's true, then pedophilia is not wrong. Right? But we know it's wrong. There is a sense of right and wrong that we have.
And in fact, as human beings, we are different from all of creation. Right? You ever hear a story of like a shark biting somebody at the ocean? You ever have that? You ever go to the ocean and pray, oh, don't let the shark bite me today?
Is that just me? And, you know, nobody ever interviews the family of the shark afterwards in a news report and says, the shark never knew its father. Shark was in a gang. It was an MS-13, the S stood for shark.
I don't know. I don't even know what the M or the 13 means. Right? Shark never knew. Shark was on drugs. Right? No, the shark didn't know any better. The shark was just being a shark.
Right? Reality is that you and I are born with a sense of right and wrong, even if there wasn't law. And Mosaic law is a law that God wrote through Moses in the 1500 BC, around there, to clarify right and wrong living according to God's scripture. But you and I are guilty of breaking God's law. God's law condemns us. God's son redeemed us.
God's spirit empowers us. But if God's law condemns us, let's start with this question. What is the law? St. Augustine says, the law bids us as we try to fulfill its requirements and become wearied in our weakness under it to know how to ask the help of grace. The idea is that the law made a way for Christ. The law shows us how much we need grace. If I was to define law, I would say the law is that which defines right from wrong according to God's standard.
Right? According to God's standard. In fact, if there are laws written against God's standard, they're not really biblical laws.
That word for law, nomos, it meant rule, prescribing what a person must do. And within the moral law that we understand to be in the universe as we know it, or in the laws that are written in the land, there is a civil use of the law that refers to restraining sin. It is a mirror reflecting both the perfect righteousness of God and our own sinfulness. Sometimes I compare following Christ to getting closer and closer to a mirror.
And the closer I get, the more imperfect I know that I am. There's the fancy word called pedagogical. That's the part of the law that reveals the law's role in convicting sinners of their sin. It restrains evil. There's also the normative or didactic use of the law, which is instructing Christians how we should live.
J.I. Packer said, the law's first function is to be a mirror reflecting to us both the perfect righteousness of God and our own sinfulness and shortcomings. Sinners learn through the law that what they desire and what they do is sin. The biblical worldview is not that human beings are good people. The biblical worldview is that we're sinners, that there's none good, no, not one.
In fact, if you said, man, I just feel like I'm not worthy or I can't measure up, that's not a statement of low self-esteem. It's really the truth, right? That you and I don't measure up according to the law. In fact, within the United States law, we have laws that regulate behavior and resolve disputes and protect rights and liberties and provide a framework for transactions.
William Blackstone, who is considered to be the father of American law, he was a British lawmaker back in the 1700s, wrote a commentary on the laws of England. In it he says this, he says, human laws are only declaratory of and act in subordination to divine law. There is an inherent truth of right and wrong that's in the universe and human law is simply reflected. But if God's law condemns us, why does his law condemn us?
God's law condemns us because our sin nature makes it impossible to be perfect. How many of you are attested perfectionists, right? You just like being perfect?
Nobody here, y'all. I know there's a perfectionist in here. You know, you just want to be perfect all the time. Well, God's law condemns us because we are not perfect, because human sin cannot be overcome by the law. God's law is holy and good, but it is powerless to change the human heart. Why does God's law condemn us? First off, because we all fall short of God's standard. All the laws that we know that exist in the world in the Mosaic law, they tell us what God has to say about our lives, but we are not able to fulfill it because we fall short of God's standard. Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and fall what?
Fall what? Short of God's standard, of the glory of God, right? The reality is that God's law, his rule, condemns us as sinners because there is a standard of perfection and we fall short of it. God's law also condemns us because we are slaves to sin. Sin is so invasive that it affects the whole person, particularly our interactions in the physical world. Pastor Chad says that if you don't believe in original sin, you've probably never had children, right? They're cute, but they're wicked little things, let's be honest.
Right? In fact, in scripture, there is this idea that we are either slaves of sin or slaves of righteousness. We're either following a sinful way and we're against God or we're with God. In fact, Paul many times in his writings in the New Testament uses the word doulos in the Greek, sometimes it's translated servant, but it's really more accurately translated slave. He describes us as slaves either to sin or to God, and to be a slave meant to serve as a slave or to be controlled by someone else.
In fact, Jesus had this perspective in John 834, he said, truly, truly, and whenever Jesus said truly, truly, or the King James would say verily, verily, it was a statement of saying, pay attention, this is important. Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. It's not just the fact that you're a sinner, it's that it's taken over your life. It's a statement that says sin always takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, costs you more than you want to pay. How many can relate to that in their life? I can.
I can relate to that. Truly, truly, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. In fact, Romans 6, verse 16, Paul says, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are the slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who are once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become, due loss, slaves of righteousness. Why does God's law condemn us? Because we fall short of God's standard. Because we are all slaves of sin, and because we are all separated from God because of our sin. Isaiah 59, one, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dulled, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities, your iniquities, my iniquities, our sins, have made a separation between you and your God. And your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. It's his fundamental idea that God is perfect. His law creates a standard of what is right and wrong according to God. And we have fallen short of it, and because of that, we are separated from God. It's the reason why in Mosaic law, they had all these rules, and they had these sacrifices, because there was no forgiveness of sin and the shedding of blood, and Christ fulfilled the law.
He's the perfect lamb. In fact, when we talk about Easter, and we talk about Christ being killed on the cross, and laid in the grave, and risen on the third day, it's literally on Passover. In fact, Jesus' public ministry was dated by four Passovers, and the Passovers was when the Jewish people remember how God delivered them out of Egyptian slavery, and the last plague that God used through Moses was the death of the firstborn of every family, and the death angel passed over the homes of the Israelites who spread the blood of a yearling lamb over their doorposts.
They remember that. And it was a foreshadowing of the perfect lamb that was Jesus that was to come as sacrifice for all of us. Can we give God praise for that?
It was no accident that Jesus was crucified and dead and buried at Passover, because he is the perfect lamb. God's law condemns us because we fall short, because we're all slaves of sin, and because we are all separated from God because of our sin. No matter what laws are written, whether those laws come from a religious figure, a tradition we've inherited, or a church we attend, none of them can change the human soul.
They can tell us what to do, but they cannot empower us to do it. The law of Moses did not solve Israel's sin problem, but exposed it and made it clear this is the truth. Fundamentally, the difference between religion and Christianity is really simple. And you've heard this before, but it bears repeating that religion is spelled D-O, do. And of all the world religions that I've seen, they all have a list of things you should do and not do, and according to those things, all those works that you get, all those things that you achieve, that you do, they make you right with whatever God that religion says you're serving. Jesus comes and says, no, no, no, it's spelled D-O-N-E. It is what Christ has done for us. Amen? It is not an identity we achieve, it is one we receive.
And so God's law condemns us, but God's Son redeems us, and we need it to be redeemed, because you and I cannot earn our way out. If I was to take this bottle of water, and if this bottle of water had a label on it, and it said on the label, 99.9% pure, 0.01% raw sewage, would you drink it? Unless you just want to have a good case of salmonella, you would not drink it. Right? Well, this little bottle of water with a little bit of contaminant, if you took this and dumped it into a large swimming pool that didn't have chlorine or anything like that, you know what it would do?
It would contaminate the whole pool. And the reason I say that is, we think sometimes that I can do good things, and it wipes out the bad. No, it doesn't. Our sin makes us 100% unacceptable to God.
Does that make sense? Our good works do not wipe out or make up for our sin. God's law condemns us. God's Son redeems us. Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law on our behalf, on your behalf, on my behalf, and redeemed us from the curse of sin. Jesus' very life fulfilled the requirements of the law, according to Moses. Matthew 5.17, Jesus said, Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, that's the Old Testament.
I have not come, pardon me, to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. That's why when Jesus died on the cross, he said, Tetelestai in the Greek, and it meant it is finished.
It was a Greek, it was a part, it was an Aramaic commerce word that meant the debt is paid in full. Isn't that good news? And in fact, when Christ died, it says that the temple veil in the Holy of Holies tore in half because God's Spirit would no longer dwell in buildings. We are now the building of God. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
He comes and lives in us. Amen? Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law. Romans 10.4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. God's Son redeemed us because he fulfilled the requirements of the law, but also because Jesus' death paid the price of our sin. Colossians 1.13, He, meaning Christ, has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Amen? Colossians 2.13, And you who were dead in your trespasses, another word for sin, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, remember the covenant came through circumcision in the Old Testament, God made alive together with him, with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses, all our sins, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Your debts, my debts, to Telestai, finished on the cross. God's Son redeems us because Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law, because Jesus paid the price of our sin, because resurrection, his resurrection, declares his status as God and man. Atheists believe that Jesus of Nazareth existed. An honest atheist and some of the most well-studied atheists proclaim that Jesus of Nazareth existed as a historical figure. If you're to deny Jesus, then you have to deny Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great, because there is more evidence for Jesus, hold on, outside the Bible than there is any other historical figure.
So we know that Jesus walked the earth. What we disagree about is who he was. Everybody wants to agree he was a good teacher or a prophet or a miracle worker. The dividing line is that he declares, before Abraham was, I am. He declares, I am God. I am the God-man.
Jesus' resurrection declares his status as the God-man. I've been to Jerusalem. I've been to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Constantine's mother, Helena, went back in the 300s and built a church, which isn't standing anymore, there's no church that's there, over the site where Christ was crucified and the stone throw away buried. I've been to the tomb.
It is empty. He's not there. And there are people who argue through the years and say, well, the disciples throw him away. From trained Roman soldiers who would be killed if they weren't obedient to guard the body, I don't think so. Or they said Jesus just, you know, he passed out.
No, the Roman cross was only there to kill, and it didn't take you down until you were dead. The only answer is Jesus was dead, and he's now alive. Jesus said in John 11 25, I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
Amen? Romans 14 9, for to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord, leader, God, of both the dead and of the living. God's son redeems us.
The law condemns us. His son redeems us because his life fulfilled the requirements of the law because his death be the price of our sin and because his resurrection declares his status as God and man. Why did God do it? Because God loves us. Because God loves people. In fact, if you were to take your hand, do this for me, stick up a right hand or a left hand and just put your thumb up, all right? This is a really simple gospel presentation.
You could even try to memorize this. Again, thumbs up, good news. God loves people, right? For God so loved who? The world.
That's good news. Now, make sure you use all your fingers here and keep them out because if we get to the middle finger, you'll be saying something else at that point. We'll give the fingers out, all right? Next thing, take one finger and point it out and point to someone near you and say, you're a sinner. You got three fingers pointing back at you. I'm a sinner too.
Right? There's God's good news for the day, all right? You got to condemn someone. You're a sinner.
I'm a sinner too. All right? Then take this central finger. Remember, use all the fingers. You're going to be sharing the universal symbol of disapproval with somebody.
And this is the central finger, right? Good news, God loves people. Pardon me. Bad news, you're a sinner. I'm a sinner too. And then problem solved, Christ paid the price for our sin, right?
He's in the middle, right? And then the ring finger, put a ring on it. Commit your life to Christ. And the pinky finger, a little bit of faith.
Put your faith in Christ and your life will be trained. Joe, hand me a chair here real quick. Give me an empty chair. Everybody give Joe a hand. Excellent.
All right? You see, there's a difference between knowing about God and knowing God. There's a difference between believing something about God and knowing it. A lot of us know who the president is. It doesn't mean we know him. A lot of us know who a lot of famous people are. It doesn't mean we know them. A lot of people say that God is real, but they have no relationship.
Now I'll just ask you a simple question. Do you believe this chair is real? You believe it's real?
I do too. Just because you believe it's real does not mean you're sitting in it, right? So when we say putting my faith in Christ, what I'm saying is I'm no longer trusting in my good works to get me right with God. I have put my weight in Christ, all my weight, and I am now trusting in God. This is what faith means.
Jesus, you are my Lord, the leader of my life, and you are my Savior, the forgiver of my sin, and all my weight is in you. Amen? Thank you, Joe.
Five percent tithe the next week, Joe. Thank you. It was excellent. Excellent. God's Spirit empowers us. God's Son redeems us. God's law condemns us. You and I have an opportunity today to live in a different way.
Let's talk about that for a moment. You see, because the same Spirit, this is hard to imagine, but it's true, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us as far as of Christ. It's the same Spirit. John 4.24, Jesus said, God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.
Numa is the word. It means wind, breath. How does God's Spirit empower us? Well, the first thing it does is remind us of God's word.
In fact, Jesus said this in John 14.26. But the helper, parakletos, the helper, the Holy Spirit, Hagia, not Hagia, that's a church, Hagia and Numa, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, it's a person, right, not an it, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. How the Holy Spirit empowers us is it brings to our remembrance the word of God. What does the Holy Spirit also do? It convicts us, Romans 2.29.
But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letters. John 16.8, and when he comes, being the Holy Spirit, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because you do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer. That innate sense of right and wrong that we have as human beings, I believe, is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sin and says, you shouldn't do that, or you should start doing this. That is what the Holy Spirit does in our life. He empowers us through reminding us of God's word, convicting us, and encouraging us. I mentioned that word, parakletos.
It means helper, counselor, encourager, mediator. John 14.16, at the Last Supper. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, parakletos, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. Where will it be? In you.
That's right. The Holy Spirit, God's Spirit encourages us, empowers us. The Holy Spirit also leads us. You ever have a leading by the Spirit of God?
You ever have a leading that you should call someone and pray for them, or a leading into a certain ministry activity? That's God's Spirit. God's Spirit leads us. Romans 8.14.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Galatians 5.18. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. John 3.8.
The wind blows where it wishes, Jesus says, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. When we become followers of Christ, God's Spirit comes to live in us, and he reminds us and convicts us and encourages us and leads us.
And then, finally, he works through us. I mentioned this earlier, Romans 8.11. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. You are not living the Christian life alone.
That dunamis, that power, comes from the Holy Spirit. Amen? John 14.12. Jesus says again, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do.
Wow. Because I am going to the Father. Jesus says the works he did, we will do as followers by his Spirit. In fact, Acts 1.8, Jesus said, and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has gone upon you, and you will be my witnesses.
That Holy Spirit, that word for baptism, one of the translations is to overcome or overtake or come upon. God's Spirit empowers us to live the Christian life. God's law condemns us. God's Son redeems us. God's Spirit empowers us. But the question then becomes for you and I, are we living, are you living, am I living, in the freedom that Christ provides? Because following Jesus is a whole new way of living.
There's a poet that wrote this. Do this and live, the law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. A better word the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings. 2 Corinthians 3.6, Paul said, for this letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. What does the Spirit give?
Life. You and I are not able to live out the Christian life on our own. God's not asking that of us. He's asking us to be empowered by his Spirit. I love this, 2 Corinthians 3.17. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is what?
There's what? Freedom. Isn't that a good thing to know that we are free in Christ? You see, God's law energized the old nature, but his Spirit energizes the new nature. In fact, in Galatians 5.18, Paul writes to the church in Galatia and he describes the fruits of living under the law and living by sin and living by the Spirit of God. He says, but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is what?
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things, there is no law. Are you living in the freedom of the Spirit by God's power? You know, you cannot get into heaven by what you earn. Being a follower of Christ is an identity we receive, not one we achieve. And if you've never committed your life to Christ, it's as simple as A, B, C. And I'm talking to you online, I'm talking to you over in the acoustic service, I'm talking to you here in the room. It's as simple as A, B, C. A, admit that you're a sinner.
You're in trouble and I'm in trouble, we all fall short. God's law has condemned us, we are sinners. Admit that you're a sinner. B, believe on Jesus as your Lord and Savior, as the leader and the forgiver of your life. And C, commit your life to Him. If you've never made that decision, and I'm talking to you here in this room and online in the venue service, if you've never made that decision, it's as simple today for you to say a simple prayer. And you know what? The Bible says today is the day of your salvation.
And what that means is you may not have tomorrow. So I wanna encourage you right now, if you've never made that decision, is being a follower of Jesus easy? No, because it involves death to self. Is it a blessed life?
Yes. So I wanna encourage you, all you have to do is simply say, yes, Jesus, I am a sinner. I know I've done many wrong things. And I ask you to come into my life and forgive me of my sin, be my Savior, and take over my life, be my Lord, be my leader. And fill me with your Spirit, that I may live out the life you called me to live.
And take me to heaven with you when I die. If that's you today and you need to make that decision, you've made that decision, online you can click a button, we wanna follow up with you and give you a gift. If you're here in the room, there's a QR code, they'll probably put up on the screen, it's right there. You can grab your phone and you can scan that, we'll send you a gift to help you follow up in your decision to follow Christ.
Not a gimmick, we don't want anything from you, we just wanna help you in your decision today. Finally, for those of us who are followers of Christ, let's take a moment and think about this, that yes, we are called to the church to get the gospel to unreached places. And there are unreached places and people right here in the triangle area. And as you leave today, take some of these with you, not as a message of condemnation, but as an encouragement. There are some people in your life that may only come to the faith through you. And we've made it as simple as possible, there's 10 services, they can live stream online. And in fact, studies show that a lot of people will watch online before they come in person, because it's less intimidating. So make sure they know that.
Or they can watch us on Fox 50 on Sunday, so they live here in the triangle area. But I would encourage you today, there is someone, probably more than one in your life, that you should invite and say, come join me for Easter this year, so they can hear the good news. Finally, would you stand with me? Maybe you need a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit.
God's law condemns us, God's Son redeems us, God's Spirit empowers us. I don't know about you, but I need a fresh infilling. Anybody else here today need a fresh, I need a fresh infilling, amen.
So here's what we're going to do. I've got Sabrina here, she's going to come and lead us on a song. And as she's singing, whether you're here, right where you're standing, or online, and if you want to come down to the altar, you can. I want you to sing this song and to welcome a fresh new move of the Holy Spirit in your life, because God's Spirit wants to work in your life. Amen. Sabrina, lead us.
I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves, where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone. Your presence. Let's invite the presence of God into our life right now.
Come on. Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Comfort this place and fill the atmosphere. Pray for a fresh wind of your Spirit, Father. A fresh wind upon everyone in this room and everyone online.
By your presence. Sing it again, Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, you are welcome here.
Comfort this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. To be overcome by your presence, Lord. Isn't it good to know that we don't have to do it on our own? That God's Spirit empowers us today?
You can do it, but not in your own strength, in His strength. Amen. Would you lift your hands and receive this prayer, Father? I pray on this church's behalf that out of and according to the glorious witches of Christ Jesus, that you would strengthen them with power through your Spirit and their inner beings, that Christ would dwell in their hearts through faith, and that they being rooted and established in love would have power to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and that they would know this love that surpasses knowledge, that they may be filled to the measure of all the fullness that is in you. In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen, amen. God bless you guys. Invite someone to join us for Easter.
