SERMON  NOTES
COMPARING  SUFFERING  AND  GLORY
(Romans  8:18)

- Andy  and  Jennifer  Gill  wrote  Love  Oliver,  which  tells  of  their  son,  Oliver,  who  lived  for  five  months  in  2010  after  being  born  with  cancer.

1.  Sufferings  cannot  be  compared  to  glory.

- 8:18  and  2 Cor. 4:17

- more  to  come  in  2 Cor.5:4;  Rev.6:9-11,  leading  to  Rev.21:1-5

- ‘reckon’  or  ‘consider’  is  an  accounting  word  (used  in  Rom.3:28; 6:11)

2.  Earthly  sufferings  are  temporary;  heavenly  glory  is  forever.

-  suffering  for  38  years  is  a  long  time  (John 5:5-6),  but  not  in  the  light  of  eternity  (Ps.39:5;  103:15-17;  James 4:14)

- like  childbirth  in  John 16:21  or  Jacob’s  working  for  Rachel  (Gen.29:20)

- note  Luke 6:22-23

3.  Earthly  sufferings  are  light;  heavenly  glory  has  an  eternal  weight.

-  Paul  is  not  making  light  of  suffering  (see  2 Cor.11:23-28)

-  Christ’s  perspective  in  Heb.12:2

SERMON  NOTES
PAUL  TO  THE  JEWS
Acts 13:13-25,  26-43

- Paul  preaches  here  to  a  synagogue  of  Jews  and  God-fearers  (Gentiles  who  worshipped  the  God  of  Israel,  but  the  men  were  not  circumcised).

1.  Identify  with  your  audience  as  much  as  you  can.

-  Antioch  is  in  Phrygia  and  faced  Pisidia;  it  is  not  the  Antioch  of  Syria,  which  was  much  larger

- 13:16-17;  Paul  refers  to  ‘men  of  Israel  and  those  who  worship  God’;  he  identifies  himself  as  a  Jew,  as  in  vv.  26, 38

2.  The  Old  Testament  is  the  preparation  for  something  far  greater.

- 13:17-21;  he  traces  the  history  of  Israel  from  the  time  of  bondage  in  Egypt  to  the  conquest  to  the  Judges  to  the  first  king,  Saul

- God  is  working  through  history

3.  The  line  of  David  culminates  in  the  Saviour,  Jesus.

- 13:22-25;  he  refers  to  1 Samuel 13:14;  Psalm 89:20-21

- John  is  not  the  Christ  (John 1:19-20);  Jesus  is  descended  from  David  (Matt.22:41-42;  9:27);  the  Saviour-king  of  the  line  of  David  has  come.

SERMON  NOTES
CHILDREN  AND  HEIRS
(Romans  8:17)

1.  If  we  are   children,  we  are  heirs  of  God.

- not  all  children  need  be  heirs  but  all  Christians  are  heirs

- Eph.1:11;  1 Pet.1:3-4;  there  are  probably  different  degrees  of  glory

2.  We  become  fellow  heirs  with  Christ.

-  John 17:22-24;  Luke 22:29-30;  Rev.3:21;  21:7

3.  We  are  to  suffer  with  Christ.

-  Calvin:  ‘he  does  not  argue  about  the  source  of  our  salvation,  but  the  manner  in  which  God  governs  His  people.’

-  blessing  in  the  Old  Testament  (e.g.  Deut.28:1-3),  but  more  suffering  in  the  New  (e.g.  Mark 4:16-17;  1 Pet.4:12-13;  Acts 14:22)

-  Lloyd-Jones  cites  ‘All  Christ’s  sheep  are  branded  with  a  cross’.

-  Phil.1:29;  3:10

4.  Suffering  with  Christ  leads  to  glory  with  Christ.

-  Suffering  helps  to  prepare  us  for  the  transformation  in  our  persons  and  our  bodies  (1 John 3:2;  Phgil.3:20-21).

SERMON  NOTES
THE  FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES
Leviticus  23:33-44;  John 7:25-44

- Leviticus  23  sets  out  the  weekly  Sabbath  plus  seven  annual  festivals,  which  are  to  be  seen  as  shadows  of  Christ  (Col.2:16-17)

1.  This  is  a  time  for  rejoicing.

- 23:33-41;  the  trees  and  fruit  were  beautiful  or  splendid

- 23:40-41  -  joy;  see  Neh.8:13-18

2.  This  is  a  time  of  pilgrimage.

- 23:42-43;  not  totally  unlike  camping

- 1 Peter 2:11;  Heb.11:13-16

- like  Bunyan’s  pilgrim

3.  This  is  a  time  to  remember  God’s  act  of  redemption.

- 23:43-44;  the  danger  is  foreseen  in  Deut.8:10-18

- a  greater  feast  of  tabernacles  is  prophesied  in  Zech.14:16,  which  will  include  some  of  Israel’s  enemies.

- Jesus’  call  during  the  feast  of  tabernacles  (John 7:2, 37-39)

How, then, do we do anything humbly? How do I write an incisive and perceptive article on humility? How do you respond to it without ruining the concept? It really is a slippery eel. We can more easily seek to achieve love, kindness, or faithfulness in our lives than humility. It seems that the more we are aware of it, the less we possess it. Paul took pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man (Acts 24:16). No doubt the most difficult part of that self-examination came when he contemplated whether he was walking humbly before God and man. An affirmative and a negative answer both have their problems.

One way into the subject is to contemplate the things in which we can boast. Paul declared: ‘Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world’ (Gal.6:14). To boast in a horrible drawn-out death on a place of execution is, by the world’s standards, lunacy of the first order. Not so to the Christian who sees why we are told: ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’ (1 Cor. 1:31). This is because, as Cecil F. Alexander says:

There was no other good enough

To pay the price of sin.

That is why Isaac Watts could write:

Jesus, my Lord! I know His Name,

His Name is all my boast.

Boasting in ourselves is painful; boasting in Christ makes sense.

Hence Paul’s boast was that he freely preached the free gospel of grace (1 Cor.9:15-16). He saw this as entirely appropriate, and could imagine working no other way. All the world’s standards are turned upside down. Since God works through the meek and lowly, Paul could write: ‘I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me’ (2 Cor.12:9). Normally, we strive to be as strong and as healthy as possible, but Christ uses afflictions to achieve our sanctification. That, then, is the ground for boasting not in human strength nor even particularly in human weakness as such, but in human weakness resting on Christ.

We are often told, rightly I believe, that males especially identify with their work while females are more focused on relationships. Paul seems to combine both approaches when he says that in making Christ known, his boast was not in his achievements but in the people whom the Lord had saved (1 Thess.2:19). Summing up, we see that Paul certainly boasted as no one else has boasted – of the cross; of the Lord Jesus; of preaching for free; of his weaknesses; and of sinners who had been saved.

The secret to a Christian’s boasting is thus to be found in faith, as Calvin describes it: ‘We are in Christ, because we are out of ourselves.’ As he was so often, C. S. Lewis is particularly helpful here. He says of the truly humble human being: ‘He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.’ That is the mystery of humble boasting.

- Peter Barnes

SERMON  NOTES
THE  SPIRIT  OF  ADOPTION
(Romans  8:15-16)

- Martyn  Lloyd-Jones  spends  over  200  pages  on  these  two  verses!

1.  We  have  not  received  a  spirit  of  bondage.

- 8:15;  Lloyd-Jones,  Derek  Thomas,  and  Origen  see  it  as  the  Spirit  of  bondage  who  convicts  of  sin  e.g.  Acts 2:37;  16:29

- But  it  is  probably  the  spirit  of  bondage  in  Judaism  and  in  paganism  (see  Gal.4:1-7, 8-11)

2.  We  have  received  the  Spirit  of  adoption.

-  8:15;  note  Jesus’  use  of  ‘Abba’  in  Mark 14:36

-  adoption  is  now  (Rom.8:15)  and  fulfilled  in  the  second  coming  (Rom.8:23)

3.  The  Spirit  assures  our  spirits  of  our  adoption.

-  8:16;  three  ways  of  assurance  -  by  believing  the  promises  (e.g. Heb.6:19-20);  testing  the  graces  (e.g. 1 John 2:3; 3:14);  and  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  (Rom.8:16).

-  Richard  Sibbes  that  it  is  like  a  kiss

-  Lloyd-Jones  says  that  it  comes  after  conversion  but  all  Christians  must  experience  it  to  some  extent.

SERMON  NOTES
DEBTORS  TO  THE  SPIRIT
(Romans  8:12-14)

-  John  Owen  preached  a  series  at Oxford University  on  Romans 8:13

1.  We  are  not  debtors  to  the  flesh.

- 8:12;  the  ‘therefore’  looks  back  to  8:5-11.

- Gal.6:8

2.  By  the  Spirit,  we  are  to  be  putting  sin  to  death.

-  8:12-13;  it  is  an  unfinished  sentence,  as  Paul  clearly  meant  to  go  on  to  say  that  we  are  debtors  to  the  Spirit.

-  Col.3:5, 9

-  we  do  not  ‘hand  it  over  to  the  Lord’  or  ‘let  go  and  let  God’,  but  ‘act’  or  ‘keep  on  doing’;  John  Owen:  ‘Be  killing  sin  or  it  will  be  killing  you.’

-  this  requires  work  and  effort

3.  By  the  Spirit,  we  are  God’s  children.

-  8:14;  he  is  not  writing  of  guidance  but  governance

-  Gal.4:6;  5:25.

SERMON  NOTES
THE  YEAR  OF  JUBILEE
Leviticus  25:1-34

- The  Year  of  Jubilee  is  not  a  feast  listed  in  Leviticus 23,  but  it  began  on  the  evening  of  the  Day  of  Atonement  (Lev.25:7-8).  Every  7th  year  and  every  50th  year  there  was  a  cancellation  of  debts  and  release  of  slaves.  Some  exceptions  re.  a  house  in  a  walled  city  (25:29-30),  houses  of  Levites  (25:32-34),  and  Gentile  slaves  (25:44-46).

1.  We  are  to  care  for  the  environment  and  the  oppressed.

- 25:1-7  -  fallow  land  every  seven  years,  and  every  Jubilee  (25:20-22).  This  reduces  the  sodium  level  in  the  soil.

- those  in  debt  received  their  property  back  (25:10-17),  and  slaves  were  redeemed  (25:39-42).

2.  We  are  to  trust  in  God’s  care.

- He  speaks  (v.1);  He  is  to  be  feared  (vv.17, 36, 43);  He  provides  what  Israel  needs  (v.21);  He  owns  everything  (v.23);  He  rules  (v.55);  He  redeems  (v.55);  and  He  is  Israel’s  God  (vv.17, 55).

- we  can  only  be  good  because  of  trust  in  God.  Israel  failed  to  keep  the  sabbatical  and  Jubilee  years  (2 Chron.36:20-21).

3.  Christ  ushers  in  the  true  Year  of  Jubilee.

- Luke 4:18-19, 21;  see  2 Cor.8:5, 9  for  it  affects  us.

SERMON  NOTES
THE  SPIRIT  GIVES  LIFE
(Romans  8:9-11)

-  the  Spirit  in  the  Christian

1.  The  Spirit  makes  a  person  a  Christian.

- 8:9-11;  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ;  to  have  Christ  is  to  have  the  Spirit  (see  Eph.3:16-17)

- John 14:17, 23;  John  Chrysostom:  ‘Wherever  one  person  of  the  Trinity  is  present,  the  whole  Trinity  is  present  too.’

2.  The  Spirit  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead.

-  8:11;  see  Ezek.37:9-10, 14

-  God  raised  Christ  from  the  dead  (e.g.  Acts 17:30-31);  Christ  raised  Himself  (John 2:19-21;  10:17-18)

-  But  the  Spirit  raises  Christ  in  1 Peter 3:18  and  Romans 8:11

3.  The  Spirit  gives  life  to  believers.

-  8:10;  NIV  and  John  Stott  and  others  say  that  the  human  spirit  is  alive,  but  Paul  says  ‘the  Spirit  is  life’,  not  alive.

-  it  is  like  John 11:25;  14:6  where  Jesus  says  He  is  the  life

-  life  now  through  the  Spirit  means  life  forever  through  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.

SERMON  NOTES
THE  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT  (Leviticus 23:26-32)
Leviticus  16:1-34;  Hebrews 9:22-28

- Lev.23  lists  the  weekly  Sabbath  plus  seven  annual  feasts.  We  are  looking  to  see  Christ  in  them  (Col.2:16-17).  How  can  God  who  is  holy  accept  sinners?

1.  A  sinful  high  priest  and  a  sinless  High  Priest.

- Lev.17:17, 6, 11-14;  the  high  priest’s  sins  needed  to  be  forgiven  first

- Christ  is  the  sinless  High  Priest  (Heb.7:26-28)

2.  Repeated  sacrifices  and  one  perfect  sacrifice.

- Lev.16:7-9, 15,  18-19, 16;  then  the  second  goat  in  16:10, 20-22

- a  contrast  to  the  perfect  sacrifice  of  Christ  in  Heb.9:12, 25-28;  note  John 1:29

3.  Limited  access  to  an  earthly  sanctuary  and  access  for  all  to  heaven.

- see  Heb.9:24;  10:19-23

- My  faith  would  lay  her  hand/  On  that  dear  head  of  Thine,/  While  like  a  penitent  I  stand,/  And  there  confess  my  sin  (Isaac  Watts).

SERMON  NOTES
What  Sacrifices  Please  the  Lord?
Psalm 40:6-8

Psalm 40:6-8  is  interpreted  in  Hebrews 10:5-10.

1.  God  demands  what  He  ultimately  sets  aside.

- Lev.1:4  illustrates  the  message  of  Leviticus;  but  God  tells  of  something  greater.

(a)  This  comes  from  Saul’s  day  in  the  eleventh  century  B.C.  (1 Samuel 15:22).

(b)  This  is  from  David’s  day  around  1000  B.C.  (Psalm 51:16-17).

(c)  This  is  from  Solomon’s  day  a  generation  later  (Proverbs 15:8).

(d)  These  are  from  the  great  prophets  of  the  eighth  century  B.C.  (Isa.1:10-17;  66:3;  Hosea 6:6;  Amos 5:21-24;  Micah 6:6-8).

(e)  Here  is  Jeremiah  from  around  600  B.C.  (Jer.7:21-23).

(f)  This  last  one  is  probably  dated  later  (Psalm 50:7-11).

2.  God’s  greater  will  is  the  death  of  His  Son  for  sinners

- Heb.10:8-12;  the  OT  sacrifices  are  like  the  scaffolding  of  a  building

- John 4:38;  6:38-40

- 16  October  1555  Nicholas  Ridley  was  burnt  at  the  stake  for  believing  in  a  perfect  unrepeatable  sacrifice.

SERMON  NOTES
IN  THE  FLESH  OR  IN  THE  SPIRIT?
(Romans  8:5-8)

-  Robert  Haldane:  ‘All  men  belong  either  to  the  one  or  the  other.  They  are  either  in  the  flesh  or  in  the  Spirit;  in  a  state  of  nature  or  in  a  state  of  grace.’

1.  There  are  two  different  mindsets.

- 8:5;  the  exhortation  to  do  anything  comes  in  v.13.  Paul  is  just  stating  facts  here.

- Matt.12:33  -  similar  point,  different  imagery

2.  To  be  ‘in  the  flesh’.

(a)  It  means  to  be  trapped  -  8:5;  John 3:6;  1  Cor.2:14.

(b)  It  means  death  -  8:6a;  Eph.2:1.

(c)  It  means  to be  hostile  to  God  -  8:7.

(d)  It  means  to  be  totally  unable  to  bring  oneself  to  God  -  read  8:7-8.  W.  G.  T.  Shedd  writes:  ‘Self-recovery  is  not  possible  to  the  human  will,  though  self-ruin  is’.  John  6:44, 65.

So  much  for  free  will,  says  Calvin.

3.  To  be  ‘in  the  Spirit’.

(a)  It  is  life  -  8:6.

(b)  It  means  peace  -  read  8:6;  note  Rom.5:1.

SERMON  NOTES
THE  FEAST  OF  TRUMPETS  (Leviticus 23:23-25)
Lev.23:23-25  &  Num.  29:1-6;  Rev. 8:1-13;  11:15-18 

- Lev.23  lists  the  weekly  Sabbath  plus  seven  annual  feasts.  We  are  looking  to  see  Christ  in  them  (Col.2:16-17).  Why  were  the  trumpets  sounded?

1.  They  called  the  people  to  heed  God’s  Word.

- for  the  law  (Ex.19:19)

- to  awaken  worship  (Ps.81:3-4);  Robert  Flockhart,  the  street  preacher  in  Edinburgh  from  1813  to  a  little  before  his  death  in  1857,  looked  to  Isa.58:1

- Rev.8-11  -  the  seven  trumpets.

2.  They  announced  the  coming  of  grace.

- Lev.25:9

- for  the  coming  Messiah  in  Isa.27:13;  Zech.9:14, 16-17

3.  They  announced  God’s  victory.

- Ps.47:5-7

- Matt.24:31;  1 Thess.4:16;  1 Cor.15:52

- the  trumpets  still  sound!

SERMON  NOTES
GOD  DOES  WHAT  WE  CANNOT
(Romans  8:3-4)

-  verse  1  is  certainly  to  do  with  justification,  but  verse  4  describes  the  walk  of  the  Christian  i.e.  it  deals  with  sanctification

1.  We  are  powerless  in  the  flesh.

- 8:3;  the  law  is  weak  because  of  us  (see  3:20;  7:22-23)

-  Other  refuge  have  I  none;

Hangs  my  helpless  soul  on  Thee  (Charles  Wesley)

-  Acts 13:38-39

2.  Christ  has  condemned  sin  in  the  flesh.

- 8:3;  not  likeness  of  flesh  (1 John 4:2)  or  in  sinful  flesh  (Heb.7:26)

- Gal.2:21

3.  Christians  walk  according  to  the  Spirit.

- 8:4;  Douglas  Moo  says  this  refers  to  Christ,  not  Christians,  but  not  that  Paul  says  ‘in  us’,  not   ‘for  us’

- all  have  the  requirement  of  the  law  on  our  hearts  (Rom.2:15),  but  Christians  have  the  law  within  their  hearts  (Heb.8:10).

- 8:4  refers  to  the  Christian’s  ‘walk’

- no  condemnation  in  8:1  leading  to  the  power  of  the  Spirit  in  8:4

SERMON  NOTES
SENT  BY  THE  SPIRIT  AND  THE  CHURCH
Psalm  72;  Acts 13:1-13

- this  is  the  beginning  of  the  first  missionary  journey  (Acts 13-14);  the  year  is  about  A.D.46.

1.  Churches  are  to  deny  themselves  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  might  grow.

- 13:1;  Antioch  in  Syria  was  the  third  largest  city  in  the  Roman  Empire,  behind  Rome  and  Alexandria

- Charles  Simeon:  ‘the  more  our  love  abounds  towards  the  heathen,  the  more  will  the  zeal  of  others  be  provoked  for  the  salvation  of  our  neighbours’.

- John 12:24-25

2.  The  Spirit  calls  His   people  to  serve.

- 13:2;  note  20:28

- He  convicts  of  sin  (John 16:8-11);  reveals  Christ  (John 16:14);  teaches  the  gospel  (John 16:13);  sanctifies  (Gal.5:22-23a);  and  equips  with  gifts  (1 Cor.12:28-30).

3.  The  church  sends  those  people.

- 13:3;  this  is  not  ordination  (note  Gal.1:12)  but  a  prayerful  setting  apart;  not  infallible  (see  Acts 13:13),  but  note  Psalm 72:18-19

A crucial part of the gospel declaration is that ‘Christ died for our sins’ (1 Cor.15:3), and that ‘while we were still sinners, Christ died for us’ (Rom.5:8). What does this mean exactly? Liberal theologians have often dressed up unbiblical ideas in biblical clothing in dealing with the crucifixion of Jesus. Dr Hastings Rashdall, for example, wrote that ‘The death of Christ justifies us, inasmuch as through it charity is stirred up in our hearts.’

No doubt, the contemplation of Christ crucified is meant to stir us, and make us more loving, but that is hardly the main point. There are many ways that God could stir up charity in our hearts. The birth of a baby granddaughter can do this! Unless there is something achieved at the cross, it does not stir up charity but pity. Crucifixion in itself is not something that any sane person would boast in, yet the apostle Paul did so (Gal.6:14).

The key word is ‘propitiation’ – a word which has become rather uncommon in modern parlance, and is even missing from many Bible translations. Here, then, are the words of the apostle John: ‘In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4:9-10). Clearly, the death of Christ cannot gain us the love of God because the love of God is already present. It is the love of God that is the impetus behind the sending of His Son into the world in order to die for sinners.

What the cross does achieve is that it satisfies the justice of God. To depart from God is to depart from life; it is to die (Gen.2:16-17; Ezek.18:4). Unlike many modern parents, God does not make idle threats. C. H. Dodd claimed that in the teaching of Jesus, ‘anger as an attitude of God to men disappears, and His love and mercy become all-embracing’. This is a common view but wildly off-beam. It is because God is just that He must be angry with sinners. There is a justice that needs to be satisfied.

Naturally, there is a tension here, and as Robert Haldane put it: ‘Mercy and justice are irreconcilable except in Christ.’ The cross reveals the love of God, and also the justice of God. At the cross, God is just and the justifier of sinners who trust in Jesus (Rom.3:25-26). Sin is paid for in full, so that sinners who deserve only His justice can experience His mercy.

This is good news – in fact, in the end, the only good news. In the second century a Christian whose name we do not know wrote to a man called Diognetus. This unknown believer writes:

How surpassing is the love and tenderness of God! In that hour, instead of hating us and rejecting us and remembering our wickednesses against us, He showed how long-suffering He is. He bore with us, and in pity He took our sins upon Himself and gave His own Son as a ransom for us – the Holy for the wicked, the Sinless for sinners, the Just for the unjust, the Incorrupt for the corrupt, the Immortal for the mortal. For was there, indeed, anything except His righteousness that could have availed to cover our sins? In whom could we, in our lawlessness and ungodliness, have been made holy, but in the Son of God alone? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable working!

So the cross has proved to Christians down through the ages.

Jordan Rice was a substitute for his brother, Blake. For those with faith, and in an infinitely more significant way, Christ is our substitute that we may appear as those who are in Christ, before God at the judgment. We are unrighteous, but Christ is righteous. When He is our substitute by faith, we may say as John Newton said:

I may my fierce accuser face,

And tell him Thou hast died.

Is it enough? Yes, indeed. To add to perfection is to detract from it. By substitution, His righteousness is mine, and my unrighteousness is His.

With warmest regards in Christ,

- Peter Barnes

SERMON  NOTES
THE  FEAST  OF  WEEKS  (PENTECOST)  (Lev.23:15-22)
Leviticus  23:9-22;  Acts 2:1-13, 22-24

- Lev.23  lists  the  weekly  Sabbath  plus  seven  annual  feasts.  We  are  looking  to  see  Christ  in  them  (Col.2:16-17).  The  feast  of  harvest  (Ex.23:16)  or  weeks  is  called  Pentecost  in  Greek,  and  refers  to  the  wheat  harvest.  It  is  on  a  Sunday.

1.  This  was  a  joyous  celebration  of  the  end  of  the  harvest.

- Deut.16:11;  Lev.23:17-21;  this  has  five  offering:  a  burnt  offering  (Lev.1),  grain  offerings  (Lev.2),  drink  offerings  (see  Gen.35:14),  a  sin  offering  (Lev.4-5),  and  a  fellowship  or  peace  offering  (Lev.3).

- contrast  to  the  Baal  worship  (Baal  was  a  fertility  god)

2.  It  is  a  sign  of  a  greater  harvest  to  come.

- 1 Cor.16:8;  Acts 20:16,  but  especially  Acts 2:1

- note  all  of  Acts 2

3.  Grace  leads  to  compassion.

- Lev.23:22;  seems  odd  addition  at  first

- Ruth 2:5-7

- but  it  is  an  outworking  of  God’s  grace  and  kindness  (Eph.4:32)

SERMON  NOTES
NO  CONDEMNATION
(Romans  8:1-2)

-  If  Romans  is  the  crown  of  the  Bible,  Romans  8  is  the  crown  jewel.  It  especially  deals  with  life  in  the  Spirit.  No  condemnation  (8:1)  leads  to  no  separation  (8:39).

1.  There  is  no  condemnation  in  Christ.

- 8:1;  this  refers  to  justification  first  -  see  Rom.5:16, 18;  8:33-34

-  note  the  lawyer  trying  to  justifying  himself  in  Luke 10:25, 29;  see  John 5:24

-  No  condemnation  now  I  dread;

Jesus,  and  all  in  Him,  is  mine!  (Charles  Wesley)

2.  Christ  frees  through  the  Spirit  of  life.

- 8:2

- the  Spirit  unites  us  to  Christ  so  there  is  no  condemnation,  and  gives  us  life  and  power

3.  The  law  brings  sins  and  death.

- 8:2;  see  2 Cor.3:6-7;  Thomas  Jacomb:  ‘Surely  it  is  sad  dancing  over  the  mouth  of  hell.’

- sinning  against  the  state  is  one  thing;  sinning  against  your  family  is  another

- Eph.4:30

SERMON  NOTES
THE  FEAST  OF  FIRSTFRUITS  (Lev.23:9-14)
Leviticus  23:9-22;  1  Corinthians 15:20-28

- Lev.23  lists  the  weekly  Sabbath  plus  seven  annual  feasts.  We  are  looking  to  see  Christ  in  them  (Col.2:16-17).  The  Feast  of  Firstfruits  is  in  spring,  and  is  celebrated  on  a  Sunday.  It  is  a  barley  crop  whereas  the  Feast  of  Pentecost  refers  to  the  wheat  harvest  (Lev.23:9-10).

1.  This  is  a  wave  offering  to  the  Lord  on  a  Sunday.

- Lev.23:11-13

- wave  offering  is  accompanied  by  a  burnt  offering  (cf.  Lev. 1:1-9),  a  grain  offering,  and  a  drink  or  wine  offering.

2.  It  is  a  sign  of  a  greater  harvest  to  come.

- the  risen  Christ  is  the  firstfruits  of  a  great  harvest  (1 Cor.15:20)

- guaranteed  by  the  Spirit  (Rom.8:23;  James 1:18)

- Rev.14:1-5

3.  It  is  a  sign  that  the  whole  harvest  belongs  to  the  Lord.

- Lev.23:14;  Abraham  Kuyper:  ‘there  is  not  a  square  inch  in  the  whole  domain  of  our  human  existence  over  which  Christ,  who  is  Sovereign  over  all,  does  not  cry:  “Mine!”’

The person of Christ Himself is paradoxical. Time and again I have had people argue that because Jesus did something that was obviously human, He could not be God. I even listened to a woman once, who tried to reverse that, and argued that because Jesus is God, she would no longer regard him as man. Jesus Himself takes on this issue when He asked the Pharisees, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?’ (Matt.22:41-42) Such an approach was unusual because He was in the habit of responding to questions rather than initiating them. Here, He goes onto the attack. The Pharisees know their Scriptures in a straightforward way, and answer, ‘The son of David’. Jesus then pounces: ‘How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls Him Lord, saying, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put Your enemies under Your feet?”’ (Matt.22:43-44) This is a quotation from Psalm 110:1 where it is clear that David, the author, can speak of two Lords. Jesus’ next question traps the Pharisees: ‘If then David call Him Lord, how is He his son?’ (Matt.22:45) Apart from anything else, the Pharisees had no concept of paradoxes, and could not answer Jesus’ question.

Jesus is both shepherd (John 10:11; Matt.26:31) and lamb (John 1:29); Lord (John 13:13) and servant (Mark 10:45); great high priest (Heb.5-9) and sacrifice (Heb.10:10); and the Immortal One (John 10:17-18; Acts 2:24; 3:15) who dies (Acts 2:23). No wonder Charles Wesley wrote: ‘Tis mystery all! the Immortal dies;/ Who can explore His strange design?’ Christ is true God and true man in the one person. That is why so many paradoxical things can be said about Him. The person who cannot handle two truths together cannot know faith in Christ.

The Christian life too is a paradox. Jesus tells us ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it’ (Luke 9:23-24). The way up is to go down. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; whoever humbles himself will be exalted (see Luke 14:11; 18:14). That is not the way of the world, which is the way of self-esteem, self-confidence, living to self, and looking after self first. Bonhoeffer put it in a startling – indeed, paradoxical – way that is nevertheless true: ‘The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.’ Some other Bonhoeffer insights are not so helpful, as when he said that ‘The God who lets us live in the world without the working hypothesis of God is the God before whom we stand continually. Before God and with God we live without God.’ Presumably that means something, but it is difficult to say exactly what.

We are to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21), knowing too that God is able to keep us from stumbling (Jude 1, 24). Thomas Manton understands verse 21 to refer to our love for God, and adds that of all graces, love is most decaying. This might remind us of the famous juxtaposition in Philippians where we are encouraged to work out our own salvation for God works in us (Phil.2:12-13). It is indeed paradoxical, and Jonathan Edwards had good reason to say that God does everything and we do everything

The work of evangelism may reveal many paradoxes. Bonhoeffer made the suggestion that in lawless times, good people find Christ, while in law-abiding times the harlots and tax-collectors do so. Such, in any case, was his experience during the dark days of Nazi Germany. What is true is that God moves in mysterious ways, as Cowper said, and people who we may think are close to becoming Christians never move while those who seem far from the kingdom and utterly indifferent or hostile are brought to know Christ. We are told to be good and to love goodness, but a Pharisaic understanding of goodness may lead us further from grace than outright and obvious sin.

Life is not a series of breath-taking paradoxes, but what seems obviously untrue in terms of common sense may in fact prove to be true. Truth is not just paradoxical, but there is a paradoxical element to it.

With warmest regards in Christ,

- Peter Barnes

SERMON  NOTES
MIND  VERSUS  FLESH!  (part 3)
(Romans  7:14-25)

-  It  is  a  struggle  all  round.

1.  The  more  we  grow,  the  more  we  realise  that  we  fall  short.

- 7:18;  Charles  Wesley  in  1738:  ‘I  never  knew  the  energy  of  sin  till  now  that  I  experience  the  superior  strength  of  Christ.’

-  Paul  wrote  1 Timothy 1:15!

-  the  better  our  eyes,  the  more  dirt  we  see  (Rom.11:8;  2 Cor.4:6)

2.  We  must  be  thankful  for  victory  in  Christ.

- Rom.7:24;  James  Denney  said  that  is  not  the  cry  of  a  Christian,  but  it  is  -  see  7:25a

- like  the  victory  over  death  in  1 Cor.15:55-57

- there  is  a  battle  but  it  is  far  more  encouraging  if  you  know  the  outcome  of  the  war.

3.  We  are  divided  within  ourselves.

- Rom.7:25b;  seems  like  an  anticlimax,  not  unlike  1 Cor.15:58  when  we  might  expect  a  description  of  the  new  heaven  and  the  new  earth.

- we  battle  ourselves  as  well  as  the  world  and  the  devil  (James 1:14-16);  Augustine  on  verse  25:  ‘These  are  the  words  of  one  who  is  now  under  grace  but  still  battling  against  his  own  lust,  not  so  that  he  consents  and  sins  but  so  that  he  experiences  desires  which  he  resists.’