Sermon Central
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The Deliverer From Sin
Contributed by John Lowe on Jul 15, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: There are two powers, which are working to claim the right to rule in the heart of men and women. Paul described those powers as “flesh” and “Spirit.”
11-07-03
Title: The Deliverer from Sin
Bible Reading: (Romans 8:31-39)
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Introduction
Romans 7, pictures the tragic failure and disappointment of a believer who tries to find peace of mind through his own efforts, by keeping the holy law of God.
But Paul declares that the person, who seeks to overcome sin by willpower and human effort alone, will fail.
There are two powers, which are working to claim the right to rule in the heart of men and women.
Paul described those powers as “flesh” and “Spirit.”
By the term flesh he is referring to our human nature, which is tainted by sin.
It is that portion of ourselves that remains unregenerate and does not experience the new birth.
It is that part of our human nature that provides a bridgehead for sin.
It is the inward tendency that we all have to drift downward rather than to move upward.
Romans 7, describes pain and disappointment.
It describes the failure and despair of the person who tries to live the Christian life without a conscious dependence on the living Christ and the filling of the Holy Spirit.
When we yield to our unregenerate nature, what Paul calls the “flesh,” we are on the road to ruin.
But recognizing and responding to “the Spirit” is the road to life and peace.
Romans 8, begins with “no condemnation” and closes with “no separation.”
The contents of Romans 8 declare that there need be no defeat in the Christian life.
However, it should be understood that a Christian’s victory over sin is not automatic or inevitable.
We must accept responsibility for our spiritual response to the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Romans 8, contains twenty references to the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit living within us that we are delivered from the tyranny of sin.
From Romans 7 into Romans 8, we move from the miserable ness of defeat to the promise of victory.
We move from spiritual depression to spiritual delight.
We move from a sigh to a song.
The indwelling Holy Spirit makes possible spiritual victory and high ethical conduct that reflects the grace and glory of God.
The Holy Spirit is present and active in the life of all faithful believers.
I want to show you from Romans 8, seven ways in which He (the Holy Spirit) is at work for us and in us.
First, THE INDWELLING SPIRIT SETS US FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH.
The first four verses testify regarding this truth, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Even a casual reading of Romans 8 will leave us with the impression that the Spirit of God and the absence of an attitude of defeat go hand in hand.
Life in the Spirit enables us to live free from the law or principle of sin and death.
This does not mean that the believer is free from sin or free from the prospect of death, but that the principle of sin and death does not have power over him.
