This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at Gracetruth.org and AnchoringFaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. All right, Romans chapter 8,
verses 1 through 8. We'll deal with these tonight.
And we've already gone through verses 1 through 4, but in order
to keep continuity, I'll read through 1 through 8. There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ
Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what
the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His
own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned
sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to
the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according
to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but
those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the
things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh
is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for
it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot submit to God's
law. Those who are in the flesh cannot
please God. Now, there's some things to keep
in mind. We already know the context in
which Paul is teaching is he's teaching his Gentile brothers
and sisters in the faith who also, who are Roman citizens,
and at the same time there are what? There are Jewish brothers
and sisters in the faith, in the Christian faith, who are
Roman citizens. So we need to keep this in mind as we continue
in this text. We also need to recognize that
Paul has already shown condemnation for all people. All people types,
all people groups, all humanity, everyone individually and collectively
are condemned because they are guilty in Adam, and then also,
what? Guilty of their own personal
sin. And so, Paul then expresses what saves us from this, and
that is the finished work of Jesus Christ through which God's
judgment is satisfied in the cross work of Jesus, in His obedience
in life, in His substitutionary penal atonement on the cross
where He substituted for us, and we are now not condemned. Paul argues in this letter that
peace with God is through the work of Christ alone and it is
only ours by faith. In other words, we believe that
the work is ours. We believe that the work of God
with Christ is on our behalf and for our sin. And that no
obedience to the law, no strict adherence to the precepts of
Judaism or the Decalogue or any other command of Scripture can
justify a person before the Lord. But only the work of Christ has
done that. And we also know, as we've been
studying in John, it is only for those for whom Christ has
died. Death came through Adam, but
Christ, who is the new Adam, gives life. And it does cause
us to consider the fact that we could just sin all we wanted
to because grace is so powerful. However, what does Paul say?
Absolutely not. We must not sin that grace may
abound. But even though the law does
not give us opportunity to be right before the Lord, we are
not to just continue to sin. And he talks about the struggle
of sin in chapter 7. And though we are released from
the law, we are not We are not unbound from the flesh that continues
to fight against the Spirit, which is life. So who is to rescue
us from this dichotomy, from this constant war of in the flesh
and in the Spirit, and in the flesh and in the Spirit? As Paul
says, with my body I'm sold out under sin, fighting that flesh
that fights against the Spirit, but with my mind, with my new
mind, I love the righteousness of God. I love God. I love Christ. I love the gospel. I love the
Word of God, and I love the law of God, who is to rescue us from
this body of death. Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord." That's what he says. There is therefore now
no condemnation. So I wanted to bring us up there,
because when we miss a week sometimes, I know y'all are studying every
two or three hours, you're going in and you're studying Romans,
and you're staying on top of it, but when we miss a week,
I want to always try to catch us up with the mood and the tone
of the text. So in this now, there is a division
that Paul talks about with the believer. And we are fulfilled
to God. We are not condemned before God. We are righteous before God,
not because of what we've done or who we are in the sense and
the essence of our being, but because of what Christ has done.
Christ has done. God has done what the law could
not do. And by sending His Son, He condemns
sin in the flesh. So God is satisfied with His
people. He is no longer angry with His
people. There is no longer a guilt to
be worn by His people. There is no longer a penalty
of sin to be worn by the people who belong to Christ. And then
He says at the end of verse 4, and here we go, in order that
the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in
us, us, we, the elect, the regenerate, the saved, who walk not according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So here is the division. The division of humanity is all
who are unregenerate, all who are not born again, they walk
according to the flesh. Paul says in Ephesians 2, you
were what? Dead in your sins and trespasses.
You were like the rest of the world and who walked in the power
of the prince of the air, satisfying the desires of the flesh and
the desires of the mind and were by nature By nature, children
of wrath, but God, being rich in mercy and kindness because
of the great love with which He loved us, made us alive with
Christ. By grace, you have been saved.
And so in these things, we began to see the reality of the gospel
in its efficacy, that there is a division between those who
are in Christ and those who are not in Christ. Even though we
have the same type of flesh, we have a sinful flesh, we are
no longer seen by God as these depraved wretches. We are seen
by God as His righteousness, as the body of His Son, in whom
had no sin. Therefore we who are in Christ,
because of His righteousness credited to us, are seen by the
Father as to have no sin. So we then do not walk according
to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Now see, when we
hear those words, it's very easy for us to think, well, I'm sort
of a two-spirited type person. I've got two dimensions. I've
got two natures. Well, no, you have a flesh and
you have a regenerated mind that God gave you. and granted you
and gifted you with that you might understand and apprehend
and moreover trust in the finished work of Christ. That is the nature
of the new birth of what salvation really is. And though we have
these divisions in humanity, there are those who walk by the
flesh who make provision for the flesh, but there are the
church, the body of Christ, the beloved, the believers who are
not of the flesh and do not walk according to the flesh, but we
walk according to the Spirit. Now, this is where it can get
tricky. Some people have taught, and
they've taught so wrongly, they've taught so wrongly, that we, in
our humanity and in this life as believers, must strive to
walk in the Spirit. So therefore we can do things
spiritually and then we can do things fleshly. Paul has already
wiped that in the proverbial toilet in chapter 7. He is not
working to try to become more spiritual. He already is fully
spiritual in his mind, in his regenerate state, but his flesh
is still much living and breathing in its physical sense, and therefore
it does fight against the spirit. It does fight against the new
man. And so in this, we need to recognize
that we who are righteous and the requirement of righteousness
that the law is fulfilled in Christ, we walk by the Spirit
because Christ fulfilled the physical law in His humanity.
You see that? And then Paul in verses 5-8,
he explains that. And in verse 9, we really should
go on into 9-11 tonight, but we're not going to because we're
just not going to have time. But in verse 9, I want you to
see what it says. but you are in the Spirit." So
I'm not making stuff up. Paul explains it. It's very clear
there in verse 4, "...who walk not according to the flesh."
But that in itself would leave us to fall prey to the Judaism
and the legalism of our day and the self-righteousness of our
day and all of these other types of things. But in verse 9, he
makes it very clear, "...if in fact the Spirit of God dwells
in you." And so walking by the Spirit is the fact that we actually
what? Not walking, but living in the
Spirit. And walking in the Spirit is that we have the Holy Spirit,
which is the guarantee of our inheritance, which is the seal
of our perfect salvation. It is something that cannot be
taken. It is something that cannot be erased. It is someone who
will not abandon us. He is God, the Holy Spirit. Paul
prays to the Ephesian church in chapter 3. He says, I pray
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. What does
that mean? To understand with all the saints
what is the breadth and the width and the height of the love of
God, and that the glory that is Christ in all the church All
of creation and all of time to the very end of age, glory be
to God. Glory be to God the Father through
Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the fullness of God and
His people. We are satisfactory to Him. There is nothing that could cause
us to be hated or to be judged or to be condemned because Christ
has done the work of righteousness on our behalf, has fulfilled
the law on our behalf. And so we are those who walk
according to the flesh. But as I just stated, it's very
easy for us to say, how do I walk in the spirit? Look at what Paul
says in verse five. He says, for those who live according
to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But
those, in contrast, who live according to the Spirit set their
minds on the things of the Spirit. So this is a very clear answer.
If you are in the flesh and live according to the flesh, then
you are thinking and working in your mind and your motives
according to the flesh. Now some well-meaning behavior
modifiers would love to come to the table and say, see there,
when you sin, you're living according to the flesh. No. You're not. As a Christian, you cannot live
in the flesh. You cannot live according to
the flesh because you cannot set your mind on the things of
the flesh. Because if you set your mind on the things of the
flesh, you've rejected the gospel of grace. You have refused Christ
and you've spat upon the cross. You see that? So if we're born
again, we believe fully in the finished work of Christ. So there
is no way that we're not walking and abiding in Christ. There
is no way that we're not living according to the Spirit. What
does that look like? What is the flesh to begin with?
What does it mean when Paul talks about the flesh here? It is the
sinful nature. It is the human nature that is
corrupted that we, according to Paul's teaching, have crucified,
have been crucified with Christ. So we're not subject anymore
to the flesh, to be a slave to the flesh, that it does no longer
rule us, but we have a hope that is not fleshly. You see the mistake? Because when we hear those words,
we automatically go, He's talking about people can sin. Paul has
already stated that that's an absurdity. So for people to continue
to bring it up shows their absolute ignorance in common English,
in common conversation. We don't need to give time to
people anymore whatsoever who continue to ask you, church,
does that mean because grace is so great, you're saying we
can sin? Just go, Lord, have mercy on your soul and walk away. Walk away. Don't continue to
throw pearls before the swine unless they turn and render you
on the ground. And it's tough to say those things,
but friends, we don't have time to labor over unregenerate people
who want to fight for the provision of obedience in order to have
a final justification. It's absurd and it's evil, and
we need to stop allowing people to hammer us into the floor.
We can be kind and we can be gracious, but when we teach them
what the Word of God says and the yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah,
but, yeah, but, yeah, but, we have to stop casting pearls before
unregenerate people and think that they can see it. They cannot
see it. Pray that God would take that
which was already planted, if it be His will, and bring them
to life. the flesh. Without the new birth,
the flesh is in full control. It does exactly what it was supposed
to do in its corruption and its depravity, and it yields to do
what it can do and desires to do, and that is sin. But see,
we automatically say, well, I have those tendencies sometimes. I
have these temptations. I have these actions. So did Paul, and
he said, oh, what is to rescue me from this body of death? Christ. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to
God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ has done the work
to rescue us. It doesn't mean that we escape.
We escape the war, the battle, but the war has been won. But
without regeneration, the flesh is in full control. And what
is in light here is not just the violations of the law, the
rebellious heart, the disobedient things, the evil action, the
evil thoughts, the evil desires, the murderous ideals, The greed
and all this stuff. This is of course obvious. This
is always obvious when we think of sin. But Paul is specifically
dealing with this reality. The reality that there are those
who will live according to the flesh, who are among the people
of God, and they're not the ones who are sinning, who often get... corrected and see repentance
of the mind and then a throwing and turning away of these things
until something else comes along. These are people who are living
according to the flesh in their righteousness. You see that? In their righteousness. because
they set their minds on the things of the flesh. Of course, rebellion,
disobedience, evil, things, thoughts, etc. But this specifically, in
the context of Paul's teaching, is that there are self-righteous
attempts, listen to this, in the flesh, quote, in the flesh,
self-righteous attempts to be right with God, which many, I
mean, very few people would agree that they have that idea. Oh,
no, no, no, it's all about Christ. And it's also in the flesh and
living according to the flesh when we seek to prove our righteousness
in Christ through the works of the flesh. Where we used to walk before
regeneration, some of us walked in absolute debauchery. drunkenness,
adultery, all sorts of just lucidiousness and wickedness, just moral decayed
sinfulness. But some of us before regeneration
walked in religion, being in church, pastoring the
congregation, teaching Sunday school, ordained as a deacon,
doing missions, serving the community. and feeling confident in their
sin, thinking that they were righteous. Just like the Jews
we learn on Sunday morning. These self-righteous attempts.
Anyone who is confident either that their sin is not going to
be judged, or that the works of their life is righteous, walk
according to the flesh. For they are not trusting, believing,
or having faith in the finished work of the righteousness of
God and the work of Jesus Christ, who is what? Our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our wisdom. Those who live according to the
flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. What is
the things of the flesh? It is living in a way that in
some sense proves or establishes a righteousness in the context
here. Those who live according to the
flesh are not categorized and marked in this context by what
they do, but they are marked by what they think about their
flesh. They set their minds on the things of the flesh, which
is to set their minds on the ability of the flesh to walk
honorably, which is to set their minds on the will of the flesh
to decide and choose to be righteous or choose to be saved or choose
to, quote, accept Christ, which is a demonic thing. They say, oh, it's just semantics.
It's not semantics. It's a trick of the enemy through
which many people are deceived and still live in condemnation,
for they are not believing on the Son of God. They are believing
on their works and their efforts for some free gift or offer of
some salvation that the Scripture has never offered whatsoever. The gospel, as I've said a thousand
times over, is a proclamation of the finished work of God through
Jesus Christ the Son to take away the sins of His people that
He might be the just and the justifier of all who have faith
in Christ. To live according to the flesh
is to set our minds or to set their minds. It's not us. on
the will of the flesh, to set their minds on the work of the
flesh in righteousness, or obedience, or following after God, to set
their minds on the fruit of God, or the fruit of salvation, or
the fruit of faith, or the fruit of righteousness, or the fruit,
etc. The fruit that Jesus deals with
in Matthew 7 is the confession that Christ is enough for righteousness,
versus the confession that people must walk a path that proves
they are God's people. When the Pharisees, if ever,
were anybody to prove it, they proved it. But they were not
God's people, they were the people of Satan. The contrast now, those
who live according to the flesh, this is what they set their mind
upon, this is where their heart lives, this is where their lives
go. They constantly desire to have
this type of assurance. But those who live according
to the Spirit, it's much different. Those who live according to the
Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit, which is
they set their mind on the sovereignty of God. They set their mind on
the life that is given to them by the Spirit of peace. They
set their mind, we set our minds, beloved, on the person of Jesus
Christ. And when we see our lives and we see the reality of what
our flesh is and can do and has done and will do, we rest because
we live by the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. We rest in the
sufficient work of Jesus Christ alone. This is the argument of
Paul. Because when he gets through
up to verse 18, When he gets up there and he's already talked
about how we are heirs with Christ, this is an inheritance that cannot
be defiled, Peter says in 1 Peter 1. It cannot be taken away, it
cannot be eaten, it cannot be destroyed, but we, beloved, are
kept by God's power. How in the world do we lose that?
We can't lose. We can't lose our salvation.
We can't lose that which we did not obtain on our own. We cannot
throw away that which we did not grab with our own hands.
We cannot destroy the work of God. The very image of marriage
in the shadow of the gospel is what God has put together. Let
no man separate. The problem is that man can separate. but we cannot be separated from
our Savior. Paul closes out the entirety
of the chapter with, if God is for us, who can be against us? What is going to happen? Who
is to separate us from the love of God, from the finished work
of Christ, from the giving of the Son? Who will separate us
from the life that is in the Spirit? Who will snatch this
out of our minds? Beloved, if you are born of Christ,
you have the Spirit within you, and you understand the words,
no, no, no. We will not be separated. Nothing
will bring a charge against God's elect. Nothing will take us away
from the love of God. In all these things we are more
than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am certain, I
am sure of this," Paul says, that neither life nor death,
nor angels, nor rulers, nor principalities, nor the past, nor the power of
the things to come or present, height, depth, or any other thing
in all the creation can separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then, and only then, and only
there do we have peace. the work of God and the gospel
of grace. We labor often in our minds, beloved. We worry. We fret. We wring our spiritual
hands and wonder how it is that we can be with God, how it is
that we can be right before God, how it is that we can be the
children of God when we know ourselves very well. We are not
condemned and we are not depraved because God has called us His
righteousness. We set our minds on the things
of the Spirit and we continue to renew our mind. You know,
Romans 12 is coming, right? Romans 12, therefore, what? Do
not be conformed to this world. And how do we not conform to
the world? By setting our mind on renewing our mind on the truth
of Christ. That's what Romans 12 begins
to teach. Be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. That's the answer. So when we
set our mind, we walk in the Spirit, we walk by the promises
of God that are found in the Word of God, by the finished
work of Christ that is there in the Scripture, and we have
our mind on the things of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God, which is the fullness. What does He say there? Of peace.
Peace. All the trimmings of every spiritual
blessing that's known and available to us are ours. We have them
now. And there is no condemnation.
What does it look like? The mind. Sets our mind on this
or set our mind on that. Those that are unregenerate set
their mind on the flesh. They work to try to labor for
a righteousness. They work to try to prove that
they are indeed in Christ. They work and work and work.
What is the opposite of work? What's the word? Rest. That is the promise of grace.
So where in the world do we have the gospel of grace with the
attachment of work? The very idea of grace is that
we rest, we hold fast with the confession of our hope. We run
the race, but we rest in the running. We strive by resting,
by faith. We hold fast in our mind because
the mind that is focused on the flesh, the mind that is living
by the flesh, it yields to death. It gives up to death. To set
the mind on the works of the flesh is death. For the wages
of sin is death. Because a fleshly righteousness
is death. A fleshly assurance is death.
It is death. but the mind, we who have the
mind of Christ, we submit and yield to the Spirit by the work
of God. We look to the things of the gospel, the things of
salvation that Peter says that angels are interested in seeing
and they look intently for the day of redemption that they may
glorify their Creator all the more for the salvation of His
people through the person of Jesus Christ. The mind that yields
to the flesh dies, is already dead and condemned. But the mind
that continually focuses and puts itself in the place of the
gospel has life and has peace. It's not peace to worry yourself
into salvation. It's not peace at all, and there
should be no peace until we see the truth of the gospel of grace,
which is resting in the finished work of Christ on our behalf. 4. Why is it important? Paul explains it. Look at verse
7. He explains it very clearly. The mind that is set on the flesh
is hostile to God. The mind that is set, the mind
that is focused, the mind that is hoping, the mind that is striving,
the mind that is working to the end of the flesh and what the
flesh can do and how the flesh can mature and how the flesh
can be more righteous and how the flesh can be more set apart
and how the flesh can be more sanctified. This is not the work
of the Gospel. This is the work of a mind that
has not truly seen the reality. of Christ. But through hearing
these words tonight, beloved, you can be set free and understand
the work that God has done for you through the Son. Paul uses
the word hostility. When we focus on our own righteousness,
our flesh is hostile to God. Our mind is hostile to God. What is hostility? Let's just
put it this way. Hostility means we hate God.
But the Jews would never say they hated God. The self-righteous
never say they hate God. Legalists never say they hate
God. But they do. They hate God because
they hate the gospel. They hate the Word. They hate
redemption. They hate the simplicity of the
cross and its work and its efficacy. They hate the truth of Christ
and they hate those who hold fast to it and are at peace and
are not up in turmoil constantly about their own works. And then,
because of that, they are back to the very beginning. They hate
God. But it says the mind that is focused on the flesh does
not submit to God's law. Isn't that ironic? You see? Because that's the context. You
are in the flesh, and you're on the flesh, and you're living
by the flesh, you're thinking about the flesh, you're trying
to strive for something that might make you right with God
or give you peace. And He says you can try all you
want. It does not submit to God's law. In every act of obedience of
the flesh, it is not submitting to God's law. And every act of
obedience in the flesh is worthy of death. It doesn't mean that those things
aren't to be continued or strived for, but they have no place in
our peace. They have no place in the gospel.
They have no place in our assurance. They have no place. And He doesn't
even go and say it just does not submit. He says it cannot
submit. Even in obedience, it cannot
submit. So how are we to submit to the law of God? By faith. We live our life by faith in
the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. We live
our life by faith. Believing in the finished work
of Christ is submitting to the law of God, because it is trusting
in the obedience of Christ to satisfy the righteous requirements
of the law, and it is trusting in the death of Christ to satisfy
our guilt and all the striving of all the best days that we
could ever muster. If every person who has ever
breathed air in this life could put together all their obedience,
it would not fit on the tip of a pen. and God would smash it. Submitting to the law of God
is faith, because faith is trusting in the satisfaction of the law
of God in our flesh, which says we die if we put our mind on
the flesh. But it says we live if we put
our mind on the Spirit. And the only one who can see
and have the Spirit are the ones who have the Spirit. And Paul
will continue to work and talk about the Holy Spirit throughout
this section of Scripture, because it is a labor in the flesh to
stand and withstand this life. And so in verse 26, he says,
the Spirit helps us in our weakness. helps us know that we are the
children of God. The Spirit helps us keep our
mind in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God indwells us, and
then we know that we are God's children, verse 16. We know that
we are suffering, but we are not suffering for nothing, because
in all this suffering, we are identifying with our Savior,
who suffered unto death, the judgment of God that we might
be His righteousness, and our hope is not on that which we
see, which is the transformation of our earthly bodies, but our
hope is on that which we cannot see, which is the promise of
glory that God has given us through the finished work of Christ.
It's a promise that cannot be lost. Striving to the end of righteousness
and obedience, Paul is saying here, is a fool's errand, a dumb
and foolish passion, and a worthless despair. It is not hope. Our
flesh, before we are born again, cannot please God, and after
we are born again, it will never strive to please God, because
our justification is perfect in Christ Jesus. God is pleased
with us. And these things are written,
as John would say, that you may not sin, but if you sin, you
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who
is our satisfaction and answer and quenching of the wrath of
God, propitiation. Other regenerate people who claim
to be in Christ, but they continue to walk in this matter of hoping
to be like Christ in perfection in this life. They hold to this
substitute gospel, to this additional addition of the gospel, and in
doing so, they remain hostile to God. Because God has said
that those who are His, He loves them. Those whom He loves, He
is pleased with them. Those with whom He is pleased,
He will not condemn them, for condemnation was poured out on
Jesus the Son. So when we see others hold to
the flesh, they are hostile to God. And it's odd because we
beg of them, please listen, please stop, please understand. And
they pull out a deck of yeah buts and they ask you to pick
a card and it's always the same one. Work. It's never trust. Most of the time, When these
people cannot see it, they are not truly in Christ. They are
not truly born again. They are blind to see the reality
of their own sin. As a matter of fact, they haven't
thought about their sin in eons. How is it that you don't think
about who you are in the flesh this very day when we approach
the Lord's table as we gather? For it is for sin that Christ
died. Not only are unregenerate people
blind to see the reality of their sin, but they're also, some of
them who are religious, are blind to see the reality of the efforts
of their flesh as sin, and it always leads to death. As we've
established here, the defense to this hostility. Some people
say, well, you're saying we can just sin. I've said it already,
and I'll say it again, and I'll say it a thousand times, it's
absurd. We know that we are to strive. We know that we are to,
out of love and affection, do that which pleases and gives
glory and honor to God. But this is not what's on the
table here. This is about the work of God to save His people. And we should not conflate God's
grace with the living of the believer. So what do we do? We need to recognize that in
the end, this is teaching us that to be passionate, to look
for assurance of our salvation through obedience is hostility
to God. And that is the mind that is
set upon the flesh and it cannot submit to God. And look at what
he says in verse 8. Those who are in the flesh cannot
please God. The righteous works of man are
filthy. Now there are arguments that come and say, well, now
because we are made righteous in Christ, then our works are
worthy. No, God prepared for us works to
do just like God, just like Jesus uses the illustration of slaves
and masters and workers and employees, et cetera, who do the job that
they're called to do. These are not things that we
do and are acceptable in that context toward righteousness.
That's just absurd. but they can be good and pleasing.
They and themselves can be pleasing, but we are always pleasing to
God. God has pleasure and God has
displeasure, and God is displeased with unbelievers. God is displeased
with self-righteous people. God is displeased with blind
religion. God is displeased with Judaism.
God is displeased with evangelicalism. God is displeased with fleshly
works. God is displeased with people
who hold to a security of their faith because of the fruit of
their faith. God is displeased. with everything
that is not in Christ. But God is pleased with Christ.
And because we are in Him, God is pleased with us. God sent
Him to die for our sin that we might be His righteousness. Beloved,
don't lose sight of that. There is no other way, no other
hope, no other possible outcome through which we can have peace
with God. We are not in the flesh, but
we are in the Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in us. And
that's what we'll pick up next week. Let's pray. We love You,
Lord. We are glad that this section
of Scripture is here for us. We are glad to know that We are
righteous before You because of Christ. We are glad to know
that even in our struggle with sin, we have not lost and we
will not lose. And even though it may seem as
though we are not maturing or that sin lies close at the door
and is always there to snatch us up, we are indeed safe before
You, secure before You, loved and at peace. And so for that reason, Lord,
we worship You. We celebrate the Gospel. Let
us share this truth with others, that You might bring Your people
to Yourself. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you for listening. We hope that this message has
encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to these messages and
other teaching resources and podcasts at anchoringfaith.org. More information about the church
can be found at gracetruth.org.