STRAIGHT FROM ROMANS 8 - Raised from the Dead
May 15, 2022
Romans 8:9-11
Introduction:
Control: do we have any control freaks this morning? You don’t have to raise your hands because you were just pointed out by the elbow that hit your ribs…or the look. (Show look)
All your tools are marked, cleaned and placed in the proper place…all your nuts, bolts, and fasteners have their own little marked container.
You not only expect for things to be done a certain way, but you clearly believe…“it’s really the only way” to do this thing. If control freak “A” and control freak “B” end up working on the same project, or going on the same mission trip, or serving on the same committee…be assured…there will come a time they fiercely argue about how something should be done as they wrestle for “control” of the situation.
Webster defines “control” like this…“to have under command; to regulate, to check to restrain, to direct…as a noun it is “authority” “power.”
The pilot controls the plane…the driver controls the car…the engineer controls the train. Being out of control, in any of those vehicles is a very very bad thing…I think I want a little bit of a control freak flying my jet.
So, I’ve got a question for you this morning…“who controls your life?” Last week I asked, “who controls your thinking?” and we discovered, “sometimes I do, sometimes God does, sometimes Satan does…sometimes people impact my thinking…but, I am accountable for taking those temptations and those thoughts and bringing them into obedience to Christ…the only people who can do this are Spirit filled, born again followers of Christ.” God’s Spirit sets our minds on what His Spirit desires. (v. 5)
So, who controls your life? Or, what controls your life? Is it God living in you? Directing…keeping in check…restraining…and propelling? Once again there are only 2 options, 1) self, the sinful nature or 2) the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ.
God’s Word makes it very clear…we will live in either of one of two realms (the word “realm” means Kingdom). We will live in one of two kingdoms…and it will be clearly evident who’s our King.
I. THE KINGDOM OF SELF IS TEMPORARY AND DEADLY
Paul writes to the believers in Rome and says, “You are not in the realm (or Kingdom) of the flesh, but are in the realm (or Kingdom) of the Spirit…If indeed the Spirit of God lives in you…” (v. 9)
But then he makes a radical statement…
“If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” (Romans 8:9)
Not so coincidentally, the Apostle Paul is saying the exact thing as Jesus said to Nicodemus…
“Very truly I tell you, no one can enter this realm (Kingdom) unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit.”
(John 3:5-6)
The Bible clearly describes two kingdoms. The first is the Kingdom of the flesh, often called “the world.” It’s the Kingdom of “self.” It’s a life lived apart from God…it’s governed by our sinful nature…and the king of this realm is “Satan” also called “the god of this world” or “the evil one.”
From the time he was removed from heaven, he’s been at war with God…and that war takes place in an invisible empire that surrounds us…Its why the Revelation from John warns us “Woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows his time is short.” (Rev. 12:12)
Paul describes the battle in this way to the Ephesians: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.” (Kingdom). (Eph. 6:12)
It’s a battle for control…It’s one the evil one will lose…but there will be eternal casualties because of the war.
And the serpent of old always preys on our desires and our desire for control. And he finds a ready partner in our sinful nature.
In the Garden of Eden it starts with a questioning of God’s laws…Listen:
GENESIS 3:1-6
Did God really say this? What?!! You’re not really going to die (outright lie). Listen, God knows if you eat it you’ll be like Him.
The fruit looks delicious…and it was desirable for gaining wisdom (not the right kind of wisdom though). So they ate it…hid from God…lost their innocence…and eventually…died!
From that time on sin reigned in our hearts…every person sought to be their own god…and gratify their flesh.
And the god of this age continues to blind the minds of people so they cannot see the need for a Savior. (2 Cor. 4:4)
All we have to do is think of our past lives…or look around us to know this worldly kingdom is real…even if its rulers are invisible.
Sexuality has become more important than spirituality…Convenience and comfort have become more important than sacrifice…Sin has been renamed and marginalized…and pride and self has become supremely glorified. Satan continues to blind individuals with the promises of immediate gratification and the pleasure of sin for a season.
(What The Evil one never reveals are the consequences....the unwanted pregnancy where abortion is considered as a quick fix for bad choices, he never shows you the car wrapped around a tree and a head on collision with a school bus filled with Kid's returning from King's Island, he never shows you the destroyed marriage because of the sexual indiscretion...and your children now split between two homes. It is no wonder that in John 10 Jesus calls him a thief, murderer and liar!!!!")
It’s no wonder John the beloved reminds us in his first letter of this truth.
1 JOHN 2:15-17
The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
The kingdom of self is temporary and deadly…
And the truth is there is only one way to change kingdoms…and for that to happen it requires:
II. A RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD
All of us lived or are living in that kingdom of death…all of us! Listen to this:
EPHESIANS 2:1-3
We aren’t sick in our sins…we are dead. We all followed the ways of the world and the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
“All of us lived among them at one time!”
In the last 40 years of ministry I’ve experienced a lot of death and I've tried to help the families dealing with it. It becomes pretty clear pretty fast that life has gone…Dressing the body up doesn’t change this devastating reality…putting on make-up or jewelry doesn’t disguise the truth…death is the absence of life.
So spiritually speaking when we are described as spiritually dead in our sin…we don’t need good deeds, or nice clothes, or a nicer personality.
We need a resurrection from the dead!
The cross without a resurrection does absolutely nothing for us!
Listen to what Paul tells the Corinthians:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:12-26
If there’s no resurrection, our faith is futile…We are still in our sins…
Sin entered this fallen world through Adam…In Adam…all die, but since Christ has risen from the dead…we have life in Him.
Folks that life in Christ for eternity doesn’t begin when we die or He returns…It begins the moment we are born again…
When we are baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins we also received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
“And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.” (v. 11)
Jesus died…His body gave up His Spirit…He didn’t pretend to be dead or faint…His body lay in the grave for 3 days…and then, through the power of the Holy Spirit…He came back to life.
And we are told in no uncertain terms that the same spirit that did this for Jesus, comes into our dead lives and resurrects them.
When this happens we stop living in the realm or Kingdom of the flesh…and we become “New Creations” under the guidance of Jesus…who now lives in us…Paul says, “This Spirit is a pledge that guarantees what is to come.” (2 Cor. 5)
It’s the Holy Spirit that signs our adoption papers…we move from the Kingdom of this world into the eternal Kingdom of God…Eternal life begins the moment this happens… “even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the spirit gives life because of righteousness.”
“And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of His Spirit who lives in you.” (v. 11)
We might still be in a body that’s gonna die…but born again children of God have an eternal Spirit…that will bear fruit in this life and guarantees a resurrection and transformation when Jesus returns.
Paul reminds the Corinthians and us of this truth:
2 CORINTHIANS 5:1-10
Death for the Christian is just the entrance into Jesus’ presence!
file:///C:/Users/tmhrrick/Documents/Grady%20Nutt.jpg Grady Nutt Picture
[I’ve shared this before…I’ll probably share it again…I tell it at most gravesides…when it’s a Christian whose passed…“Every Sunday night after church my family watched “Hee Haw.” My dad, probably for the Hee Haw Honeys…but I loved a preacher from the show…He wasn’t on every episode, but was often a guest…His name was Grady Nutt…He talked about ministering in the county and carrying a 97 lb. scoffed reference Bible…not for Biblical reasons, but it made an awesome weapon when attacked by farm dogs…Grady Nutt died in a plane crash when he was 57 years old…returning from a revival service…As you can imagine the stories and jokes at his life celebration brought laughter and tears. His best friend did the eulogy…He said, folks you know that Grady ain’t here…only the shell…the Nutt has gone home.”]
Every one of us live in a shell…all of us are camping out temporarily in a tent…it’s all we know…so many try to make the tent last forever…or decorate it with lavish stuff…but inevitably…it’s still a tent…it’s gonna fall.
What would make the difference for eternity? “What if God turned the tent into a tabernacle?”
What makes a tent a tabernacle? What makes a building a temple? It’s easy…“God’s presence.”
Whether we are SAVED or lost we still temporarily live in a mortal body…a tent only God’s presence can transform into a temple. Only the presence of Jesus’ Spirit can rescue me from this body of death.
