Christ In You

Turn to Romans 8 and we'll read the first 14 verses.! Romans 8 and verse 1.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In that it was weakened by the sinful nature.

God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us.

Who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires.

But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the spirit is life and peace.

The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the spirit. If the spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin. Yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation. But it is not to the sinful nature to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die.

But if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Because those who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God.

You don't have what it takes. You aren't good enough. You aren't strong enough. You can't control the future. You don't have what it takes.

Tomorrow, at work or at school, you're not going to have what it takes to survive another day with those godless co-workers. Or at school with those fellow students.

You don't have what it takes inside yourself. And even tonight, after the service, you don't have what it takes to keep from sinning in yourself.

I've had those Monday mornings when I worked elsewhere when I couldn't take it. I couldn't face these people one more day. I couldn't face the schedule one more hour. And I know you have felt that way too.

Haven't you? Well, you don't have what it takes. That's the truth. And whether that truth enslaves you or frees you, all depends on where you go after you realize that.

After you see that you don't have what it takes, will you look down inside of yourself and look into your emptiness and the empty battery of your resources and of your power and see more and more of your own poverty?

And so wrap yourself in a cocoon of despair or anger or frustration? Or will you look to Christ Jesus, Christian, the one who lives in you?

In you. You see, if you are a Christian, you aren't left to yourselves. You don't have what it takes, but you do have who it takes to live the Christian life, to live the life, to go one more day, to not sin.

And so it's true. If Christ is in you, you don't have what it takes, but you do have who it takes. And so we've been talking about what our union with Christ means.

And tonight we are talking about Christ in you. We've been talking about how you are in Christ, how Christians are in Christ. We've been talking about that in the past.

And in him, we are united to him, and so we receive salvation. We're justified. We're elected. We're sanctified. We're going to be glorified.

It's all going to be in him. As we're in him, we receive salvation. But the Bible doesn't just say that we are in him. The Bible talks about our union as Jesus being in us.

And so that's what we're going to talk about today. In a real spiritual way, Jesus Christ is in every Christian. To be a Christian, by definition, is to have Christ in you.

So it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are or rich or poor, black or white, no matter how great your faith is, no matter how small your faith is.

If you are a Christian, then Christ is in you. So you have your Bibles open to Romans chapter 8, I hope, still.

Turn there now if you're not there. And we're going to look at verses 9 and 10. 9 and 10. It says, You, however, are not controlled. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, that's the flesh, but by the Spirit.

If the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive.

Or better yet, your spirit is life because of righteousness. So do you see what he said? If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, then he does not belong to Christ.

But those who belong to Christ all receive that Spirit. And Christ, he changes the terms. He starts from Spirit of Christ and then he moves just to Christ is in you.

So Christ comes to live in all those who belong to him. He lives in there by, in your hearts, by his Spirit. And the relationship between the Spirit of Christ and Christ is so close that Paul can say, Christ, Jesus, is in you.

So Jesus' ideas, it's not just that Jesus' ideas are in us, or that we follow his beliefs or his ideas. We don't just agree with him. We just don't follow his teachings.

We don't just believe what he says. It's more than that. Christ comes and lives in every Christian. He lives in you. And if Christ is in you, then your body is dead because of sin.

We saw that this morning. These bodies are perishing. But, and yet, your spirit is life because of righteousness. So the Holy Spirit brings Christ into every believer's heart and into our souls.

And so you don't have what it takes, but you do have who it takes. Now, when Jesus comes into a person's heart, he doesn't leave things the way they are.

He starts to work, and he does this immediate work of raising that person from spiritual death to life. Paul says, our spirit is life.

That's in some of the translations, and that's to be preferred. He uses that same phraseology, that same idea, later in Romans 11, when he's talking about Israel's future.

And he says, for if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? So what does that mean?

It's talking about resurrection. It's going to be as if Israel is resurrected. And so when Jesus comes to live in you, dear brother and dear sister, he didn't leave you as you were.

Instead, he raised your spirit to new life. His resurrection life, his own resurrection life, comes to live in you. And so Christ is our life, Colossians 3 talks about.

So Christ comes in, and with his resurrection power, he dwells within us, and that totally changes everything. That totally changes our outlook, our prospects in life.

Before, we had no power to live the Christian life. But now, we have an incredible resource. We had no hope before, but now Christ is in us, living with his own resurrection power, and that changes everything.

A glorious example of this is the entire book of Acts. Luke, in the very first verse, says to Theophilus, the person he's writing to, In my former book, I wrote to you about the things that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up into heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.

So what is the book of Luke about? The book of Luke is about what Jesus began to do and to teach. And what is the book of Acts about?

The book of Acts is about what Jesus continued to do and to teach by the Holy Spirit through his apostles. And so all that the apostles did in the book of Acts, and you can think of all the things that they did, their wild devotion, their willingness to die, their fearless teaching, their glorious prayers, their healing, their missionary endeavor, all their zeal, all of that Jesus did in them.

That was Jesus' work in them. He came to live in them by his Spirit, and that changed everything. And what the disciples experienced back then in all that resurrection power, Christian, Christ is the same for you.

He's living inside of you with all of that resurrection power. So what does that mean day to day? That's what we're going to spend the rest of our time talking about. What are the implications of that?

What does that mean for us day to day? Well, the Bible talks about several things that are different now, that are changed. Well, first it means you have power to put sin to death.

You have power now to put sin to death. That's the immediate thing that we find in Romans 8. Romans 6, Romans 7, and Romans 8 are all about how we can have hope in fighting against sin.

How Christ makes us holy. So Romans 3, chapter 3, 4, and 5 are all about how Jesus gives us a righteous record. How he justifies us.

But we need more than just a righteous record. We need to be saved from the power of sin in our day-to-day lives. Don't we? We've experienced justification.

We've experienced that initial righteousness and that initial salvation. But yet, the power of sin is still at work in our lives. And we need to have hope in fighting against that and living a new life.

Well, in chapter 7, he says the law can't make you holy. It can show you your sin. But it doesn't have the power to make you holy.

Actually, your flesh uses the law to make you sin even more. Not that the law is bad. But the flesh is so evil that it takes what is good and uses it for evil purposes.

And so when the law says no, all of a sudden we are like those little children that say, Well, now all of a sudden I want this. I want it. So the law doesn't have the power to make us holy.

But what the law was powerless to do, God's spirit can do. Christ can do in us. And that's why Paul is saying you can have hope in your battle against sin.

So whatever sin you have in your life, you can have hope in that battle. You can defeat that sin because Christ is in you. Your body is dead because of sin. And yet your spirit is life.

It's resurrection power life in you. You've been brought from death to life through his resurrection. And so now you have this unbelievable resource to fight against your sin.

You have Christ in you. So why can you resist temptation? Because Christ is in you. Why can you have great hope that you're going to go from holiness to even greater holiness?

It's because Christ is in you. And that's why we can't accept the idea of a carnal Christian. Of a Christian that just lives entirely for fleshly things.

That never changes, never grows. Always stays the same. If Christ is in you, then you are going to change. So what do you do with all that?

What do you do with that? How do you live in light of that? Verse 13 says, in the middle, If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

So what does it mean to live with Christ in you? Jesus living in us by his Spirit, personally, powerfully, presently in us.

Well, it means now we make war against sin. We make war against sin. You ask no quarter and you give no quarter. The Spartans said you come back with your shield or on your shield.

There's no halfway. You come back. You fight. You kill. Because Christ is the deadly enemy of sin. He went to such great lengths to kill sin.

It ended up killing him. He hates sin. He's the enemy of sin. And so can we live in it any longer? Can we let it live in our members any longer?

The answer is no. It's impossible. If Christ is in us, we cannot let sin rule over us. And so Christ died to free us from sin. And so how can we live in it any longer?

So what do you do? Verse 13 says, by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body. You put to death that sin that controls you.

You put to death that sin that starts to pop up in your life and starts to take over the members of your body. You put it to death. How do you do it?

By the Spirit. What does that mean? How does that work? Well, I think part of the answer is just this.

Killing the sin, killing sin by the Spirit, is living in light of the reality that Christ is in you. That Christ is in you.

And trusting Christ. The trusting Christ that is in you to give you strength to say no. To resist in the hour of temptation.

So can you always say no to sin? The answer is if you are a believer and Christ is in you. You can always say no to sin because Christ is in you.

And that's motivation. He's there. The one who loves you is there. The one that has all power is there. And that's power there. And so do you need patience? Trust Christ for that patience.

Trust him for every grace. All the fruit of the Spirit. It's the Spirit's fruit. And so you've got to trust Christ, the Spirit, in that.

Trust him for every need. And as you trust, obey. This is not let go and let God. It's not just I'm going to depend and believe on him and not do anything myself.

This is trust and obey. True faith is obedient faith. And there is no faith without obedience. And there is no true obedience without faith in Jesus from first to last.

And so what does it mean to put to death the misdeeds of the body by the Spirit? It means living before the face of Christ always. Quorum Christus.

I just made up that word. It's living before the face of Christ always. And you see, we sin because we forget that we have Jesus. We forget because we forget all that we have in Jesus.

We forget the righteousness we have in him. And so we try to make up our own righteousness by our own works, our looks, our abilities, our own efforts, our own achievements.

And then we try to maintain our righteousness by lying and by pride. Trying to protect that righteousness that we've worked out. But all that comes from forgetting that we have righteousness in Christ.

And then we sin because we forget we have power to obey. The temptation comes to us. And maybe at first we resist.

And maybe at first we say no. But then it gets to the point where you say, I just can't do it. I just, I can't do it. I can't hold out. I have to give in.

I just can't obey. But the truth is you can. You can obey because Christ is in you to give you that strength to obey. You don't have what it takes.

But you do have who it takes at that moment of temptation. So Christ lives in you. And so you have power to put sin to death in your life.

Secondly, since Christ lives in you, you have power to overcome the world. You have power to overcome the world. Turn in your Bibles back to 1 John chapter 4.

1 John chapter 4. And we're going to look at verses 3 and 4. And we're going to pick up at the first sentence in verse 3.

It's in the middle. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

So Jesus lives in you by the spirit. And that means you have overcome and you can overcome the world. But the world is so strong.

It's so strong. The spirit of the Antichrist, it drives it. It empowers it. But the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

See, our world is not dualistic. That's a very common idea in our culture right now. It's not light and dark. It's not the light side of the force and the dark side.

It's not evenly matched between good and evil. Though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet. Cornelius Van Til was a very well-known theologian in the last century, in the 1900s.

He served as a long-time professor at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. And every day he would walk into the classroom and on the chalkboard he would draw two circles.

He would draw a big circle and then below it a little circle. The big circle was God. And the little circle was everything else. The big circle was God.

The little circle was creation. And so he was saying, and he was putting before everyone's mind, this very important fact, that God is bigger than all of creation.

He's bigger. He's stronger. He's set apart. He's far above. He's far greater. He's far more powerful than anything in creation. So Satan is in the little circle.

Jesus is in the big circle. The spirit of the Antichrist is in the little circle. And the spirit of Christ is in the big circle.

And so the one who is in you, dear brother or dear sister, is greater than the one who is in the world. And that means you have power to overcome the world.

Because if the big circle is inside of you, you have power to overcome the little circle, don't you? So you have power to overcome the world. And that's why Martin Luther could stand before the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and in a whisper say, here I stand.

I can do no other. So how did Martin Luther do that? Because Christ was in him. And the one who was in him was greater than the one who was in the world.

What about Moses? Moses said no to the pleasures of Egypt. He could have had it all. And yet he said no. Because Christ was in him by the spirit.

Abraham left everything he knew. Everything that he had. He left all that, his history, it all.

He left and went to a faraway country. He overcame the world because the one who was in him was greater than the one who was in the world. And that's precisely why tomorrow you can say, you can bow your head and pray in the middle of the cafeteria and endure the strange looks or the ridicule or the laughing or the snide comments.

And that's why tomorrow you can witness or you can turn the other cheek. And that's why you can say no to the American dream, which is just the Egyptian dream, which is just the dream that we've always had of having everything our way and having it all nice and perfect and saying yes to God's kingdom because Christ is in you.

So Christ overcame the world. He overcame the world. And so he's stronger than the world. When the world tried to cow him and tried to beat him down, and when all of his enemies threatened him to silence him, and when they fought him tooth and nail, and then when Satan, the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the kingdom of this world, when he came and tempted him, he overcame it all.

Jesus was like an iron pillar and the ocean waves were crashing on him. And when the world had done its worst, the ocean waves were stilled, and the iron pillar stood.

Christ overcame it all. And when they killed him and when they crucified him, and when he was at his weakest, his absolute weakest, he disarmed the strong man.

He overcame the king of this world. And so Jesus, he overcame through faithful suffering.

And that's something I think we need to learn. What does it mean to overcome the world? It's not winning with ease. It's not apparent victory. A lot of times it's apparent defeat.

But when you're faithful to the end, when you hold on to the end, that is how you overcome the world. So what do we have to do?

What do we have to do tomorrow when the world's temptations come? What do we have to do when we're watching TV and the commercials are running, wooing us with their siren song?

We remember that he is with us. That he is in us. And the one that is in us is stronger than the one who is in the world. He's with us at home.

He's with us at work. And so we trust him for his strength. And we obey. We trust and we obey. The world will use persecution.

It will use pleasure. It will use persuasion. It will use terror. It will use temptation. Remember, we talked about these things with Daniel. And Daniel, a lot of times the world isn't going to come to you with a sword.

Instead, it's going to come to you with something that you want. That's something that's good. It's going to come to you with pleasures and not pain. And so to say no and to overcome the world, to be like Martin Luther and Moses and Abraham and Jim Elliott and Hudson Taylor and Henry Martin, it's going to mean saying no to your own ease and your own comfort.

But you can do that because Christ is in you. Christ has already done it. He said no to the pleasures of heaven for a time in order to come to this earth to save us.

He said no to his own ease and to his own comfort. And that Christ powerfully lives in you. So you have power to overcome the world.

Now, thirdly, you have power to endure. You have power to endure. I won't ask you to turn there, but listen to Philippians 3.

Paul is talking about how he's found the secret of contentment. And you remember his words. I know what it is to be in need. And I know what it is to have plenty.

I've learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Paul could suffer and Paul can endure poverty and hunger and want and need with contentment because Christ was always there to give him strength.

Christ was always there to give him strength. You remember Paul had a thorn in the flesh. And three times he prayed, Lord, take this away from me. And the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for you.

My power is made perfect in weakness. So how was it that Paul could persevere? That he could endure? It was because of Christ's ever-present strength.

It was Christ's power at work in him. Paul could say, I struggle with all of his energy that so powerfully works in me. Sometimes we think about grace.

We think about God's giving us help and giving us grace as sort of like this packet of strength that sort of comes down all on its own.

Like he just sends it through the mail or something, the heavenly mail. But that's actually too impersonal. Christ's strength is much more immediate.

Christ gives us strength, not from the outside, but from the inside, because he is in us. And so he doesn't send us a packet of strength like vitamin pills or something.

No, Christ is in us. It's his strength. It's his power. And we use it, but it's always his. And since it's his strength, and he is always with us, we can endure to the very end.

Because our resources, all the resources that we need are in Christ, and Christ is in us. And so we can endure the greatest trials. How do I know?

Because Christ endured the worst men can do. He endured the worst. And if he endured the worst, then surely he'll be able to help us to endure lesser trials and all sorts of suffering.

So there's power in him to stay the course. Whatever course you're on, whatever course, whatever difficulties, whatever obstacles you're facing, there's power to endure to the end because Christ is in you.

Now, think about it in a different way. The one who is in you is no stranger to suffering. The one who is in you is no stranger to suffering.

And if you are suffering, dear brother or dear sister, then you can know that Jesus is suffering with you. Not that...

Because he is with you. He's standing beside you. And he's compassionate. And he knows your pain because he isn't just seated far away in heaven.

By his spirit, he's with you presently. And so he's with you in the long hours of the night when you can't sleep for whatever reason. And he's with you in the long hours of pain when the medicine doesn't work.

And he's with you in the hours of frustration when you see your work, the things that you have been working on, turn to ashes in your hands. And you are brokenhearted with the brokenness of this world.

And when your friends and your family disappoint you, he is with you to help you. He's not far away. He's there with you to feel with you. And I think one of the reasons that we pray and God doesn't answer in the way that we want.

So we ask, Lord, take this away from me. We're like, Paul, Lord, take this away. This is impossible. This is so hard. And he answers to us, but my grace is sufficient for you.

So we pray, Lord, take these things away. I'm tired of hurting. This is so painful. And it seems like God says, no. It's because he wants to show us the treasures that we have in Christ.

He wants to show us that, you know what? overcoming doesn't mean the absence of pain and suffering. Sometimes overcoming is just enduring to the end and holding on and holding on that despite the pain, you still hold on to him.

And so he wants to show you that the one who is in you is greater than all that suffering. It's greater than all of that pain. And he wants us to live on Christ in those hours of difficulty.

So what should you do if you're going through a deep, dark trial? Maybe you're not there. Thank God that you're not there.

There's probably not a lot of us that are in a deep, dark trial. But there are times when each one of us are going to be there. So what do you do? Well, you fight the urge to focus on yourself.

You fight the urge to focus on yourself because it's easy in the moments of difficulty to look inside of yourself and to say, I don't have what it takes.

I can't do this one more minute. This hurts too much. This makes me too angry. I just can't take the pain. I can't take this person.

And so you're looking at yourself and your own resources. And then what happens is you never stay at the same level. You just spiral down, down, down, deeper into your own poverty.

And so dear brother and sister, you don't have what it takes. Confess that at the beginning, but you do have who it takes. Christ is with you.

So look to him. So what should you do if you're going through a deep, dark trial? You fight worry with faith in Christ's presence. You fight worry with faith in Christ's presence.

What is worry? Well, worry is thinking about and dwelling on and being afraid of that you're going to live through something that you won't be able to handle.

It could be anything. It could be something very small. It could be something very big. I don't have what it takes. I don't have the resources I need to be able to handle this person.

If I went through this financial difficulty, I wouldn't be able to survive. I wouldn't be, I wouldn't have what it takes to get there. But Christian, for you, worry is thinking about something that will never, ever happen.

Do you realize that? Jesus goes to great lengths to tell us not to worry. And one of the things that he says is it's pointless, it's worthless, it's useless. And this is the primary reason why.

Worry is thinking about something that will never happen. Worry is being afraid of something that will never happen. You are never going to face a trial that you can't handle because Christ is in you.

You're never going to face a pain that you can't handle because Christ is in you that he will give you. He will uphold you. He will strengthen you. He won't abandon you. And so you will be able to handle every trial.

And so don't worry about the future because Jesus is with you. He doesn't leave you in your dark times. Through the fire and through the water, he goes with you.

It doesn't matter how hot the fire is. It doesn't matter how deep the water is. It doesn't matter how muddy the path is. He is with you. And so fight worry with faith in Christ's presence.

And so when you start to worry and you start to say, I don't have what it takes, instantly don't look to yourself. Look to Christ. He is there. He is present. And he is strong for you.

Look to Jesus. Look to Jesus. He's the one closer than a brother. Rely on his love and then obey.

Trust and obey and he will carry you through. Now, to my unbelieving friend, do you see how hopeless it is to try to live the Christian life without Christ?

Maybe you're not trying to live the Christian life. But a lot of people try and they try to do it without Christ. But that's hopeless. It's like trying to fly a plane with no engine on the back.

It's like trying to turn the lights on and the electricity isn't hooked up. No matter how much you play around, no matter how much you sit in the pilot seat, no matter how much you're on the runway, no matter how many times you flip the switch, you're missing the power.

You're missing what it takes. So no matter how much you play around, you can't do it. Jesus said, I am the vine, you are the branches, and without me, you can do nothing.

Trying to live the Christian life without Christ is hopeless. And so, why haven't you trusted Christ? Why? Why haven't you?

I can think of two reasons. First, you have too low of an opinion of the Christian life. You think the Christian life is doing certain things, following certain rules, being a certain kind of person, and obeying certain dressing in certain ways.

Things that you can handle. It's going to be different for everyone, but it's things that you can handle. But the Christian life isn't like that. The essence of the Christian life is Christ in me.

And in Him, and Him in me, I do things that are unnatural, supernatural, amazing, too much for me to handle things.

So you have too low of an opinion of the Christian life. You think it's just something that you can do in your own strength and you can't. Why haven't you trusted Christ? Second, because you have too high of an opinion of yourself.

You have too low of an opinion of the Christian life and you have too high of an opinion of yourself. You think you can handle only what Christ can do. You think you can do what only Christ can do, but you can't.

He's the Son of God. And you are a fallen son of Adam. You're a fallen daughter of Eve. And you don't trust Him because you still think that you have what it takes.

But do you? Do you really? Can you live the supernatural life? You can't. And so come to Christ.

Believe in Him. It's by faith that Christ comes and lives in our hearts. It's by faith that He continues to live in our hearts. And it's by faith that you come to Him and He comes to you.

And so lay your deadly doing down. Lay all the things that you're trying to do. Lay all your efforts down. And come empty-handed. And come broken-hearted.

And come saying, I don't have what it takes. But you are what I need. I don't have what it takes to get a righteousness that you'll accept.

I don't have what it takes to live a life that at the end you'll say, well done, good and faithful servant. But Jesus, it's all in you. I need you. Come and believe Him for all that He is and all that He could be for you.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that You would help us to hear these words and to put them into practice.

Holy Spirit, come and remind us tonight and tomorrow when we wake up to begin our day with the Lord Jesus.

Spirit, bring Him deeper into our hearts. bring Him, open up our minds and our eyes and give us faith to realize who is in us, who lives with us, who we are united to.

truly is amazing that You would come and live in small, poor, sinful hearts like these.

It is such a grace. Thank You that You are working in us to make us wonderful and beautiful and good, making us like Yourself. And we long for that day when we will be like You.

So will You please bring us to that day? Will You open up the eyes of every single person here to see that we don't have what it takes, but in You, You're all that we need.

So I pray that You would work faith in the unbeliever, work faith in the believer's heart, that we would all be looking to Jesus, that we would all be hoping in Him and relying on Him and obeying Him, that He would change our lives and that we could live for Your glory.

We want this for Christ's praise. We want it for His honor. And so please hear us. In Jesus' name, Amen.