December 1, 2024; Sunday Evening Worship

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 100
• Hymn — All People That on Earth Do Dwell (#100b)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin — Daniel 9
• Assurance of Pardon — Romans 5:6-8
• Hymn — Song of Mary (#301)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Scripture Reading — Romans 8:1-11
• Sermon
• Hymn — O Splendor of God's Glory Bright (#209)
• Benediction

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Sermon Title: The Source and Power Behind Holy Living

Scripture: Romans 8:1-8

I. The Giving Love of the Father

A. God the Father as sacrificial offerer, not merely Christ as sacrificial offering

1. Leviticus required costly offerings — firstborn, unblemished animals — as the means of fulfilling the Mosaic law
2. Israel as offerers could never fully satisfy the law's requirement through the blood of bulls and goats (Hebrews 10)
3. God the Father offers his own firstborn, his eternally begotten Son, as the perfect sin offering (Romans 8:3)

B. To miss the Father as sacrificial offerer leads to pietism — self-feeding rather than receiving from the Father's gracious hand

1. Like a toddler trying to feed himself: the result is mess, not nourishment
2. True piety flows from receiving, as a helpless child, the bread the Father freely gives — his Son
3. Matthew 18:3 — entering the kingdom requires faith like a little child

II. The Gift of Righteousness in the Son

A. The Son is sent from the Father as the pre-incarnate, heavenly Man (1 Corinthians 15)

1. He comes in the likeness of sinful flesh — the Greek word sarx denotes the sinful nature — yet without sin himself
2. His coming had no relevance apart from the fact of sin; he came into the closest possible relation to sin without becoming sinful (John Murray)

B. Christ condemns sin in the flesh — in that very nature dominated by sin in all others, he vanquishes sin's power

1. He blots out sin's guilt (justification) and breaks sin's enslaving dominion (sanctification) — Rock of Ages: "be of sin the double cure, save me from its guilt and power"
2. Hebrews 2:14-15 — through death he destroys the devil, who held humanity in slavery through fear of death
3. Christ is the new Sovereign; we fear him in obedience, no longer fearing sin in obedience to it

C. Satan as accuser is answered both in justification and in sanctification

1. In justification: Christ our Advocate presents the penalty paid in full before the holy Judge
2. In sanctification: Satan's bullying whisper — you are not holy — is silenced by the righteousness of Christ
3. James 4:7 — resist the devil and he will flee from you

III. The Generating Energy of the Spirit

A. Paul presents a trickle-down structure of the two governing principles — flesh and spirit

1. Moral condition — being in the flesh vs. being in the spirit
2. Bent of heart and mind — minding the things of the flesh vs. minding the things of the spirit
3. Practice — walking according to the flesh vs. walking according to the spirit

B. Those in the flesh are totally depraved and totally unable to please God (Romans 8:7-8)

1. Enmity against God = total depravity; cannot please God = total inability (John Murray)
2. James 1:14-15 — desire conceives and gives birth to sin; the condition produces the bent, which produces the act

C. Reconciling Romans 7 and Romans 8

1. Some argue Romans 7 describes Paul before conversion, but this misreads the text
2. The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God (Romans 8:7) — but Paul in Romans 7 is hostile toward sin, not God; his mind is after the law of God
3. 2 Corinthians 10:3 — we walk in the flesh but do not wage war according to the flesh; Paul wages war according to the Spirit even while lamenting the flesh

D. Piety is Spirit-wrought warfare with sin

1. We are no longer at enmity with God but friends through the reconciling blood of Christ; we are now enemies of sin
2. Battles may be lost — Romans 7 is a sweet balm in those moments — but no decisive defeat ends the war
3. The Spirit stakes his flag in the soul he indwells and will not surrender it; he will gain total and final victory