It is Easter morning ya’ll! A few thousand years ago, Jesus woke up from spending three days in the grave and he walked out of that tomb in full victory over Satan, sin, and death! Three days ago, the cross was as bloody as the most frightening horror movie you have ever seen. But today, the tomb is as empty as a womb of a mother who just gave birth!

I gotta tell you, I cannot wait until the day of my own resurrection into the perfect presence of my Savior. But until that day arrives, you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives passing through this earth to our final destination in Heaven. And before we reach that final destination, we are going to spend every morning waking up from our sleep, in similar fashion to Jesus when he woke up from his three-day nap in that grave!

Truth be told though, most of us do not wake up from our sleep like Jesus did on Resurrection Sunday, two-thousand years ago. We do not wake up with the victory of the empty tomb filling our hearts and minds.

MY EARLY MORNINGS ARE NOT USUALLY VERY EXCITING

I do not usually wake up full of vigor and energy and excitement to face the day ahead of me. I am not prone to running out of my proverbial bedroom gravesite to meet the day arm and arm with my resurrected Savior. I usually wake up with my mind already caught in the shackles of sin and the looming presence of death as I am taunted with my dwindling days along with the voice of Satan in my ear pointing out my failures and fears.

When I wake up each morning, I am usually consumed with a list of things to do, people to talk to, undone tasks from the day before, unresolved problems that have loomed over my head for weeks or years, and an entire host of emotions that neither glorify nor honor the God who gave me this life. Every day, when I wake up, I must consciously make the choice to center my heart and my mind on the gospel of Jesus Christ crucified, risen, and returning.

HOW DO I START EACH DAY WITH THE VICTORY OF THE GOSPEL?

How do you do this? How do you take control over your heart and mind when your feet hit the floor every morning? It has been said that we can spend our lives listening to ourselves or we can spend our lives preaching to ourselves; I would submit that preaching the gospel to myself each morning is a whole lot better than listening to my sinful self each morning.2

Romans 8 has often been my go-to place for preaching the gospel to myself each and every morning as I wake up in the shackles of Satan, Sin, and Death. Satan will stop at nothing to condemn you. Sin is always knocking on the door with her sweet tempting voice of pleasure. And Death is always lurking around the corner reminding me that my days are numbered.

But Romans 8 is a beautiful weapon to wage in this war against Satan, Sin, and Death. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was an English medical doctor who became a preacher in 1927. His commentary and sermons on the book of Romans is one of the most valuable resources the church has today. On Romans chapter 8 alone, Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote/preached no less than seventy-seven sermons.

Yes, you heard that right, he spent over six years preaching 77 sermons on Romans chapter eight alone! He says that in Romans 8, the Apostle Paul’s aim was “to teach the doctrine of assurance. His aim is to show us that, because we are no longer under the rein of sin, but under the rein of grace, therefore our final salvation is certain, sure, and guaranteed; nothing can cancel it” because there is no condemnation (the opening line of the chapter) and there is no separation (the closing line of the chapter) for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1, 39).3

YOU AND I ARE GUARANTEED TO WIN IN ETERNITY!

What could you accomplish in your fight against Satan, Sin, and Death if you really grasped the fact that you are guaranteed to win in eternity? If you and I could wake up each morning with this kind of guaranteed assurance on our minds, I believe we would tear up the ground that has been taken by Satan, Sin, and Death; we would effectively wage war against the forces of hell in some powerfully miraculous ways, all because we knew that we could not ultimately fail!

Think about it! If our Savior left the tomb empty, then his guarantee to us is that we will walk in the same victory as he did when he walked out of that tomb! All we need to do is preach the promises of Romans 8 to ourselves every morning – specifically the promises located in the text I read for us today. Look at the text with me.

8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9You however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 12So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

#1: IN THE FLESH YOU WILL FAIL (V. 8)

In verse 8, Paul says, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God”. What does he mean when he uses the phrase “in the flesh”? The idea of this phrase goes back to something he has already said in verses 3 – 7 and 11 when says that we should not walk according to our fleshly desires or set our minds on our fleshly desires because Jesus “condemned sin in the flesh” (v. 3) at the bloody cross of Calvary and then was victorious over sin in the flesh when he left the tomb empty on the third day (v. 11).

You and I will fail if we are in the flesh – walking or living in our sin with our minds set on our sin. It is impossible to please or honor God if we continue living in the thing that Jesus died to put to death! We will fail if we are living in the very thing that Jesus rose from the grave in victory over. This is a promise that we can take to the bank and preach to ourselves every morning when our feet hit the floor.

#2: GOD’S INDWELLING SPIRIT IS YOUR GUARANTEE (V. 9)

In verse 9, the Apostle Paul says, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” So, living or walking in the flesh will lead to failure but living or walking in the Spirit will lead to victory, the kind of victory that is absolutely guaranteed!

If you are a believer, then you have been given an absolute rock-solid guarantee that you will win before you even leave the locker room. Can you imagine a guaranteed Super Bowl win in the game of football? If you are a believer, then the Spirit of God lives inside of you and since he lives inside of you, you are guaranteed to win the war against Satan, Sin, and Death!

Because the Spirit of God has taken up residence inside of you, you can rest assured that He is working around the clock, to remodel you into his Christlike home and he will not rest nor will he quit until the job is completed inside of you (Phil. 1:6). What could this truth do for your heart and your mind each morning when you wake up?

#3: GOD’S SPIRIT GIVES LIFE DESPITE YOUR SINFUL BODY (V. 10)

In verse 10, the Apostle Paul says, “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Think about the promise of this verse! God’s Spirit gives life because of the righteousness that was won for you at the cross of Calvary despite your sinful body! This promise is a throwback to chapter seven where Paul lays out the desperation of the twofold nature of the Christian life. His argument is basically that our bodies are literally dead right now because of sin but our spirits are alive because of the indwelling Spirit of God.

This promise, that God’s Spirit gives life despite our sinful and dead bodies, is meant to give us the kind of hope that anticipates the union of our perfected bodies to our living spirits in the final resurrection. We struggle with sin right now because our flesh is corrupted by sin, but our inner spirit works in the power of the indwelling Spirit of the living God to wage war against that sin – a war that will be complete in the final resurrection! What would our days be like if we truly grasped the truth that God gives us life on the inside even though our outer shells are dead because of sin?

#4: GOD’S SPIRIT WILL GIVE LIFE TO YOUR DEAD BODY (V. 11)

In verse 11, the Apostle Paul says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” This verse is basically a continuation of what Paul began to say in the previous verse.

God gives us life on the inside even though our outer shells are dead because of sin (v. 10). On top of that, we now learn, that God’s indwelling Spirit will give life to our dead bodies in the future and the proof that this promise is trustworthy, that it can be taken to the bank and cashed with full faith, is the truth of Christ’s resurrection (v. 11).

The Spirit of the living God who dwells within us is the seal of the guarantee of the empty tomb. What the empty tomb guarantees is what the Spirit stamps as being completely trustworthy. When Jesus walked out of that grave, he gave us the guarantee of our own future victorious resurrection and then he sealed that guarantee with his very own Spirit who now lives within us!

God’s indwelling Spirit will give new life to your dead body in the future! Try preaching that promise over your heart and your mind in the early morning hours of resisting the fear and the temptations that come along with bodily ailments, relational conflicts, emotional weariness, and fading physical attractiveness. The truth that you and I will be given brand new bodies in the resurrection just as Christ was given, is a promise that wages war against the early morning onslaught of condemnation, temptation, and humiliation.

Shame, guilt, sin, emotional trauma, coldness against God, division in our relationships – all of this melts away when we take it to the bloody cross and the empty tomb in light of the hope of Heaven. And one of the ways we take all that baggage to that bloody cross and that empty tomb is by preaching this truth to ourselves every morning: God’s indwelling Spirit will give life to my dead body!

#5: THE SPIRIT GIVES LIFE SO THAT YOU CAN KILL YOUR SIN (V. 12 – 13)

In verses 12 – 13, the Apostle Paul says, “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Why does the Spirit of God give us brand new lives when we come to faith in Christ Jesus? I will submit to you that he does not give us brand new lives so that we can have it easy or so that we can finally find fulfillment or happiness in this life. He gives us brand new lives so that we can fight our sins to the death.

You and I will live our best lives now – the Spirit filled life – if we spend our days waging war against the sin that so easily entangles our hearts and minds. This is the reason that God gives us brand new lives; our new lives are meant to be lived on the battlefield not in the soft, cushy, comfortable, social clubs that many so-called churches have become in this day and age.

We were designed to wake up each morning filled with the Spirit of the living God – the Spirit of the Risen Christ – as we preach the truths of the gospel to ourselves and lace up our boxing gloves to step into the ring of war against the sin, we have been guaranteed to be victorious over. Jesus did not give his life at the cross of Calvary to make your life better or easier and he certainly did not leave the tomb empty so that you and I could live in the shackles of our sin and our shame and guilt under the thumb of the enemies he took to the mat.

Jesus died on Good Friday and then rose from the grave on Resurrection Sunday, so that by the Spirit who gives new life, we may wage war against the sin we have been guaranteed to kill. The Spirit gives life so that you can kill your sin. Try preaching that truth to your heart in the early morning struggle against Satan, Sin, and Death and let’s see what happens to the rest of the day; you just might start living your life in the victory of the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the hope of Heaven!

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, Martyn Lloyd-Jones said something else that was really helpful to me in my daily struggle to wake up and preach the gospel to myself as I wage war against Satan, Sin, and Death. Here is what he said:

“When people come to me and talk about their failures, and especially when they talk about one particular sin, I invariably say to them: ‘You are looking at your life in the wrong way, you are too negative. Your ambition and desire should be very much more than to get rid of this particular thing that is worrying you, and getting you down. What you should really desire is to be a Christian worthy of the name, the sort of Christian of whom the Lord Jesus Christ is proud of, and who will attract others to our Lord. Be positive; desire to be big and great, and to follow the saints who have adorned the gospel in past ages.’”4

The reality is that we, all too often, get so focused on overcoming our sin that we do it in our own strength as we obsess over our failures. The reality is that if we focused on our crucified, risen, and returning Savior, we would become more like him and effectively wage war against our sin in true resurrection power.

In Romans 8:8 – 13, we have learned that we can wake up every morning and focus on Christ by preaching the gospel to ourselves through the promises of the text. Every morning, I can wake up and step into the power of the bloody cross, the victory of the empty tomb, and the hope of eternity with my Good Father in Heaven as I remember the promises of Romans 8:

There is no condemnation nor separation from God for me in Christ Jesus. In the flesh I will fail but in Christ’s finished work at Calvary, I will succeed. God’s indwelling Spirit is my guarantee; because he lives inside of me, I am destined to win the fight against Satan, Sin, and Death – the fight is rigged because the cross was bloody, and the tomb is empty. My body is full of sin and death, but the Spirit has given me new life and he will give new life to my dead and sinful body in the final resurrection. Because I have the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ living inside of me, I can take my sin to the graveyard, shoot it in the back of the head, and chokeslam it into an eternal grave. All because the cross was bloody, the tomb is empty, and eternity is my inheritance! – Amen!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 C.J. Mahaney, Living The Cross Centered Life, (New York: Multnomah Books, 2006), 132 – 145.

3 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans: Exposition of Chapter 8:5 – 17, The Sons of God, (Illinois: The Banner of Truth Trust, Versa Press, 2015), 67.

4 Ibid., 145 – 146.