[0:00] Take your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8. This morning I'm going to be in verses 5 through 17, Romans 8, verses 5 through 17.
[0:13] If you are physically able to do so and desire so, I'll ask if you'll join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God found in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 5 and going to verse 17.
[0:30] Paul writes, For those who are according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
[0:54] However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness.
[1:10] But 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. So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.
[1:29] But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father.
[1:46] The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
[2:02] Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for your word. And Lord, we rejoice in every opportunity we have to gather together, to sing your praises, to fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ.
[2:14] Lord, to greet one another. God, what a joy it is to hear your word. We pray that the word that we have just read, Lord, the word would become real, that it would grip our hearts and minds, that it would move by the power and presence of the Spirit.
[2:31] Lord, we give you freedom to do whatever work you want to do in each one of us through the word that we have seen. God, I pray that it would not be my thoughts or my opinions, Lord, but it would be your truth that brings about the change in each one of our lives.
[2:45] For your glory and honor, we ask it all in Jesus' sweet name. Amen. You may be seated. As we are making our way through the book of Romans, this great, powerful book that is so instrumental to the faith, has been instrumental to the faith throughout the ages, has been the one book that has shaped doctrine more than any other book in church history.
[3:11] All of the Bible is good. Paul himself would say all of Scripture is given, that we may learn righteousness and grow in godliness. All Scripture is profitable. You can go to the Old Testament, and you can go anywhere in the Old Testament and learn what it means to live your life for a service of a holy God.
[3:30] You can go to any portion of the New Testament and learn what it is to be more Christ-like. But you will not find any other book in the Bible other than the book of Romans that really addresses so many foundational issues, not just in the life of the church, but in the life of the believer.
[3:49] And for that purpose, we have entitled our series through the book of Romans The Foundation of Our Faith. Paul, writing to a church which he did not know personally, which he had only heard about, a church which was growing, and a church which was thriving, and a church that was of utmost importance because it was in the most influential city of the world at its day.
[4:11] Today, we have cities around the world that are influential, cities that set the standard for the rest of the world, and a number of those cities really exist in our own land. New York City is one of the main cities throughout the world that sets the standard, scary as it may be, for the other cities worldwide.
[4:28] You have a number of them in California. Chicago is another one that are standard setters for around the world, and Rome was the very such thing. And my friend, I just want to be honest with you.
[4:40] You don't see anything happening in the major cities of the world today that was not already happening in Rome during that day. Rome was a city of prominence and also a city of wickedness.
[4:52] It was a city that had lights along its streets. It was one of the first cities, if not the first city in the world, to have gas-lit lanterns lining the streets.
[5:02] Not every street, but some streets throughout Rome. And this is in the early days of its empire. It was a city that one of its emperors decided to overlay every major building in marble and to inlay it with gold.
[5:18] It was a city of beauty, but it was also a city of wickedness. It was a city of abandonment of children simply because you did not want them or because they were the wrong gender.
[5:30] It was a city of great sexual immorality. It was a city of brothels. It was a city of, if I didn't like someone, then I could get rid of them. It was a city of blame that when a great fire ran through the city of Rome, they blamed it on the Christians because there was no one else that was fit to blame it on.
[5:48] So Christians started suffering great persecution. So when Paul is writing to the church of that city, he is writing truth that would shape and mold a church that could change the world.
[6:04] And he is writing things of utmost importance. He is not writing something that is just of passing by. He is not writing something that would not matter. I mean, it took something to write this letter to those whom he didn't know and they didn't know him, though they had all heard about one another and he had every intention and would eventually make it there as a prisoner.
[6:25] But he wanted to be sure that the church of that city was strong. And really, he was moved by the Spirit of God to write the Word of God so that the church of God would forever be strong.
[6:35] And we're just as much a part of that church. We stand today as a part of that church that can change the world by the influence we make in our city.
[6:47] And I literally, really believe that. I know that there may be people that think that I'm crazy and people that want to remind me that my name is Billy Joe. I was born in Belboca when I lived in Wartrace.
[6:58] And, you know, it's a little town that gets shut down because a train stops on the track. But I think that God is so powerful, he can use anybody to change the world through the power of the gospel.
[7:10] And I really believe that God calls his churches to be places of influence, not just in their own community, but in a worldwide event. But the thing that has to be settled are these foundational issues.
[7:25] And one of the themes of my ministry has always been to call the church to be the church because the church that I read about in Scripture is a church that was outnumbered, outsourced, and outsized, yet changed the world in just a number of years.
[7:41] It was a church that was of small numbers, yet wherever you went, especially wherever Paul went, if you remember when Paul went on his missionary travels, here is a man that was in agreement with the killing of the first Christian martyr.
[7:54] Here is a man that was persecuting the church and had this encounter on Damascus Road. And by the way, God worked in his life and moved in his life over a series of years.
[8:05] By the time he was on his missionary journeys, it was said about him, this is he who is turning the world upside down. Now, we like to put Paul up here on a pedestal, but Paul is not really that great of a guy in the flesh.
[8:18] He was a guy of weak qualities. He was a guy of anger. He got mad. He was a guy of just like us. He was a guy of like nature as we are.
[8:31] Yet he was a man being used by God. So we see these foundational issues of the faith. We have been looking at the freedom we have through justification by faith alone, that we are set free through faith in Jesus Christ, not of ourselves.
[8:45] Paul lays out in the first pages of the book of Romans that we can do no good. No one can do good. There is none good. No, not one. For every heart is desperately wicked. My heart, your heart, every heart we find in the world is desperately wicked.
[8:58] It is not that there are some people who are more wicked than us. It is not that there are some people that are better than others. The truth, according to Scripture, is that every one of us are awful individuals because we have this thing called sin inside of us.
[9:10] It's not the actions we do. You can live a very good life. You can be a very good person. You can never really do anything terrible or really be that bad. But the reality is that the thing in you that is sin, that sin nature you inherited from Adam, is so horrendous in the sight of God, you are just as awful in his sight as the most terrible individual you will ever meet.
[9:33] And you say, well, that doesn't seem right. That doesn't seem fair. Shouldn't it be that God judges me according to the goodness of my life? Well, I don't think that would be fair because when I read the Old Testament, I see God's standard of judgment.
[9:45] And even in the good things I do, I fall way so short. And what makes it fair is that God offers forgiveness to every individual, the good, the bad, the ugly, every one of us.
[9:56] God offers it no matter how bad we've been or no matter how good we've attempted to be. God extends the same offer. And that is place your faith in Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And he has made it so easy that so many of us think that it is an impossibility when in the truth it is available and offered.
[10:15] And then Paul begins to lay out, well, these things are so and the law has all this part. And then we come to this great chapter of Romans chapter 8. And last week we looked at the first four verses of Romans chapter 8 as we began to look at this law of spirit of life and all this thing.
[10:33] And what we could not do as we were weak in the flesh, God did and he set us free and we've been free from this sin nature. And now we are redeemed and we are glorified and we are his.
[10:45] And I want to just go ahead and preface everything that I'm about to say after this, starting in verse 5. This is for those who have accepted that salvation found in Jesus Christ.
[10:57] Everything here, starting in verse 5, are for the believers, for the redeemed, not for the seeker. This is for those who have already accepted Jesus Christ.
[11:08] Because verses 1 through 4 tell us the necessity of accepting faith in Jesus Christ, of allowing God to do what we cannot do. Just stop right here and I'll just say, you know, because maybe some of you weren't here last week or maybe you lived life between last Sunday and this Sunday and you may have forgot this, so that's okay.
[11:26] We'll just go ahead and we can say what we've already said and we've continued to say it again. Maybe you've reached the point where you realize you can't be good enough, you can't do enough, and that's not to belittle any one of us.
[11:37] That's just to come to the honest, admit it. You know what? I'm trying. I try my best, but every time I get up, I keep falling short and I don't know why it is. And, well, the answer to that is because of the nature inside of us, we cannot help but fall short.
[11:51] And maybe you've reached the point where you have to quit trying. And I want to tell you something, that's a great place to be, but don't just quit. Let someone else do it. Because what we cannot do, God did.
[12:03] And accept the work that He has already done for you. Because I want to tell you what we find in verses 5 through 17. I want to tell you how you can walk free. How are we to walk free?
[12:17] We used to have a shirt so many years ago. When I came to Christ, I was a member of a church, and we were an active church. In case you haven't figured it out about my wife and I, I love church shirts.
[12:28] I just do. I love it. I love that if you go through yearbooks sometime, and we used to count them, you go through the yearbooks of the local schools, and you end up saying, hey, that's our church shirt, or hey, that's our church shirt.
[12:38] And I don't even know who that kid is, but they got one of our church shirts. That's pretty cool. You know, maybe they picked it up at Goodwill, but it doesn't matter. I like that, okay? Okay, but maybe it was because when I came to the faith in Christ, and I really accepted Him, I had this shirt that was given to me, and it was one of the shirts, and some of you may remember it.
[12:55] It had like an eagle, I mean like a flag on it. It had a chain, and it had an eagle, and it says, Christ has set you free. And I remember I used to always ask myself, from what? Because I'm a very specific guy, right?
[13:07] Christ has set me free, but what does He set me free from, and what does it matter? But I want you to see this morning how you can walk free. You remember last week, we ended the sermon with this thought that the free man walks different than the slave man.
[13:22] The man that is free, who has nothing holding him back, walks so much different than the one who is enslaved. And I want to encourage you this morning and show you that in Christ, it is possible to walk free.
[13:34] In Christ, it is possible to live a life that is free. Free from that sin which holds you captive, free from guilt, free from shame, free from failure. It is possible to live and to walk free in Christ.
[13:47] And you say, how? Because this is for the believer. If you haven't accepted Christ, then I want to go ahead and tell you, you can't live free. It's an impossibility apart from Jesus Christ. Once you accept Jesus Christ, it is now a possibility, but that does not mean we have to be careful, okay?
[14:02] Let me just stop right here. I know it's a long introduction, but it matters. You can accept Jesus Christ, and in a moment you are saved, in a moment you are redeemed, in a moment you are forgiven, in a moment you are sealed until the day of redemption, in a moment nothing can grasp you out of the hands of God, neither heights, nor powers, nor depth, nor principalities of darkness, nor forces of evil.
[14:22] We'll get to that later in Romans 8. Nothing can take you out of the hand of God because you've given yourself to God. But I want to tell you that once He puts you in His hand, you are not yet what you should be.
[14:32] And I would be lying to you or misleading you if I told you that if you accepted Jesus Christ, everything would be better. Because the reality is that the moment you accept Jesus Christ, all of a sudden you become more aware of your failures, and you become more aware of your mistakes.
[14:47] And Satan becomes more aware of you, and starts throwing darts at you. You may remember from the book of Acts that there were the seven sons of Sceva who went out trying to cast out demons in the name of Paul and in the name of the Jesus that Paul preached.
[15:02] And you may remember what the demons said. The demons said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? And I just want to go ahead and tell you this. If you have any friends who don't know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and they think it's going to be a big party in hell, I hate to call it what it is, but that's exactly what it is, you tell them that when they get there, Satan won't even know their name.
[15:23] Because if you're living for the devil, he doesn't worry about you, he doesn't know you, he's not concerned about you, he rules you, and he doesn't even know your name. There's a reason why in the book of Revelations you're given a number of the beast, but you're never given a name.
[15:36] Names belong to the redeemed, to the children of God. It's a beautiful picture, right? And once you accept Jesus Christ and you're given a new name, guess who else knows your name? Satan. I'm reading in the book of Job the last two mornings, some of you are going through the Bible study, the Bible reading plan as well.
[15:52] God keeps bringing up Job. Have you considered Job? And Satan's like, oh yeah, I know Job. That righteous man over there, everything's going good for Job. He's always glorifying you because he knows your name.
[16:03] And once he knows your name, he wants to stumble you. He wants to throw darts at you. He can never take you out of the hand of God, but friend, he can render you useless while you're in the hand of God. And he can trip you up.
[16:16] And he can still make you walk as if you belong to him. So I want to talk to you this morning and how the believer can live free. How you can walk free. Number one, first of all, there is a required mindset.
[16:32] A required mindset. And this is why I introduced it this way because if I did not clarify that this is for the believer, some of you may think, well, if I can just get my mind right, then I'll be okay.
[16:42] You cannot get your mind right apart from Christ, but once you have accepted Christ, now all of a sudden you have, the Bible says, the mind of Christ inside of you and you have the ability through Christ to have the right mindset.
[16:55] Look at what the Word of God says. It says there in verse 5. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. Let me just go ahead and say it.
[17:05] That whatever it is that you set your mind on, it will always reveal who you really are. Whatever it is that to have your mind set means to have your mind fixed upon.
[17:17] Whatever controls your thoughts or is the fixed thought of your mind will always be a revelation of the person. Now he's writing to the believers here. We see in just a minute it says, but brethren, my brethren.
[17:28] So he's writing to the believers and it is very possible for you to be a carnal believer. That is a believer in Jesus Christ completely saved, but still living according to the flesh.
[17:39] I'm not saying that it is healthy. I'm not saying that it's accurate, but I'm saying that it is possible, right? And he says here that if you set your mind according to the flesh, then you are living according to the flesh.
[17:51] If you set your mind according to the Spirit, then you are living according to the Spirit. And he goes on. For the mind set on the flesh is death. I mean, just stop right there. Once you accepted Jesus Christ, you now have the ability and the power to choose what it is you're going to fix your mind upon.
[18:09] This is something that we don't hear quite often. We just say, accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and you shall be saved. But accepting Jesus Christ is like, well, the beautiful picture is, is it's wedding.
[18:20] It's a marriage day, okay? The bridegroom comes in. Well, let me just go ahead and put the picture like this. Carrie and I were married on November 21st, 1998. What if, because you are the bride of Christ, so I'm going to use her as an example and I'm not belittling my wife at all, okay?
[18:35] I'm only in the position of the bridegroom because I happen to be the man. So what if on that day, I'm standing at the front of the altar and I know for a fact, my father-in-law back there at that time, I wasn't his favorite individual because I was taking the first of his girls out of the house.
[18:50] So, I mean, I love my father-in-law. I have a great father-in-law, but I also know because I have a daughter that when I'm in the back of that church, I'm going to be like, you sure you want to do this? You know, that guy up there seems like a pretty good guy, but he's never going to be good enough for my daughter.
[19:02] And so I don't blame him for that. What say, Carrie said, yeah, I want to do this. So she accepts me just like we accept Jesus Christ. I'm standing up here at the altar. She walks down the aisle.
[19:13] He gives her to me. I had to kind of begrudgingly take her if I remember right. But anyway, I take my bride and I have now accepted my bride and my bride has accepted me.
[19:25] What if from that day forward, she decides she's going to go back home and not ever think about me again? What if she never gives me any more thoughts? What if she said, well, I accepted my husband, we are now married and I'm just going to keep thinking and living the way that I've always lived?
[19:43] She doesn't have to do that anymore, but she can do that if she wants to, right? And that is what we find when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We now have the ability and even the authority to control what we think about.
[19:57] And the Bible says that if we continue to think about the things of the flesh and you say, well, pastor, what are the things of the flesh? Are you saying, I'm not supposed to think about my body anymore? No, there's a difference between the flesh and the body.
[20:09] And I don't have time to take you there, but I'm going to give you a reference. You know Galatians 5, verses 22 and following very well because that's the fruit of the Spirit. And you want to see the fruit of the Spirit in your life.
[20:19] But in Galatians 5, I think it's somewhere starting in about verse 13, before you get to the fruit of the Spirit, Paul lays out the works of the flesh. And he will show you what the works of the flesh are there.
[20:31] Immorality, impurity, licentiousness, all these sensual pleasures, coarseness, anger, and all these things that come out. But one thing you notice about every work of the flesh, they all start in the same place.
[20:44] The mind. Every one of them. They all start with the mind. And the flesh is what is going on naturally inside of us.
[20:57] And Paul in Galatians is encouraging the church of Galatia to replace the work of the flesh with the work of the Spirit. He is telling us here, because Paul always says the same thing, that if we continue just to think about the things of the flesh and allow ourselves to be control of the flesh, then that is death.
[21:16] Living in death. You're not living free. Why? Because the flesh cannot please God. You see that? In the flesh, you cannot please God.
[21:30] None of the works of the flesh are pleasing to God, because every one of the works of the flesh are a rebellion of the law of God. If you go read them in Galatians 5, and he says, and such things as these, and when you begin to understand what the flesh is, it really is, every one of the works of the flesh are rebellion against the law of God, and if you rebel against the law of God, it is impossible to be pleasing to God, though you may be a child of God.
[21:55] But it said, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Friend, if you want to walk free, the first requirement is a required mindset. Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, the second letter, some people believe it's the third letter, and it may very well be possible, but we may have lost one between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.
[22:15] But in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, I believe it is, Paul reminds the believers again, it's amazing how many of these admonitions are for the believers.
[22:27] Paul reminds the believers that Satan has built strongholds in your life. And guess where he says Satan has built the strongholds? In the mind.
[22:39] The picture is that Satan has these little fortresses built in your mind, and he's got these walls around him. He has these strongholds over portions of your mind that says, I'm going to keep the things of God out of here.
[22:52] But Paul says this, but we are destroying, we wage war with Satan, not according to the battles of this life, but according to the battles of the spiritual warfare. It says, and we are destroying the strongholds of Satan by taking every what?
[23:05] That thought captive and subjecting it to the things of Christ. we don't think a lot about what we think. You say, well, that's getting deep, Pastor.
[23:20] I want you just to stop for a moment and be honest with yourself. Where's your thought life? Is it according to the flesh? Or is it according to the Spirit?
[23:34] Is it according to the flesh? Or is it according to the Spirit? I don't mind using myself as an example, so I'll tell you again. We were looking at some photos. Kylie was looking at some photos just the other day, and she pulled out some old pictures of me.
[23:47] And man, I was picking on Ethan. I told Ethan, I said, Ethan, this was back in your thicker days. And I was just kind of joking with him before he hit his growth spurt. And then she pulled out a photo, and I said, no, those were back in my thicker days.
[23:58] And these were some photos from back in the day. And before my back surgery and all this other stuff, and I was still fairly young. I was like, wow. And I looked at that, and then I remember, those were the days, I was in my early 30s, and I decided I was going to get in shape.
[24:12] And I don't mind telling you, I mean, I was a pastor by this time, but I wanted to get in shape because I wanted to look good, okay? That was my response. I wanted to look good. I just did. Maybe it's flesh. But that is the flesh, right?
[24:24] I got tired of looking that way, so I wanted to look better. So I went, and I was meeting the brother in Christ. We were working out, and Hunter wanted to work out, so that was kind of motivation. I was working out, working out, lost a lot of weight, and everything was going fine.
[24:35] And then, and God said, that's enough of you, and I ruptured a disc in my back. Not by working out. That'd be cool if I could say I had so much weight on the bar, I was squatting this thing, and the man that popped out. No, my disc ruptured while I was asleep in the middle of the night, so I mean, I don't know.
[24:48] I guess I was snoring too loud or something. But I ruptured a disc in my back, which completely cut out that whole weight lifting thing, right? I can't lift weights anymore. I can't do any of that stuff, so I said, okay. But what I want you to see is, now, I'm on this other side.
[25:01] A few months ago, I really got convicted about my weight and about where I'd let myself go. I've lost more weight now than I did then, but the difference is, is then I wanted to look good. I want, I mean, you know, I had sons that were growing up, and their muscles were looking bigger than mine, so I decided that I wanted to equalize the playing field, so I wanted to get some of those, and I wanted to look good.
[25:23] I wanted to look good for my wife. I wanted to look, now, this last time, because I mean, I, you know, I sat at the table this morning, and the kids were like, Dad, don't you want some of these pancakes with chocolate chips and syrup all in them?
[25:34] And I did. I want them. Then, I would have taken them. Now, I didn't, because I began to get convicted. The Bible says, now, this is for me. I'm not picking on you. You've got to go as the Lord moves you, okay?
[25:45] I'm definitely not any judgmental. I really began to be convicted, where the Bible says, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and I began to look at other pastors, and I began to notice myself, and even my own life, like, how can I stand in the pulpit and speak of godliness and live so ungodly?
[26:00] Before it was of the flesh, I wanted to look good. Now, it's of the spirit, like, that God has called me to be better. And you see the difference.
[26:13] When it was of me, the temptation was still death, because I was fighting it, and I was fighting it, and I was fighting it, and you put it before me, and I would lose it, and now, I still, the temptation is still there, but it's different, because it's no longer about me.
[26:25] It's not. It's not. You know? It was a conviction. The mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the things of the spirit is life and peace, and friend, listen to me, the first way to walk free is to change where you set your mind, but you have to do it in Christ.
[26:48] Number two, there is a recognized presence. A recognized presence. Look at what it says. Verse eight says, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You say, oh no, what do I do here?
[27:00] And then, all of a sudden, we move to this recognized presence in verse nine. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
[27:12] So here he says, don't worry about it, my friend. I'm speaking to believers. You're not in the flesh anymore. Though your mind may be set on the flesh, you're not in the flesh. So you can be pleasing to God. And he gives this litmus test for Christianity.
[27:24] The Bible never tells us that the test of the genuineness of our faith is if we raised our hand or even if we went to the altar. It never tells us if we filled out a church membership card.
[27:34] It never says that the test of the genuineness of our faith is how much of the Bible we read or how much we give during the offering. It simply says this, that he who has the spirit is of God.
[27:46] He who does not have the spirit of Christ has nothing to do with him. I mean, the test for genuineness of Christianity is, does the Holy Spirit live inside of you? That's the only question.
[27:59] A.W. Tozer used to call it the fellowship of the burning heart. He said, there are people who have come to Christ much different than me. There are people who think about things differently than I do. There are people who have real convictions that I don't have and have freedoms that I don't possess.
[28:14] But the one thing that I must ask them, is the spirit of Christ dwelling in them just like the spirit of Christ is dwelling in me? And if so, then that's my brother and sister in Christ whether or not we are in agreement at all.
[28:26] The genuineness of your faith is this litmus test of he who has the spirit has Christ. He who does not have the spirit of Christ is not his. So it would really be beneficial to us if we took some time to consider that, right?
[28:43] Do I have the spirit of Christ dwelling in me? Is the Holy Spirit in me? Because the Bible tells us that the moment we are saved, it says in Ephesians, the first chapter of Ephesians, that we are given as an engagement ring or as a pledge the Holy Spirit.
[28:58] And with the Holy Spirit we are sealed until that day of redemption that he is there with us forever in us dwelling inside of us. Jesus taught the same thing in John 14, 15 and 16.
[29:09] But we see this here in verse 9. He says, you're not in the flesh but in the spirit if the spirit dwells in you. Verse 10, if Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
[29:21] The way that should literally read is this. If Christ is in you though the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because it is righteous. It's the Holy Spirit.
[29:32] Because the wages of sin is death, right? And we have all sinned therefore we will all die. That is the wages of sin. We are living in a decaying body yet we are alive because the spirit is life.
[29:43] That is what is living in us, inside of us. Verse 11 says, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, just stop right there. Okay, this is so good. You say, well how can I know if the Holy Spirit is inside of me?
[29:56] You know, are there any details? Well, first of all let's define the Holy Spirit. Okay? He is a part of the Trinity. He is just as much God as Elohim, Almighty God is. He is just as much God as Jesus is God.
[30:08] He is always used in personal pronouns. It is a physical presence. There is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the triune Godhead. Don't ask me to define that because it makes my mind smoke just as much as it will make your mind smoke.
[30:20] Okay? But it says this, that it is he who raised Christ from the dead. The Bible tells us that the resurrection, Jesus came out of the grave, right? And all three members of the Trinity are given to power.
[30:34] It says Jesus laid down his life, he took it up again, God the Father raised him, and the Holy Spirit raised him. So all of God was involved in the resurrection of Jesus. That's why the tomb is empty. But it says that he who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you.
[30:47] Now, I don't know about you, but if you can cause a dead man to come back to life and keep him alive and raise him into heaven, that's pretty powerful. And if something that powerful can live inside of me and me not know it, there's a problem.
[31:04] There's a problem. If he who raised Christ from the dead dwells in me, I'm going to know it. For one, I know it by this conviction of the Holy Spirit.
[31:15] It begins to, the things I used to do, I can no longer do or I can do them, but I can't enjoy them the way I used to because now the Holy Spirit's conviction is there, his presence is there. The things that used to upset me, they don't upset me anymore because now there's peace.
[31:28] You know, people I used to just not like at all. As a matter of fact, I'd almost go on the verge of hate. The things that used to make me mad, they don't bother me anymore. Now I seem to find myself, I love them. Why? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.
[31:42] I used to not get help myself and now all of a sudden, self-control. Why? These things aren't manifesting themselves and it's not like just because I chose to do that. Now all of a sudden it's happening and if he is strong enough to raise a dead man, he is sure strong enough to move me to live accordingly.
[32:01] Paul also tells us be careful that we don't suppress the Spirit. See, we hear these truths in the Baptist circles. I mean, let's just be honest. We're sitting in a Southern Baptist church and if I was to stand up and the majority of Southern Baptist church said, we're going to do a series on the Holy Spirit, some people would get a little scared.
[32:20] I mean, just to be honest, the Holy Spirit is not a real big favorite topic of the Southern Baptist church because we think of this whole swinging from chandeliers and running around and jumping off the back of the pews and all this crazy stuff which, you know, when I read the Bible and I see the Holy Spirit moving, the walls of the church shook and, you know, people knew that the Spirit was there and there was this manifest presence of the Spirit and we're like, wait a minute, don't get too carried away there, pastor, don't get all Bapticastical on us but listen, he's raising the dead to life and he lives inside of me.
[32:52] Shouldn't we at least recognize who it is that dwells inside of us? Because maybe, maybe, I mean, just maybe, just think about the possibilities just for a minute here.
[33:07] I'm going to cause you just to step out. if we really believed that something that powerful lives inside of us, then we might believe he could cause us to live free.
[33:23] We might believe we don't have to do the things we used to do anymore. We might believe he's strong enough to change what is our natural fleshly desires.
[33:34] We might believe that we don't have to do what the flesh wants to do any longer because we would have to admit if he can bring the dead to life, he can change the living to sinlessness.
[33:48] I mean, but we say, I don't know about that. Too many times we magnify the power of Satan and shrink the power of the Spirit.
[34:05] Oh, the devil made me do it, the devil made me do it, the devil made me do it. No, friend, listen to me. I'm just, I know I'm going from preaching to meddling, but that's okay every now and then. Okay?
[34:15] So listen, I just want to be, I just want to be so honest with you. The devil is a created, limited, to time and space being. He is not transcendent.
[34:26] He cannot be everywhere at one time. So the devil cannot be making you do something and at the same time be making me do something. Now he has legions of angels. There's demonic angels and all these spirits, but he is a limited, every angel, though it has magnificent power, he is an angel of light, it is a created, limited being.
[34:43] It can only be in one place at one time. And just the reality is the devil can't make you do anything. The book of James tells us that each man sins when he is, when he is carried away by his own lust.
[35:01] You know who made you do it? You made yourself do it. And you found somebody to blame in the devil. We magnify the power of Satan because it removes guilt from us.
[35:19] And we belittle the power of the Spirit because it brings responsibility back to us. He is living inside of me. Recognize his presence.
[35:31] If you want to live free, listen to this, but 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.
[35:45] What is he saying? That God can use that body that has been defiled by flesh and can call it out of the grave of sin to live the life of glory today.
[35:56] He can move your body to live for his glory if we would allow him to. We're talking about living free. I've got one more.
[36:07] Stay with me. The third and final one is this. Not only is there a required mindset, not only is there a recognized presence, I'll try to make this one short. Listen, there is a realized position.
[36:18] A realized position. Look at what it says in verse 12. So then, brethren, I told you he was talking to believers. So then, brethren, my brothers and sisters in Christ, those who have accepted Jesus Christ, those who are just like me, those who once were lost but now they see, those who were living according to their own desires and God supernaturally interrupted those desires and drew them to himself.
[36:46] My brethren, listen to this, so then, brethren, we are under obligation. We are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh and what is so characteristic of the writings of Paul, he takes that and he gets sidetracked.
[37:00] I mean, see, I'm not the only sidetracked pastor. I'm not the only one who kind of sees something and begins to go away with it because he says we're under obligation not to live according to the flesh and if you finish the sentence you should say but to live according to the spirit.
[37:11] He never says that because he gets carried away about this living according to the flesh. He's speaking to his brothers and sisters in Christ, so we'll take the line of thought where Paul does and then we'll come back and see if we can complete it as he intended it to be completed look at what it says.
[37:24] For if you're living according to the flesh you must die. What is he saying? Oh, this is a sombering reality for the believer that if you are a believer in Jesus Christ if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior listen to me my friend I'm talking about the redeemed I'm talking about the saved he said if you are born again but you still want to live as if you've never been saved then God will give you what you deserve then even though you belong to him now.
[37:49] You're going to die. Adrian Rogers used to counsel and I remember listening to some of it and I've heard other pastors saying that they had known believers who were living in open sin they were living intentionally rebelling against what God had convicted them of that God had spoken to them they knew God had spoken to them and that they would look at God and say but God I'm not willing to do that yet Adrian Rogers said I remember in particular it was one member of my church he came to me and said I really feel like God's convicted me and he wants me to do this and he said but pastor I'm not doing this he said as he walked away I looked at the man standing beside me I said mark my word in six months that man will be dead he said now that man was a picture of health there's nothing wrong with him he said it wasn't six months later he was dead why because he mocked God and God will not be mocked he said I don't know about that stuff pastor I want to serve a God that's that big I don't know about you I mean I want a God that's that big because if I don't have a God that is that serious about the life he's called me to live then I'm sacrificing for nothing if I don't have a God who is that in control of every aspect of my life then I'm just hoping in what I think might be there but if I have a God that is that serious then I know
[39:01] I can trust him with everything I'm placing in his care and to be frank with you that's everything I have I'm banking all I have and all I own and all I'm depending on I'm banking it all on God's promise in Jesus Christ I'm not holding any of it back so I want a God who's that big and that's exactly what he says he says that if you want to live according to the flesh then God will give you the reward of the flesh that is death do I believe that there are premature deaths among believers yeah some of them are a result of a sinful lifestyle and some of them it was just God gave them their day it was an appointed day I believe that sometimes we can mock God and we can live as if we want to live and we can we can still we can be his people but we can still choose to do what it is we want to do even though now I'm not putting a list of do's and don'ts out there right don't come to me and say well pastor what should I not do and what should I do and I will give you the same answer if you come up to me I'll say that if you can do it in Jesus then do it but if when you do it you feel the conviction of the spirit then stop it it's pretty simple right it's not for me to tell you what to do and what not to do that's what that's the power of the spirit inside of you if you can look at everything in your life and say can I do this in Christ and if I can say yes I can do this in Christ then my friend do it
[40:21] Paul says you know what I can do Paul's people said don't eat meat offered to idols Paul said this they can give me a t-bone that used to sit on the altar over there and in Christ boy I'll eat that t-bone and I'll enjoy it because in Christ that's a good hunk of meat I don't care about their false god they think they offered it to but in Christ it's good and I'm going to eat it now Paul was free but Paul would also say this but if the man sitting across the table from me saw that as meat that was offered to an idol and he saw the idol more than he saw the t-bone then in Christ I wouldn't eat it James says to he who knows to do right and does not do it then to him it is sin it's pretty simple and we see this here this this responsibility this recognized position he says we are under obligation do you know why you're under obligation and I'll just finish this line of thought and I'm wrapping up you say why am I obliged to live free in the flesh who has the right to tell me that well he finishes it for you verse 14 for all those who are being led by the spirit of God these are the sons of God for you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again which means that you don't have to do the things of God because you're scared or because you're afraid you're not obligated to do the right thing because if you don't you're going to be punished
[41:49] I don't mean to do that I should not have I hope that I didn't push that aside I was just trying to lay out a truth it's not a scare tactic that's why I'm not going to tell you what you can and what you can't do okay because you're obligated that's not my responsibility I'm obligated just as much as you are not because of fear but you have received a spirit or the spirit with a capital S of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba Father the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God now let's just stop right there you know why we're obligated to live free because we are the children of God he adopted us into his family I see Jesus living free I see the model walking across the earth and not a care and concern tempted in every way yes that's what the Bible says stumbling no living free as a testimony to those around him the obligation was because he's the very son of God or friend listen to me that in Christ you've been adopted and you are the very son of God when Paul wrote this adoption is something that was very familiar with the people of Rome as a matter of fact one of the leaders of the emperors of Rome
[43:04] Octavius who had a daughter only wanted to ensure who would see him at the throne of Rome so he went and officially adopted Nero now Nero ended up being a pretty bad ruler by Christian standards because he did a lot of harm to the faith but he adopted Nero now Roman adoption was pretty detailed much like today's adoptions are they're pretty detailed you had to go through three phases and the first phase was this when you brought in a child the birth father would bring this child sorry mothers you didn't have any pictures but the birth father would bring this child present him for adoption and then take him back and like no I'm not going to do that and second time he would bring him and then take him back like no I'm not going to do that and then the third time all these were symbolic he would present the child for adoption and then he would turn away and walk away and from that moment on there were no more legal bindings adoption would happen at times when adults were or when children were adults because in Roman culture your daddy always had to say so over your life no matter how old you were that's not a bad practice I think sometimes but daddy was always the decanter and the dictator of your life which means that it was completely possible like Nero to be an adult child and be adopted well the cool thing was is that every you were considered dead okay so if I'm an adult and I'm adopted all of my debts everything that I owed everything that I used to owe everybody else was canceled in my adoption because that man's dead he's no longer alive somebody like well I want to be adopted today you know well let's do that now and you would so if it doesn't nobody could come and collect an old debt from you because that person's no longer there and then you would be joined to the new person just like when Octavius adopted Nero he ensured now
[44:46] Nero is a son of Octavius and would succeed him on the throne when the adoption code was so strict Nero was hanging out in Octavius' home and then realized that Octavius' daughter was pretty nice and not really he wanted to ensure he got to the throne so he wanted to double bind the fact that he got to the throne he wanted to marry Octavius' daughter well according to Roman rule though they were not blood related he couldn't marry his sister and that was just wrong because he is a son of Octavius just as much as that girl is a daughter of Octavius so Octavius being emperor you know it pays when your daddy's in the big seat made a special law to allow Nero to marry his own sister so that he could make sure now some of you that's messed up they weren't any blood kin they were just adopted adoption was final it was permanent and it ruled you the rest of your life and Paul says once you're adopted you're obligated to live as that family lives look at what he says when God calls us into this family and we accept that adoption that old life that old debt it no longer has anything on us now everything we are from this moment on is according to the family which we now belong he says if we're children now this is where it makes us go hallelujah but we better be careful where we say hallelujah sometime if children heirs also that's awesome isn't it heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ that's why when we get to the book of revelations
[46:21] Jesus said you can sit with me on my throne and I'm sitting on my daddy's throne so if you are a believer in me and you endure to the end we're going to be hanging out on daddy's throne which is God's throne which Ezekiel saw that had the rainbow above it and everything around it shook and that's a pretty cool place to be sitting right we are joint heirs with Jesus which means that everything that is Jesus is ours too and the Bible says that it all belongs to him right and you're like great yes hallelujah alright that's awesome but wait a minute so we will be joint heirs in his suffering which means that the suffering the pain the persecution the hatred all the world threw at Jesus they're going to throw at you do you want to know why honestly we don't live free and I'm wrapping up it's because it's a lot harder to live free in a world full of slaves because the slaves get mad just ask Jesus he never judged anyone he loved everyone he fed the 5,000 they mocked him he walked on the water they denied him he cast the demon into the swans he killed the pig they ran him out of town why because he's different because you will be an heir of his suffering so you shall be an heir of his glory it's all his we live free when we live by the required mindset we acknowledge and recognize the presence and we have a realized position my friend listen to me
[47:55] God has allowed you to live in the body you've always lived in but you are no longer who you used to be if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior though you may look the same though at times you may talk the same and though you may have the same temptations friend listen to me that old man is dead you are obligated to live according to the family you belong to will you mess up sure everyone messes up but you're obligated that's your position and he didn't ask you to do something he won't empower you to do wouldn't he gave you the presence of the spirit to do it adoption is a pretty familiar thing to this church family and you know that when a child that is not biologically yours comes into your family you expect that child to live as if they are part of your family and this is the good news you will give them the ability to do that by giving them the same love you gave the other children in your family with the same expectation why would
[49:05] God not do the same he wants us to live free I don't know where you're at all I know is where I'm at let's pray Lord I thank you so much for this day God I thank you for the calling you've called upon each of our lives Lord maybe there's someone here today who has never surrendered their life to you never given their life to Jesus Christ completely and totally and said here I am Lord you have Lord I pray that by the power and presence of your spirit that you would do such Lord maybe some of us we struggle we're really not living free we know we are free but we're not living that way God would you encourage us and move us to live accordingly just be glorified and honored in our lives that's all we ask Lord Lord may you be honored for the way we live as your children we ask it all in Jesus name Amen God
[50:20] God God God