Let the Shepherd Lead

Originally Preached: July 1, 2018

Intro:

• The events of Thursday have proven once again that some have chosen to take the liberties we have and utilize them as a license to do evil.
  • The shooting at the newspaper in Annapolis, MD no matter what the provocation, has no place in a free society.
    • The paper dropped 13 harassment complaints against Jared Ramos.
    • Ramos had a longstanding feud with the paper after they published a story describing his harassment of a high school classmate.
    • He sued the paper and posted inflammatory remarks about the paper, all within the bounds of the law.
    • Last year he purchased legally a 12 gauge shot gun.
    • On Thursday he took the lives of five people as he used his liberties as a license to do evil.
• We have the freedom in America to speak our minds without fear of reprisals whether we are a newspaper or an individual.
  • Any time that freedom is attacked our freedom has been attacked.
  • An attack on free speech is forcibly silencing a viewpoint.
    • This can be done by such heinous acts as we saw on Thursday.
    • It can also be accomplished by the force of a government, like the cases that were recently heard by the Supreme Court. A baker and florist were forced by local statutes to either agree to participate in same sex weddings, pay crippling fines, or no longer participate in any weddings.
  • Let’s be clear an attack on free speech is not someone saying that a viewpoint is wrong.
    • Nor is an attack attempting to persuade someone that your viewpoint is right.
    • We do not attack free speech when we insist that only folks who choose to live as followers of Jesus Christ can be active members of this church. Others may freely believe and live according to other viewpoints, and not be a part of our Christian association.
    • This is the essence of free speech and tolerance.
• When anyone utilizes our liberties to attack others, they have chosen to return to the bondage of a tyrannical state.

Hook:

• John Adams wrote on June 21, 1776
  • “Statesmen, my dear Sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand.
  • The only foundation of a free Constitution is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People in greater Measure, than they have it now, they may change their Rulers and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty.”
• Our founders foresaw the type of events we witnessed this week.
  • They knew that the human hearts are inherently broken by sin and suffering. They knew that people would choose to do evil and wicked things. And they knew that such wickedness could happen not only to the populace but to those elites who have power as well.
  • Our system of government was established so that no one person had too much power, that our Constitution would reign supreme to protect our liberties, and that people would have ample opportunity to hear differing viewpoints that might temper their baser instincts.
• And Adams was especially right when he advocated not merely for a new government or better leaders, but for a revived people! A people brought to life by the Holy Spirit of our God is a people that will obtain a lasting liberty.
• My task today is to show you from the Scripture how Paul first laid out these truths in Romans eight.

Message Points:

• So take a look with me at verse 9. The NIV seeks to make plain in the first part of this verse a nuance of the original language.
  • Notice with me how it says that we are not “in the realm of the flesh” but “in the realm of the Spirit.”
  • This is a prepositional phrase in the original language, lacking the Greek word for realm.
  • But prepositional phrases always direct the action of the verb or have a force or direction. We often recognize this intuitively
    • Think of the sentence “throw the ball TO ME”. The prepositional phrase “TO ME” tells you the direction to throw the ball.
    • Thus in this passage, the prepositional phrase directs us as to where we now exist.
    • It’s force is to connect our lives to the Spirit’s authority.
    • The NIV does this by telling us that we are “in the realm of”, or under the authority of the Spirit.
• This is our very 1st Point: Lasting liberty is possible when we are not bound to changing authorities. (8:9a)
  • Just last week we had the primary runoff in our state. While every opportunity to vote is important, there is no primary or election that will ever take place that will give to us an eternal ruler.
    • Even if we claim to in charge of ourselves, there is not a one of us who does not change over time.
    • So long as we look to temporary rulers or passions as our authorities in life, then we will inevitably have a temporary liberty.
    • That is what Paul means when he says that we are not “in the realm of the flesh”. The realm of the flesh is temporary, changing, and eventually result in death.
    • If that realm is in charge of our lives, then we are inevitably and hopelessly headed towards death.
    • If you are not a believer in the room today, the idea that your life is existing under the authority of a temporary, flawed ruler should concern you.
    • The temporary, malleable, and limited form of this existence as Benjamin Franklin said leaves only two things as certain – death and taxes.
    • Even you believe that you rule your life, friend, none of us will live forever.
  • This is the reason Paul places such an emphasis in verse 9 on each of us making sure that the Spirit of God lives in us.
    • Christians call this belief the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Once the Spirit indwells us or takes up residence in our lives, he becomes the ruler of our hearts, the authority in our lives.
    • 1st John provides those of us who believe a test to see if we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us.
      • 1st John 4:2 & 6 provide two questions.
        • First, from verse two, do we acknowledge that Jesus Christ came in the flesh and by extension that he really died and was genuinely risen again with authority to rule as our Savior and Lord?
        • Second, from verse six, do we listen to the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, written by the apostles and prophets, as we would the authoritative commands of a ruler?
      • The Holy Spirit of God as this part of nine points out is just as much a part of the Trinity as the other persons. He agrees with the purpose and work of the Father. He points to the saving work of the Son of God. And He communicates to humanity not only the letter but the spirit of God’s Word.
    • One can only say yes to these two questions if the Holy Spirit indwells him or her. And notice that both of these questions deal with the authority of Christ and His Word.
      • Paul is telling us that there is true and lasting freedom “in the realm of the Spirit” because we know with certainty that He will not change the rules on us.
      • Harry Reeder a Presbyterian pastor helps us to understand authority when he says.
        • Imagine you have been given use of a vacation home built on the side of a cliff some thirty feet away.
        • You have small children and whenever you let them play outside in the backyard you do not let them           get more than a few feet from the house or from you for fear that they might fall off the cliff. You are bound by that fear and the limitations of the terrain.
        • But imagine the owner chooses to fence in the entire backyard of the property. Now as you let the small children out to play, they can have the freedom to go right up to the fence and play. They have the freedom because of the boundaries.
    • As believers, we are convinced that there is no greater freedom than the freedom afforded us by the Holy Spirit of God.
      • That does not mean that the Spirit does not have boundaries for us.
      • Every authority has boundaries.
      • We simply know that the Spirit’s boundaries
        • Are eternal, because the Spirit is eternal.
        • Are immutable, because God does not change.
        • Are for our good, because every good and perfect gift comes from God.
  • Obtaining a lasting liberty is only possible when we surrender to the ultimate authority of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• The second portion of verse nine conditional statement that is continued in verse ten.
  • Verse nine begins by saying “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ” and finishes by saying then “they do not belong to Christ”.
  • Notice the change in the designation of the Spirit. In the last part of verse nine Paul says uses the phrase the Spirit of Christ, not his earlier phrase the Spirit of God.
  • He has intentionally chosen to be more specific in order to relate to us the impact of Christ’s redeeming work to our lives.
  • The phrase belonging to Christ identifies us as being subjects to Christ.
    • The Founders of our nation understood that their identity as British subjects was second to their identity as subjects accountable to their Creator.
      • This is why our Declaration of Independence begins with the famous phrase, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”
      • Notice how government is instituted to secure the unalienable rights given by God.
    • Further, our American Declaration of Independence concludes with the words,
      • We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
      • Notice again how the founders saw their identity as subjects of God as more fundamental than as subjects to the British Crown. They appealed to the Supreme Judge and affirmed their reliance upon Divine Providence in the midst of their separation from earthly powers.
    • While I am not certain about all of our founders’ spiritual condition, I see even in our founding document, the signing of which we will celebrate on Wednesday, the recognition that as people we have a higher identity than merely subjects of a government or other people.
• This leads us to consider our 2nd point: Lasting liberty is possible when we are not chained to lifeless identities. (8:9b-10)
  • Identity is defined by a psychologist Weinreich as “A person’s identity is defined as the totality of one’s self-construal, in which how one construes oneself in the present expresses the continuity between how one construes oneself as one was in the past and how one construes oneself as one aspires to be in the future.”
    • Essentially what we need to take away from that is that identity is self-construal or self-image, self-esteem, etc.
    • Further notice that the definition talks about how there is continuity between past, present, and future; to the extent that change is overwhelmingly difficult and burdensome.
    • The conception of identity as it is defined here is lifeless, essentially dismissing the potential for real change, and a new direction.
    • Further this conception of identity is oppressive and binding because it demands that we live by the phrase “once a _, always a _”.
    • When you hear someone say they were born that way, do not hear that as a celebration of freedom friends. It is an admission of bondage to a worldview that cannot change or tolerate a new way of life.
  • But look at what the apostle Paul says in verse 10.
    • When Christ is in us, by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit there is a definitive change.
    • Though our physical bodies and flesh will die, and we may experience all kinds of suffering in this sinful world; the Spirit of God gives us life – even in this moment.
    • And also note that the last part of verse ten tells us that the Spirit of God gives us life “because of righteousness”.
    • There friends, is the change for those of us who are believers.
      • We believe that our old, sinful and broken ways of life were put upon the cross of Christ. They died there with Christ. This is called imputation. But the story does not end there. We also believe that Christ put into us His righteousness.
      • We may have been tied to the lifeless, binding identities of our past, but not anymore because Christ gives to us His identity of righteousness.
      • We certainly should be aware of the effects of our identity upon our human condition, but our new identity in Christ affirms that we do not have to be controlled by any identity but that of Christ.
      • If we have been given the identity of Christ and His righteousness, we have the freedom to live to please God the Father just as Jesus did as the Son of God.
    • Ronald Reagan said on January 25, 1984 – “America was founded by people who believed that God was their rock of safety. I recognize that we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it’s all right to keep asking if we’re on his side.
      • We are not saying friends that God is on our side, affirming and baptizing our lifeless identities.
      • No, we are saying that forevermore we are on Christ’s side, asking at every crossroads not what is most important to us, but what is most important to Him.
  • To obtain a lasting liberty we must receive Christ’s righteous identity as the Son of God.
• This leads us naturally to extend our understanding of liberty to its ultimate conclusion, we are most free when we live the most like Christ.
• Read with me verse eleven again.
  • Notice that we read that it was the Holy Spirit who raised Christ up from the dead.
  • Since he now lives in us, we can be sure that he will also give life or raise up our mortal bodies.
• This is our 3rd point: We obtain a lasting liberty when we are not afraid to expel all of our energies (8:11).
  • If death did not bind Jesus Christ because of the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit, then death cannot bind those in whom the Spirit now dwells.
  • Thus we can give our lives and bodies fully and freely, with no fear to the great task of pleasing God in Christ Jesus.
  • And of this we can be sure, death, the greatest of all oppressors will have no hold over us.
  • This is why the early Christians went willingly into situations where persecution and death were likely.
  • This is why just a few weeks ago we saw missionaries commissioned to go to the ends of the earth where they might give their lives for the gospel.
  • This is why even here today we are not satisfied to see anyone one of you be bound to any human authority, even yourself.
  • There is only one way that you can live a life of lasting liberty and that is to obtain for yourself a new relationship with Jesus Christ.

Conclusion:

• Today choose the freedom that there is in Christ alone.