Please turn to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and beginning in verse 1. I will join you there in a minute.
When we turn to Matthew, we find it is called, The Gospel of Matthew, or in some translations, the Gospel according to Matthew. Mark is called the Gospel of Mark or the Gospel according to Mark. The same is true of Luke and John. They are Holy Spirit directed accounts of the life of Jesus and accounts of the Gospel from differing perspectives.
Look! This is who Jesus was, what He did, and how you can be saved. In case you missed it, God had 4 different writers tell you.
Then you have the book of Acts. It is called “The Acts of the Apostles.” Luke, inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit sent it to his friend Theophilis. it to It is an account of the spread of the Gospel, the spread of the church, and the work of the apostles. Wouldn’t it be great to have a friend who cared enough about you that he would write and send you an account of the work of God in the world so that you too might worship?
Then we come to Romans. It is called “The Letter to the Romans.” It is a letter, written by the apostle Paul, to the churches in Rome.
Let me ask you. When was the last time any of you wrote a letter? E-mails don’t count.
Do you remember letters? They’re not broken up into chapters and verses. Stephen Langton, in the 12th century, added what we use today as the chapter divisions. In 1551, Robert Estienne added verse divisions to his fourth edition of the Greek New Testament.
In other words, when Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, there was no break between chapter 7 and chapter 8. When we last looked at Romans, Paul was discouraged in chapter 7 saying in verse 24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”
Sadly, many folks are stuck there, asking, “Why do I do the things I don’t want to do, and not do the things that I want to do? Oh, wretched man that I am.
But He didn’t end there. Tell someone near you, “That’s not the end of the story.”
That’s not the end of the story. Praise the Lord! He continued in his letter by saying in verse 25, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”. Paul knew where His true strength lay.
Next, in what we call chapter 8, Paul begins in verses 1-17 by stressing 3 great freedoms Christ-followers enjoy. Perhaps for this reason, some refer to chapter 8 of Romans as the greatest chapter in the greatest book. 3 great freedoms Christians enjoy. Freedom from condemnation. Freedom from expectation, and freedom from abandonment. Look there with me please at Romans chapter 8 and verse 1.
- Read Roman’s 8:1-17
I. FREEDOM FROM CONDEMNATION
Now in chapter 8 and verse 1 he says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
Isn’t that great news? There is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
So many folks, and so many Christians, go through life fearing, the condemnation of God. We know we don’t measure up. We know we could walk closer to the Lord. We could pray more. We could witness more. We could do more more. We leave things undone, and miss opportunities. And the Devil, the one referred to as “The Accuser of the brethren” in Revelation, or one of his henchmen, comes along side us and whispers in our ears, all the little ways we have disappointed the Lord, or the ways we have let Him down. But Paul says, “therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.”
Oh, praise the Lord, I don’t have to walk around like many children do, afraid of hearing their parents tell them how they’ve let them down or how they’ve disappointed them. I don’t have to hear, as many married people do, from their spouses, about what a disappointment they are, or about how they could have done better.
All those centuries the law told people what failures they were. The law showed them how they didn’t measure up to God’s standard. Now, praise the Lord, there is no condemnation for those who are in the Lord.
There is that condition, “for those who are in the Lord.”
That’s the Gospel. That’s the message we are called to share. Because of our sin, we were all condemned. The wages of sin is death. But there on the cross God the Father poured out on His Son all of the condemnation that belonged to us. There is therefore, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Alas! and did my Savior bleed?And did my Sovereign die??Would He devote that sacred head?For sinners such as I??At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,?And the burden of my heart rolled away,?It was there by faith I received my sight,?And now I am happy all the day!
How are we happy all the day? We are happy because we know we are free from condemnation. Not only are we free from condemnation, but we are also free from expectation. Look there again if you will please at verse 7.
II. FREEDOM FROM EXPECTATION? - Read Romans 8:7-9
From time to time I have people call the church and ask if this is a full-gospel church, which I assure them it is. I mean, what is the Gospel? It is the good news that we were once all condemned because of our sin. We were once all condemned to eternal separation from God.
As verse 7 says, “The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God, because it does not submit to God’s law.” And verse 8 continues, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
The Gospel is, that at one time we all lived like that, but, because our condemnation was poured out on Christ at the cross, we are now free from the condemnation of God.” That’s the Gospel. But, that’s not what they’re asking. When they ask, “Are you a full-gospel church” what they are asking is, “Do you have the Holy Spirit”, as John Hagee puts it, as evidenced by speaking on tongues.
Let me tell you my friend, verse 9 makes it clear that there are not 2 different types of Christians, those with the Holy Spirit and those without, for Paul says in verse 9, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.”
- Read Romans 8:9 If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
There are not Christians with the Spirit of Christ and others without. There are Christians with the Spirit of Christ and others without the Holy Spirit living in them who try to trick themselves into believing that they are Christians by dressing up the way they live, but who are only deceiving themselves.
In Revelation 3:20 Jesus says,
> Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.”
When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, Jesus, in the person of the Holy Spirit comes in to live in you.
> Ephesians 1:13-14 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.
The Holy Spirit in our lives is the downpayment of the salvation and glorification that is yet to come.
And Paul says, if you do not have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ living in you, then you are just kidding yourself.
So, I don’t have to live up to anyone else’s expectation. I don’t have to demonstrate some certain spiritual gift in order to demonstrate that I have the Holy Spirit and that I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I am free from their expectations.
And I don’t have to sit around and wonder if I have received all of the Holy Spirit I am going to get, or if I have received all of the gifts that I am going to get.
In Ephesians 5:18 we are told, “Be filled with the Spirit”. The question then is not how much of the Holy Spirit you have but rather how much of you He has. How much of your life have you surrendered to Him? How much of your life have you given Him control of.
Your want to show me you are filled with the Spirit? You want folks to know you are controlled by the Spirit? You don’t do it by doing cartwheels down the isle. You do it by turning the other cheek. You do it by honoring your husband. You do it by loving your wife as Christ loved the church. You do it by being honest in business. You do it by using your workplace as a mission field. You do it by serving others.
>Ephesians 2:1-7a If, then, there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, make my joy complete by thinking the same way, having the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. Christ’s Humility and Exaltation Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant,
Jesus didn’t say, “The greatest among you will have certain spiritual gifts.” He said, “The greatest among you will be a servant to all.”
Jesus said, “By this may alll men know you are My disciples, if you have love one for another.” You want to know if you are filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit, then ask yourself if you love others.
You want to know if you are controlled by the Holy Spirit, then ask yourself if the things that grieve the Holy Sprit also grieve you?
The only 2 types of Christians are not those with the Holy Spirit and those without. The types are those who are obediently obeying and walking with the Lord, and those who are disobedient and walking a path of their own.
If you are a Christian, and I pray that you are, then which one are you? Are you obediently following and obeying the Lord, or are you disobedient and doing what you want to?
I am free from condemnation. I am free from expectation and third, I am free from abandonment.
III. FREEDOM FROM ABANDONMENT
- Read Romans 8:14-17
Folks who study such things tell us that abandonment is one of the most grievous wounds a person can experience. A child abandoned by a parent through divorce or whatever, who believes he or she is unwanted. A husband, or wife, who comes home to find a spouse packing their bags saying, “I’m leaving. I found someone new.” A parent, abandoned and forgotten, left alone in a retirement home, with no one calling, and no one visiting.
I remember years ago, talking with Jim Meredith, a friend who did the maintenance in a nursing home. He said the place was filled with folks that no body ever visited. You tell me you’re lonely, or you’re bored, or you’re too old to serve anymore. That’s something you can do. Go to a nursing home and visit. Just give those folks someone to talk to. Let them know they are not forgotten.
We used to have a deacon here, who is now a pastor at another church, who started a ministry he called lifeboat. He and some others from the church would regularly visit 2 nursing homes, hold worship services, and try to provide a lifeboat to those who, even in that late stage of life, didn’t yet know the Lord.
Abandonment.
In these verses, Paul reminds us that we are not unwanted. We are not abandoned. We are not unloved. We have been adopted into the family of God. And this wasn’t one of those surprise arrivals. You have been chosen and loved by God and adopted into the family of God.
> Romans 5:8 God commended His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
God loved you enough not send His Son, even when you were at your worse, so that you could be saved. And He loved you so much, even though He knew you and knew how you’d fail Him, that He still wanted you to be one of His children.
Then He pours His Holy Spirit into us, according to verses 14 and 15, so that the slave’s spirit of fear is replaced by the loving Spirit of a child.
> Galatians 4:4-7 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.
What a great word that word Abba is. Daddy. A Father that loves being with His children. A Daddy who doesn’t always seem too busy to do things with His children, but instead, hurries to finish His work so he can get home and throw the ball with his son, or have a tea party with his daughter.
A parent who wrestles with his children. Who knows what a tickle bug is. A parent who is happy he is a parent and sees his children as an important part of his life.
Abba. Daddy.
We receive a Spirit of adoption, so that we become members of this very special family with a heavenly father who loves us, who enjoys spending time with us, and who enjoys getting calls from us.
Oh, what a transformation. Paul at the end of chapter 7 says, oh, wretched man that I am, who will save me from this? It is a place we all must visit, so we can see how completely helpless we are to save ourselves. But then he continues by saying, “I am free from condemnation. Jesus took care of that at the cross. I am free from expectation, mine or others, because I have the Holy Spirit living in me and there is nothing else I need to add to that. And I am free from abandonment. My heavenly daddy loves me, and He will never leave me no matter how I mess up. No matter far I’ve wandered. Because the path home to my dad only takes 1 step.
Will you take that step today?
