"Discipleship Essentials" Pt. 4

Hi, this is John Ozanting, lead pastor of Evolve Church, and this is the Evolve Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Well, we're in a series called Discipleship Essentials.

If you're new to Evolve or just visiting, um, we started a series in May working through um Romans chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

So those four chapters from Romans, which is really like Paul's instructions for how to follow Jesus well, uh, or what we're calling essentials in our discipleship to Jesus.

And and you might be in the room today having recently uh surrendered your life to Christ.

That's that's many of your stories that in in the last weeks and months you said the biggest yes that your life could ever be compelled to say yes to by surrendering your life to Jesus.

And some of you have been following the Lord for a long time.

Some of you are here today and you're just open spiritually to the way and the truth in the life of Christ, and you've got questions, what's it gonna cost you to surrender your life to Jesus?

Wherever you're at, um, it's not often as you're pastor that I get up and say, I need you to know uh these teachings.

Uh we'll often say, hey, if you missed last week, you you could always go back and listen on the podcast or watch on YouTube.

But this series, this is part four of a six-part series.

Uh, I just want to say, if Evolve Church is home, uh, would you please take some time this week, in your devotion time, in your quiet time with scripture and prayer, to read through Romans 7 on your own.

Maybe read through it every day and just invite the Lord to speak to you, what's what's he highlighting?

But also go back and listen to the other three parts of this series as a foundational, like we're in this together.

These are essential truths for us, all of us, in how we're living set apart as disciplined followers of Christ.

And so today we're in Romans 7.

If you got your Bible, if you have a notebook, you can pull those out now.

If you forgot both of those things, it's okay, you can bring them back next time.

But pull out your phone, you probably got a spot to take notes in your phone, or you probably have a digital Bible on your phone.

But I want to read the entire chapter.

Um, I'll probably pause and just make a few remarks along the way.

But Romans chapter seven is where we are today.

I'm reading from the NLT.

Now, dear brothers and sisters, you who are familiar with the law, don't you know that the law applies only while a person is living?

So Paul begins uh talking about the law.

In context, the law isn't just the ten commandments.

Hands up if you've heard of the Ten Commandments.

A few of you.

Great, that's really good.

Uh actually, there's lots of hands.

Um, but the law isn't just about the Ten Commandments, it's actually the first five books of our Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, what in Jewish tradition is called the Torah, uh, or in our tradition is called the law, the law of Moses, and these written-down uh commands for how to live.

But Paul's saying the law applies only while a person is living.

For example, when a woman marries, the law binds her to her husband as long as he's alive.

But if he dies, the laws of marriage no longer apply to her.

Make sense?

Yeah, so while her husband is alive, she'd be committing adultery if she married another man.

But if her husband dies, she's free from the law and does not commit adultery when she remarries.

So, dear brothers and sisters, this is the point.

I like this.

Paul, right to it.

You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ.

Many of you here made a decision to surrender your life to Jesus and to be obedient to the waters of baptism.

And in so doing, you died.

We use that language quite a bit.

We died to our old sin nature and were raised to a new life in Christ.

You died to the power of the law, and now you're united with the one who was raised from the dead, Jesus.

As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.

When we were controlled by our old nature before Christ, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.

This is complicated stuff, but bear with me.

But now we've been released from the law, for we died to it.

We're no longer captive to its power.

Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

And that's important.

Everybody say old way, new way.

New way is better.

Just in case you're wondering, new way is better.

Okay?

Goes on in verse 7.

Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful?

Of course not.

In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin.

I would have never known that coveting is wrong if the law hadn't said you shouldn't covet.

But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me.

If there were no law, sin wouldn't have that power.

At one time I lived without understanding, but when I learned the command not to covet, the power of sin came to my life and I died.

So I discovered that the law's commands, which were supposed to bring life, actually brought spiritual death.

Shoot.

In other words, everybody's kind of in this mixed bag of like, man, the law reveals like new ways for us to sin.

Like when we when we study the law, it's like, oh, I I shouldn't covet.

I didn't even know that.

Now now I'm coveting everything.

This is what Paul's saying.

It's like this dumpster fire of like, oh crap, now the law is revealing all these ways that I am not supposed to miss the mark, but now I'm getting mired and caught up in the garbage of missing the mark.

And this struggle with this old nature and this written law.

Now we can serve God, not in sorry, uh, where was I?

I discovered the law's commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought death.

Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me.

It used the commands to kill me, and that's what the law does.

It allows sin to deceive us and to destroy us from the inside out.

But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy, and its commands are right and good, but how can that be?

Did the law, which is good, cause my death?

No, of course not.

Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation.

So we can see how terrible sin really is.

It uses God's good commands for its own evil purposes.

And lastly, he goes on to say, so the trouble isn't with the law, for it is spiritual.

The law is good and spiritual.

The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

And this is Paul writing, like the Apostle Paul, like the I wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, Paul, like the planted more churches than anybody on planet earth, Paul.

Like this is Paul talking, and he says, the trouble's with me.

I'm all too human.

I'm a slave to sin.

I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what's right, but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate.

Anybody identify with that?

I'll wait.

Anyone identify with that?

I'm not the one doing wrong.

It's sin living in me.

And then this discourse.

I know that nothing good lives in me.

That is, nothing good lives in my old sinful nature.

I want to do what's right, but I can't.

I want to do what's good, but I don't.

I don't want to do what's wrong, but I do it anyways.

But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm not really the one doing it.

It's sin living in me.

And is anybody confused?

That's because that's what sin and the law does.

It confuses us.

But this is so true.

I've discovered this principle of life that when I want to do what's right, I inevitably do what's wrong.

I love God's law with all my heart, but there's this other power, another power within me that's at war with my mind.

And this power makes me a slave to the sin that's still within me.

Ugh, what a miserable person I am.

Some of you walked into the room today, and that's been the narrative of your heart.

What a miserable person I am.

Some of you stepped into this room today just like if there is a God, does he know me?

Does he see me?

Does he even does he love me?

Is what Jesus said about the Father, is it true?

Can I take Jesus at his word that God is good and that there's grace and there's redemption and there's mercy and there's forgiveness and there's new life?

I'm such a miserable person because I do the things I don't want to do and the things I want to do, I don't do, and I'm so stuck in this.

Like, how do I obey the commands of God?

And Paul's speaking right to our hearts and to our lives today.

What a miserable person I am.

Who will free me from this life that's dominated by sin and death?

Verse 25, thank God.

The answer is in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So you see how it is.

In my mind, I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature, I'm a slave to sin.

So that's Romans chapter 7, where we're gonna kind of hang out today.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

And I want to begin by asking you this question: what's the difference?

Or what's the impact between someone telling you what not to do versus someone modeling what to do?

Okay?

Think about that.

What's the difference between someone saying, hey, don't do these things, versus someone saying, hey, come with me, I'm gonna show you how to really live?

And maybe you're a parent in the room.

Is is that strategy helpful as a parent?

Stop that, don't do that, quit doing that, don't look at that, don't listen to that, don't watch that, don't say that.

Is that a helpful parenting strategy?

I'm looking for some feedback.

Some of you are like, I don't know.

If it's not, that's what I've been doing.

Okay, let's talk about that.

Okay, so I actually I don't do this very often, but I asked Google this week, what is the difference?

What's the difference or impact between someone saying don't do that versus someone modeling what to do?

And here's what Captain Internet said.

Telling someone what not to do can often be ineffective.

Some mom or dad is writing this down right now.

It's like, whoops.

Sometimes even leading to an increased desire for that behavior, right?

Don't watch that.

Now I really want to watch that.

Make sense?

While modeling positive actions provides a clear example and can be a powerful motivator for change.

Modeling behavior allows for what's called observational learning, where individuals learn by watching others and can inspire positive change through vicarious reinforcement.

This is actually, in short, what Paul is trying to accomplish through Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

That there's something written down that's like, don't do this.

And it was written down for a reason, and it was written down on purpose, for a purpose, and we're not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

But what if it's better that instead of something written down that's like, don't do this?

What if what if along comes an imperfect or a perfect, spotless, blameless template that says, look to me, watch me, stay in step with me.

I'm gonna help you with real living, with real life.

And that's the conversation.

See, God gave Moses the law, the Mosaic law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

Basically, it was God's most loving way of saying to his people, I love you, but don't do this.

Okay?

And then enters Jesus, a God incarnate, a God with skin on, offering up his life for the healing and the redemption of humankind.

And that's basically God's most loving way of saying to his people, do this.

Live your life in Christ.

Follow his example.

Anchor, stay tethered to him, stay, stay yoked to Jesus, stay attached to Jesus.

I know I said don't do this, but Jesus really unpacks what it means to live.

And Jesus says, in in following my example, Christ is like, be set free, follow my, follow my template, follow my example, be delivered, be forgiven, be made whole, be empowered with the Holy Spirit.

Live, like really live, reign in this life, which is what Paul's trying to accomplish through this part of the book of Romans.

What does it mean to reign as God's children in this life?

And so there's a big difference between someone saying, don't do these things, versus someone saying, follow me, stay in step with me, do what I do.

And Jesus in Matthew 5 said, don't misunderstand why I've come.

I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets.

No, I came to accomplish their purpose.

The fullness and accomplishment of the law is expressed in the person of Jesus Christ.

Not in your failure, not in your lack, not in your brokenness, but in Christ the law has been accomplished.

In verse 18, Matthew 5, Jesus says, I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God's law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.

Or as Eugene Peterson puts it, I'm not here to demolish, but to complete.

I'm gonna put it all together, put it all together in a vast panorama.

And this is Christ's heart for us as the church.

It's not that the law doesn't matter, it's that Jesus came to fulfill the law.

It just makes sense.

I can see it now.

I can hear some of you like, oh, I can see the difference.

It's better for us to have Christ in us leading and directing our steps in line with Jesus' ways, rather than an external source saying, don't do that, and slapping our hand every time we miss the mark.

When we choose to follow Christ as his disciples, it's essential, hear me, it is essential that we choose every day to allow the Holy Spirit of Christ, the Spirit whom we have received upon confession of our faith and being water baptized, dying to that old self, being raised to life, that every day we say yes to the Holy Spirit leading us with this loud, constant, resounding stay in step with the Lord, stay in step with your Savior, stay in step with King Jesus, keep Christ on the throne, keep looking at Jesus as your template.

Even as a father, when I think about my desire to like instruct and discipline and coach my children, when my kids miss the mark, which they do, we all do.

That was last week's message, if you missed it.

We all miss the mark.

We all fall short, we all sin.

But when they do, the conversation I want to have isn't like tiss it, tis, you shouldn't have done that thing.

The conversation is okay.

In the moment.

Right before you did the thing.

What did you hear?

What did you hear?

Well, there was this really loud voice that was like, do the inappropriate thing.

This is gonna be funny.

But there was also this quiet, still voice that was like, I love you.

Honor Christ.

And in the in the disciplinary coaching of raising kids, that's that's the most important thing.

Did you hear the small voice?

That's all I want to know.

Did you hear the voice of the father being like, hey kid, I love you.

You got it, you got a decision to make.

Where are you gonna land?

And even when we err, my my challenge is like, hey, next time, listen to that other voice.

Listen to that still, small, quiet voice of the Holy Spirit.

Stay in step with Jesus, stay close to the Father, live in responsive obedience to the way and the truth and the life of Christ.

And T.

Wright about Romans says, the law then appears to be a part of what's wrong.

It was given to Israel by God.

It reminds Israel constantly that it too is in Adam.

In other words, in sin.

It does not lift Israel out of the mess.

It simply informs Israel that it too is in the mess.

And we could say the same thing for us about the law.

It doesn't lift us out of the mess that we're in.

It just reminds us that our lives are a mess.

When we hold up our conduct and our lives against the Torah, against the Ten Commandments, against the law of Moses, we're like, oh, I'm terrible.

I do not have it all together.

Right?

It doesn't liberate us or set us free.

What that looks like in practice is gonna form the main body of the rest of chapter 7.

So in Romans 7, I'm gonna, verse 4, you died to the power of the law when you died to Christ.

What stands out is it's important that you die to Christ.

Whether you're on the fence, undecided, even if you've called yourself a Christian for a very long time, can I pastorally love you enough and challenge your heart today to simply say, are you daily dying to Christ?

Are you taking up your cross every day saying, I'm under, you're over, I'm submitted, I'm surrendered, your way, not mine, your thoughts, not mine, your truth, not mine.

Have you died to Christ?

Because when we die to Christ, we die to the power that the law has over us, and you're united with the one who's raised to life and who raises us to life in him.

Verse 6, now we've been released from the law, for we died to it.

We're no longer captive to its power.

Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit.

And so that's the first essential from Romans 7 that I want us to grasp.

There's an old way, and there's a new way to serve God.

The new way is better.

The new way is far better.

Obeying the letter of the law or old way is contrasted to living this wide open, expansive, and free life in the Holy Spirit.

A new way.

There's an old way, there's a new way.

And sometimes, I don't know about you, but I kind of feel stuck.

Like I feel like I've got one foot in the old way and one foot in the new.

And other days I'm like, no, no, I'm I'm I'm all new.

And other days I'm like, whoa, I'm feeling pretty old today.

And and but the the truth remains the same.

There is an old way, there is a new way, the new way's better.

Paul to the church in Galatians says, when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me.

And that theme's already come up.

When I try and keep the law, it just reminds me that I'm not good enough.

It condemns me because I can't do it.

So I died to the law.

I stopped trying to meet all of its requirements.

Why?

So that I might live for God.

There's a new way, live for God.

And when Nicole and I were dating, I worked for a year as a courier, uh, a delivery driver in Winnipeg for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

And I was a part of a dedicated fleet.

There were 12 drivers, and all we did was deliver stuff for the medical, like the health authority in the city of Winnipeg.

And so we were parked at Health Science Center, the big hospital, and we'd pick up packages and then deliver them.

We'd bring them out to another hospital or to a personal care home or to a lab or we'd pick up mail at an internal facility and deliver it.

But all we delivered was stuff for the hospital.

Make sense?

And um, and we had like three-hour calls, two-hour calls, one-hour calls, and stat calls.

Stat calls were my favorite because I felt like I was like in Mission Impossible.

I was like this mission that is like, I gotta get it there, stat.

And I, you know, so we'd speed, and uh, you know, I'm just I'm confessing sin publicly to the church today.

Um, I remember this one time I had a stat call, go to the Grace Hospital and pick up a package and deliver it to St.

Boniface Hospital.

And so the instructions were to go up to the fourth floor to the OR and wait outside.

And and a nurse, the gowned up mask, came out carrying this like styrofoam box, bio sealed box, and hands it to me.

And she says, I need you to get it there now.

And so I'm like running.

The car.

You know, I get in my car and then I'm driving.

I had this like uh manual dodge kneon.

It was a piece of crap.

And uh, but it was good on gas when you're driving all day.

And I remember like getting to the St.

Boniface Hospital stat and uh, you know, what would normally be like a 20-minute drive?

I think it took me 19 minutes, but uh you're underwhelmed.

But I remember running up to the OR and there was a nurse waiting, and she's like, Is that from the grace?

And I was like, I'm I'm your savior, I've rescued somebody.

I don't know if there was a kidney in there, I don't know what was in there, but I just remember like there was a stat call.

So in my interview for this job, I had to prove that I was capable of driving in the city of Winnipeg.

I'd only lived in Winnipeg for like a few years, and I had just bought this car.

So prior to that, like I lived on campus at my Bible college in the dorm, and then I rode my bicycle a little bit.

And other than that, I hadn't driven, I didn't have experience driving in Winnipeg.

But the test to become a courier driver was like if you're driving from Seven Oaks Hospital to this personal care home way out in Niverville, Manitoba, what's the quickest route?

I don't know.

Question two.

From Health Sciences Center to the personal care home in North Kildonan, what's the best route?

I don't know.

Because I didn't, I didn't have a clue.

I had no clue.

I had no working knowledge of Winnipeg's road systems.

And and if you've ever been to Winnipeg, they have the worst system.

Like they're, I won't get into that.

But um, and so I I somehow I and every single question I was like, don't have a clue, don't not competent, don't know, don't have the answer.

I had to I had to invent new ways to say I'm an idiot.

And and it's just like answer after answer.

And and so in the in the in-person interview, they're like, hey, you failed miserably.

The uh the the the navigation portion of this process, you don't have a clue.

I'm like, I don't, I don't have a hot clue.

I uh but I do have a map.

And I'm willing to learn it.

I'm willing to take this map of Winnipeg and commit it to my heart.

And uh what I had at the time was actually like a map book, which is way better, which way cooler than a map.

Paper maps, um for some of you are like, what is he holding?

This is called a map.

Um it's it's um it's Google, but on paper.

And it's actually where Google got the idea for Google Maps.

It came from these things that are called maps.

But this is a map of the city of Winnipeg, and so I can see on here, I could point out that's Health Sciences Center, that's St.

Boniface Hospital, and there's some yellow roads and some pink roads and some blue roads, and and in my MacBook, I was like, oh, if I do that, but but man, man, I'm just like, I'm driving, Dodge Neon, my knees on the steering wheel, hands on the shifter, foot on the clutch.

Like, I think I'm thinking you know, it's just awful.

It's cumbersome, it's hard work.

I at this point I need glasses.

Can you hold that for me?

But but the map served the purpose of helping me know which way to go.

You know what would have been easier if I could have just hired somebody who grew up in Winnipeg and had driven there for years to ride shotgun.

Be like, hey man, stat call to St.

Boniface Hospital.

He's like, oh, I know how to get there.

Just listen to my voice.

I'll lead you.

Do you get it?

It's not that the map is wrong, it's just the map reminds me of everything I don't know.

And the map postures my heart to feel I'm insignificant and I wish I knew more, and and I wish I found a better way.

And so maybe I just need to like discard the map and actually invite that person to ride.

Better yet, I'll I'll just sit in the passenger seat and let you drive.

Like I'll run in and get the parcels, but but Jesus take the wheel.

That's exclusive second service content, by the way.

I didn't I didn't sing that in first service.

NT Wright about Romans 7 says, living in the old Ademic solidarity, like in solidarity with Adam, and within that in Israel under the law, means living the old life under the letter of the law.

Living the new life in solidarity with the Messiah, with Jesus, means leaving behind every aspect of life in Adam and being energized in a new way by God's Spirit.

Paul's hardly mentioned the Spirit up to now.

But by the end of this present argument in Romans 7, he's gonna be ready to write one of the greatest ever accounts of the Spirit's work in our life.

Perhaps the deepest reason for Paul writing Romans 7 is that since God does through the Spirit what the law could not do, it is vital that we see exactly what the law was trying to do and why it was bound to fail.

That's why Jesus said the law still matters because I came.

I came to fulfill it.

It was bound to fail.

The present chapter, though very difficult, is essential if we're gonna grasp the depth of the human problem and hence the wonder of God's solution to it.

God saw humanity's problem from the garden right up till Christ.

And there was always a plan, and the law was part of it.

But we died and were buried with Christ by baptism, and just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

There's an old way, there's a new way, the new way's better.

Second Corinthians 3, Jesus has enabled us to be ministers of a new covenant.

This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the spirit.

The old written covenant ends in death, but under the new covenant, the spirit gives life.

So it's essential for us as followers of Christ to know this.

There's an old way, there's a new way.

Ha, the new way's better.

Right?

Don't get locked in behind the map.

Invite the one who knows all the directions to take the wheel, and you ride shotgun.

That's the analogy.

Track with me.

Essential truth number two, Romans 7.

The law was holy for a sinful people, but Jesus is holy for a holy people.

And that's good news.

The law, in and of itself, the Bible calls it holy.

Its commands are holy, its commands are right and good.

The law exposes our hearts and all of the sin within us.

It shows us where we miss the mark, where we fall short.

But the law cannot make us holy.

At one time, Paul says, I lived without understanding the law, but when I learned the command not to covet, sin came to my life.

Verse 12, but still the law itself is holy and its commands are holy and right and good.

But how can that be?

Right?

Because it's like in itself exposing where I missed the mark and actually causing me to sin and all these new ways that I didn't even know were wrong before God, and I'm like, ah, I didn't even know that one, and there and there I go.

But but but the law can't make you holy.

Even if you checked all the boxes, all the law can redo is reveal how unholy we really are.

The law actually instigates and arouses sin within us, new ways to sin, new ways to covet.

Because I didn't even know I wasn't supposed to covet, but now that I know, the law is like, follow me to the letter, and maybe you'll achieve maximum holiness.

Except that's impossible.

No one did it, no one could do it, no one can do it, but Jesus.

Oh, thank God.

But Jesus.

And Jesus isn't after your conduct, church.

It's not that your conduct doesn't matter, but the Holy Spirit acknowledges if we get our inside heart right, the conduct follows.

Right behavior will never fix a corrupt heart.

But uh but a repentant, humble, contrite, clean hands, pure heart, heart will overflow into how we live.

Jesus isn't after your conduct, he's after your heart.

That's what matters.

In Matthew 5, in many examples from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is like, you've heard the law that says love your neighbor, hate your enemy.

But guess what?

Jesus is like, I say, love your enemies.

Why?

Because your heart matters.

You can't have hatred in your heart if you're gonna follow Jesus.

Pray for those that persecute you.

But that's hard, Lord.

I know.

Come on, let me drive.

We got this.

I'm in the driver's seat.

I know the way.

I know I know how to love those that persecute me.

Remember hanging on the cross, forgive them.

They know I know the way.

Jesus is like, follow me.

And in that way of following Christ and obeying Jesus and how we pay attention to our hearts, we're acting like true children of the Father in heaven.

I like this example from Warren Wearsby about Romans 7.

He's talking about the rich young ruler in Mark chapter 10.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

It's a good example of the use of the law to reveal sin and show a man his need for a savior.

So there's this young man who's very moral outwardly.

He'd never faced the sins within, however.

And Jesus didn't tell him about the law because the law would save him.

He told him about the law because the young man didn't realize his own sinfulness.

He was too focused on his conduct and wasn't paying attention to his heart.

True, he'd never committed adultery, he'd never robbed anybody, had never given false witness, never dishonored his parents.

But what about covetousness?

When Jesus said, Hey, sell all your goods, give it to the poor, the man went away in great sorrow.

Why?

Because Jesus exposed his heart.

And the sin in his heart connected to thou shalt not covet revealed to him what a sinner he really was.

Instead of admitting his sin, however, he rejected Christ and went away unconverted.

And so your conduct, it matters to the Lord, but here's what matters more your heart.

How's your heart?

Is it soft to the Lord?

Is it soft to the Holy Spirit's nudge and coaching and correction?

When you're in a compromised situation with your boyfriend or girlfriend and your heart's like, I'm feeling the Father's love, but the weight of what I'm tempted to do, I'm gonna listen to my dad because he sees what I can't see.

When you're in in moments of temptation and the dynamic of sin rears its ugly head, what matters is the voice that you listen to and trusting God with the outcome.

The transformation of your entire life, starting on the inside and working its way out, this is why Christ sacrificed his life.

Not to just modify behavior, not just to fix sinful behavior or to conform you to the letter of the law, but for that sin nature to be made holy, to be made set apart, bit by bit, transformed into his image.

That's why we named our church Evolve.

Let's develop gradually over time.

Let's listen on repeat to the voice of the Holy Spirit so much that in our long obedience, in our surrender to Christ, we find ourselves fashioned and transformed into the image of his own dear son.

Hebrews 10 says, Jesus cancels the first covenant in order to put a second into effect.

For God's will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of Christ Jesus once for all time.

The law could never make you holy, but a holy God sent a holy son to pay a holy, redemptive, sacrificial price that you could never afford, and in so doing calls you holy.

First Corinthians 1, God's united us with Christ Jesus.

For our benefit, God made Christ to be wisdom.

And Christ made us right with God.

He made us pure and holy, freed us from sin.

So the law that's holy and good doesn't have the power to transform sinful people.

But a holy God, through his holy son, Christ Jesus, is holy for you to be holy.

And it is essential that you know that when you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror, that you don't see your brokenness or your shame or your sin or your lack, but that you see Christ in you, the hope of glory.

And you say, Because of Jesus, I'm set apart.

It's essential.

And the third, the dynamic for sin is still there, but good news, the desire for sin is dead and gone.

Somebody needs to know why I have still been tempted?

Why is the dynamic of sin still rearing its ugly head?

Because it always will.

The dynamic of sin will always rear its ugly head.

The day you're perfect is the day you're dead.

Until then, the dynamic of sin will exist in your life.

But because of Christ Jesus, the desire for sin is dead.

The power of sin is dead.

It's gone.

Romans 7.

And here's this like epic, iconic discourse that we all identify closely with.

I know that nothing good lives in me.

That is in my sinful nature.

I want to do what's right, but I can't.

I want to do what's good, but I don't.

I don't want to do what's wrong, but I do it anyway.

But if I do what I don't want to do, I'm I'm not really the one doing it.

It's the sin nature still at work in me.

I've discovered this principle that when I want to do what's right, I inevitably do what's wrong.

The dynamic for sin is still there.

But the desire for sin is dead.

I love I love this discourse from Warren Wersby.

After his defeating experience with the law, because that isn't that what Paul's like angsty, like I don't, I want to do what's good, but I don't do what's good, and I want to do what's right, and when I want to, I don't have us walked in feeling that way today.

Warren's like, after this defeating experience with the law, Paul concludes that there's two principles or two laws that operate in the life of the believer: the law of sin and death, and the law of the spirit of life in Christ.

Paul's dealing then with the presence of two natures in the child of God.

You die to sin, you're raised to Christ.

But it's not like that old nature just like poof disappears.

How many of you wish that old nature just like poof disappeared?

Me and six people.

Rest of you either need some work or you're perfect and I just don't know about it.

All right, two natures.

Salvation does not mean that God changes the old nature or cleanses it or reforms it.

The believer's old nature is just as wicked and opposed to the spirit today as the day you got saved.

Salvation means that God gives the believer a new nature and crucifies the old one.

So it doesn't disappear.

It's not cleansed or reformed.

It just has to die.

And it has to die today, and it's gonna have to die again tomorrow.

Take up your cross daily and follow Jesus.

See, the Christian still has the ability to sin, but he now has an appetite for holiness.

And I just know when I when I do the work of staying close to my savior, I just sense my appetite for holiness increasing.

When I invite him today to, I know it's corny, but take the wheel.

I wish I thought of that first service.

When I invite him, like, hey, you you drive, I submit my appetite for holiness.

But if I miss the mark, and inevitably I'm gonna miss the mark because that old nature is still there.

If I get mired down by the weight of the law, exposing where I miss the mark, and then then I allow the the enemy's lies and condemnation and deceit to cripple my heart, and then I believe because of the things I've done, a holy God could never love me.

And I fall out of relationship with my father who's like, I just want you to come sit at my feet, I want you to see what I can see and hear what I know and do what I do.

The Christian still has the ability to sin, but he now has an appetite for holiness.

The dynamic for sin is still there, but not the desire.

And that's why Paul can say, What a miserable person I am, who will free me from this life dominated by sin and death.

It's in Christ Jesus.

Only in Christ Jesus can we be set free from the power of sin.

I want to close with this last quote from N.T.

Wright, because I think it's beautiful and it sets us up for part five as we step into chapter eight, which is all about the Holy Spirit.

Don't miss July 6th.

In particular, it insists that when God gave the Torah, it wasn't a kind of like first attempt at teaching human beings principles of morality, as though people needed a few ground rules to get them going.

Okay, eventually kind of being topped up with the Sermon on the Mount, which is our next series.

God's intention was far, far more subtle than that in giving the law.

The problem of evil, the real problem underneath questions both of salvation and of ethics, is far more radical than such an account would imply.

When God gave the Torah, his intention was to further the purposes for which he called Israel.

God revealed the law so that his people would know there's purpose for them.

And these purposes weren't simply about teaching the world a better standard of right from wrong, but rescuing the world from sin and death.

God's plan all along with the law was my people are far from me.

I want to rescue them, I want to bring them back into relationship with me to redeem, to reconcile, to restore my covenant people.

That's why the law existed.

And to accomplish this aim, God sent not just his Torah, but also His Son and His Spirit to do at last what the Torah wanted to, but by itself could not.

At which point we turn over the page.

Ready at last for one of the greatest chapters written by Paul, Romans chapter 8, or any other Christian writer, says Bishop Tom.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

The answer doesn't lie with us getting it all right all the time and measuring up to the list.

The answer lies with how we choose to stay anchored and established in Christ, in the person of Christ Jesus, in the truth that the same spirit that that pulled Christ out of the grave has made himself at home in you.

And as such, how will we live in responsive obedience to the power of the Spirit?

The whisper, still small voice of a father who loves you infinitely more than you could ever ask or imagine.

As we close, I want to invite our prayer team to come forward to the front.

And would you stand to your feet in quiet response?

These three essentials, there's an old way, there's a new way.

To the church in Edmonton, I want you to know and hear clearly as a part of your discipleship to Jesus, the new way is better.

Walk in the new way, walk in the spirit, walk in the new covenant.

The rules, the law doesn't have the power to make a people holy, but a holy God sending his holy son calls you holy.

And you need to know that.

It's only your your rooted, established, tethered, easy yoke, connect, whatever picture helps you, a branch attached to the vine.

There's so many beautiful pictures in the Bible about abiding in Christ.

However you abide, abide well.

And allow your being in Christ to infuse you with confidence and purpose for how you live in Christ.

And the other essential is like the dynamic for sin is still present.

Last time I checked, you and I are not perfect.

But here's the good news: the desire for sin is dead and buried.

Sin has no hold on you.

The chains are broken.

You're not in bondage, you're not a slave to sin anymore, you're a slave to Christ Jesus.

As a daughter, as a son, come under his love today.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit Evolvechurch.com.

We hope to see you soon.