Being Led By the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:12–17)

Introduction

Attention

We're going to continue our series today in Romans. We'll be in Romans 8:12-17 and we're going to talk about living under submission to the Holy Spirit. Friends, living under submission to the Holy Spirit is not just a secondary thing or something for more mature Christians. Living under submission to the Holy Spirit is the Christian life. And so this is going to be a vital thing for you to get your mind and heart wrapped around. In other words, how can I be a Christian who is led by the Holy Spirit?

There are a lot of things in life that want to lead you. I was getting out of work one day in midtown Manhattan and it was after work, 5 pm. I just wanted to get home, but I found myself walking really fast. And I was wondering, why am I walking so fast? I mean, I want to go home, but it's not a rush.

What happened was I realized I was in a crowd and this crowd were all walking fast. This is just what they do in New York. And everybody was walking fast. And so I found myself being led by the crowd, and I was just walking as fast as they were.

It is so easy for us to be led and influenced by what's around us. But as a Christian, God has not called us to be people who are led and influenced by what's around us. God has called us to be people who are led and influenced by his power in us.

As a Christian, how can I be someone living under submission to the Holy Spirit. How can I be someone led by the spirit of God? We're going to look at that today as we look at Romans 8:12-17. So if you have your Bibles open up there.

Scripture Reading

Romans 8:12–17 CSB

12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh, 13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!” 16 The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

Pray

Romans 8:12-17 is a message to Christians. He says, “So then, brothers and sisters.” The Greek would be just brothers; really what he's describing is all Christians. He starts us off by describing something that we no longer have to be obligated to.

Obligated to the flesh

He says that we are not obligated to the flesh. The word there for “obligated” means debtors. It's the same word you'll see in the Lord's prayer, where he says, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.“

So he said. So when he says “we are not obligated to our flesh,” what he means is that we are not in debt to our flesh or we are not a debtor to our flesh. We don't owe anything to our flesh and don't have to be controlled by our flesh.

Last time when we talked about the flesh, we talked about it not as the human skin, but as the human nature. And when we're talking about human nature, I believe what he's really getting at is our human passions. They are no longer obligated to follow the passions of our human nature.

Galatians 5:24 really gets to the heart of what he is talking about when he is describing the flesh.

Galatians 5:24 CSB

24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Yeah, he's talking about those who belong to Christ. This is what we've been talking about in Romans 8. Paul is talking to Christians. Christians have crucified the flesh with... He's going to expand what he is describing about the flesh. They've crucified the flesh with “its passions and desires.”

James also describes the flesh as passions within you. He says this in James 4:1:

James 4:1 CSB

1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

There is a discord among the people that he's talking to. And where does this discord or this friction come from? It comes from the passions that wage war within you. In James and Paul, both of them recognize that within the Christian life there are remnants of a human nature. A nature consisting of passions that are waging war against the soul. I described this in the sermon on Romans 7 as a friction within the Christian life.

Peter also describes the passions of the flesh and 1 Peter 2:11 where he says this:

1 Peter 2:11 CSB

11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.

Peter's going to agree here with Paul that Christians are no longer obligated to the flesh. The way he describes it, he calls Christian “strangers and exiles” to the world. You're no longer part of this world. You are a stranger to it. So stop acting like the world who's obligated to sinful desires, waging war against the soul.

Now, with Paul, why are Christians not obligated to the flesh? What's interesting here is that Paul is making a distinction between those who are in Christ and those who are not in Christ. He's saying that if you are in Christ, there exists an ability within you where you don't have to live under the same obligations that you had when you were not in Christ. You don't have to live under the same passions that controlled you when you when you were in the world.

What do we mean by in the world? This is when you are not a believer in Jesus Christ. Your faith was not in God. You didn't know the one true and living God. And therefore you were in the world.

The passions and desires of your flesh

And when you are in the world, you are living life under your own powers and in your own flesh. And that flesh that you are living in is controlled, dominated by your passions and your desires. Your passions and your desires are in full control. Now you may try to squash down these passions and desires as much as possible. There's certain legal limits that you are controlled by. You can't just go to work and beat people up as much as you may want to. But in any case, your passions and your desires rule your soul.

Now, for an all practical purposes, what do these passions and desires look like? I think a term that makes sense for us is the word “addictions.” Now, the destructive nature of addictions is obvious in some people for you to see and understand how addictions rule the soul. There may be a passion and desire for drugs or alcohol or a passion and desire for pornography and these things rule over the soul. And they do intense damage to people.

Now we understand it would say that drugs or pornography can be a terrible addiction. How many of you know that you can be addicted to bitterness? You can be addicted to bitterness or anger, hatred, fits of rage. Bitterness can be something that rules over your soul and has terrible consequences.

Galatians 5:19-21 gives us a list of passions and desires that can rule over the soul of someone in the world. He says,

Galatians 5:19–21 CSB

19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So you can have a passion or desire for selfish ambition, dissension, or any one of these things, or a mix of them. And these things can rule and tear apart the soul. When you're outside of Christ your passions and your desires rule your life.

In fact, he gives us this list in Galatians 5:19-21 to warn you to take a look at yourself and just say, are these the things that are ruling your life? Because if you're someone whose soul is still constantly controlled by passions and desires. If you are someone who has never experienced the Spirit of God in your life taking over that control, you've got to ask yourself, are you in Christ?

Now, as we go back to Romans 8 he says that if you live according to the flesh, you're going to die. Now, in the context of Romans 8 it's important to note that he's talking to Christians and what he is not saying, he is not saying that a Christian can lose their salvation. Sometimes when we get into these conversations as Christians, we tend to make everything about salvation. That's not what we're talking about here.

Remember this, you can't work yourself into salvation. And if you can't work yourself into salvation, you certainly can't work yourself out of salvation. Salvation is not something you earn. Salvation is a gift given to you in Christ. How many of you are glad that you can't work yourself out of salvation?

But if you find yourself constantly controlled by your passions and your desires and you are never controlled by the Spirit of God, where are you today with Christ? Because in Christ, you no longer obligated or indebted to live that way.

Are Christians perfect? No. Do Christians fail? Do Christians mess up? Yes. 1 John 1:8:

1 John 1:8 CSB

8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Remember now in the next verse 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” But Christians are never meant to be people who are stuck in the muck and the mire. Christianity is not a stuck life. Christianity is a victorious life, because the victory is in Christ.

The power of God over the passions of the flesh

In Romans 8:12-17, Paul is describing a pattern of sanctification that must happen within the Christian life. Christianity is more than a one time thing. Christianity is a process. If I am in Christ, I'm not in Christ for a moment. I'm not in Christ because I walk down an aisle said a prayer. I am in Christ every day until eternity. So Christianity is a process that happens within the Christian life.

Remember that in Christ, there is a new power. I don't have to be someone who is dominated and controlled by the passions and desires of my flesh any more. In Christ, there is the power of God. And I can now willingly submit and let the power of God dominate and control my life.

But God will not force himself on some one. This is why he says in Romans 8:13:

Romans 8:13 CSB

13 because if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

We need to park there for a moment. Listen to what he's saying. He says, if by the spirit of God, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. What is this verse telling you? This verse is telling you how to be led by the Holy Spirit in your life. How do I know that? Because in the next verse, in Romans 8:14 he says, “For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons,” or God's children.

The word led in verse 14 is a present active indicative verb. It means in this present moment I am actively allowing myself to be led, influenced, guided, under submission to the Holy Spirit in my life.

Christianity is more than head knowledge. Christianity is a living experience. It's alive. There is a living experience happening in your life when you are in Christ under submission to the Holy Spirit.

Christianity has to be more than just knowledge. It's more than just some bullet points you checked off on the page. Christianity is not some contract where you just said OK, I believe Jesus is the son of God. Check. I believe he died on the cross for my sins. Yes, check that off. And I believe he rose from the grave. Yes. Check. Sign the dotted line and you're saved. Here you go.

Let me tell you something. If you believe that Christianity is simply a contract of head knowledge that you signed off on one day, you are missing the boat. If you think you're a Christian because you've agreed to some principles and you just move on with your life the same old way it was. You're missing the whole thing. Christianity is more than some bullet points. Christianity is a living experience in your life of sacrifice and submission to Jesus Christ.

And if you live in submission to the Holy Spirit in your life, you will be changed. He says in Romans 8:13 to “put to death the deeds of the body.” The underlying word here means to utterly stop or to kill. It's another one of these present active verbs. What he is saying is that today, this day, put to death the passions of your flesh.

In the Christian life, I'm continually putting to death the deeds of the body. I am continually on a day to day basis, sacrificing my passions and my desires, and saying, I don't want my passions and my desires to rule over my soul. Instead, I am going to sacrifice those and submit my passions and my desires to his will in my life.

Christianity is a living experience of day-to-day submission to Jesus Christ.

How many of you know that it takes time to build a relationship or a friendship with someone? Friendships are built on time.

They've actually done academic research to discover how long it takes to develop a friendship with someone. A professor from the University of Kansas named Professor Jeffrey Hall did a study to find out how long it takes to move someone from just an acquaintance in your life to someone who is a close personal friend.

He discovered that if you want somebody to be to move from to someone, to move from someone who is. he discovered that if you want someone to move to an acquaintance or a casual friend, it takes about 50 hours of being around that person. To move someone from a casual friend to someone who you would say is a friend. That actually takes about 90 hours. So you could say Bill and Julie. They're my friend. I know them.

But according to his study, he found out that if you want someone to be a close personal friend, someone you'd say, this is one of my close dear friends. It takes about 200 hours of being around that person to get to the point where you say, bill or Julie, they are my close personal. That person is my close, personal friend.

Now they quoted the professor after the study and listened to what he says here.

If you want to be a friend, he says, you have to put the time in. You can't snap your fingers and make a friend. Maintaining close relationships is the most important work we do in our lives. Most people on their deathbeds, agree.

That's good Did you listen to that? Maintaining close relationships is the most important thing you will do in your life. Most people on their deathbeds agree. If you want to develop a close relationship with someone, it takes time.

James 4:4 says this:

James 4:4 CSB

4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

He describes a friendship with the world. Basically, what he's saying here is that you can be a friend of the world, or you can be a friend of God. A lot of us spent our time developing and cultivating a relationship with the world. And he says friendship with the world is hostility toward God.

Now let me ask you a question. What relationship have you been putting your time and effort in developing? Are you a friend of the world or a friend of God? Where have you been spending your time?

Are you putting those 200 hours into being a friend of the world? James would call that being in a place of hostility toward God. Or you putting time and effort into building a close relationship with God? Because maintaining close relationships is one of the most important things you will do in your life. Most people on their deathbeds agree.

I don't know about you, but I want to spend my time. I want to put those 200 hours and more of my life into building a close friendship with God. And he says that by the Spirit put to death, literally every day, submitting your will to God. God will workout this sanctification process in your life.

The Christian life is this life of daily surrender daily, submitting myself to God, saying God, I put my passions and my desires. Those things I used to run after I put those on the altar, I sacrificed those and I set them before you. They are on the cross. And Lord, I submit myself to you today.

The power of God that brought you into his family

The second half of our verses in Romans 8, Romans 8:15-17 are building upon what we just read in Romans 8:12-14. Romans 8:15 is a little difficult to translate. In our English translation, they use a little “s” to talk about the human spirit, and they use a big “S” to talk about the Holy Spirit. If you're looking at it in the Greek, it's not as clear. It’s the same word, pneuma.

Romans 8:15 CSB

15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”

So this verse could read, you did not receive a spirit, little “s” of slavery, but a spirit, little “s” of adoption. So as a human, you're not a slave, but you're now a child of God. It could be as the CSB translates it, you did not receive a little “s” spirit of slavery, but the Holy Spirit has brought you into adoption. Or it could be the Holy Spirit has not brought you into slavery but instead has brought you into adoption.

Now, that spirit of slavery is referring to when you were in the world, when those passions and desires of your human nature ruled over your soul. He's actually gonna expand that further now by saying that a worldly lifestyle only results in a life of fear. In 2 Timothy 1:7 it says that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.”

But in an inner life dominated by human passions and desires, a life without Christ, a life without salvation, you’re left in a place where all there is is impending judgment. Hebrews 10:26–27 talks about someone who, after receiving the knowledge of truth, after receiving the gospel, someone continues to live a life in the world, rejecting the gospel, which is evident in their actions. Rejection of the gospel only leaves someone in a terrifying expectation of judgment and fear. Why is that? Because you're just living in the temporary in the moment. And everything needs to be good, because right now is all you've got. There's no hope, and there's no future.

And as a Christian, God does not want you to fall back into a place of fear, a time when you felt like you had no hope and no future. God came into a hopeless world to bring hope. In a world full of fear, he has come to bring you peace.

And Christian, if you see the Holy Spirit at work in your life, if you a life submitted to the Spirit of God, working within you. There is a testimony happening in your life. The testimony of the Holy Spirit in your life is a testimony to the fact that you are a son or daughter of the most high God.

He uses an Aramaic term in verse 15 that's very dear and very tender. He says, “Abba, Father.” It's a familiar term. It means the right of a child to reach out to his father. It could be my father, my dearest father, or in our culture, we might say, Daddy. We serve a good god who has given us the right to be his child. You've been adopted into his family.

I don't know who your father was. I don't know if he was a good father or a bad father. I don't know if your father was there with you or if he never showed up. But whatever the case with your dad, whatever family you were born into, that family was broken.

God has come to rescue you from the brokenness, adopt you into his family, and make you whole again. Because the fatherhood of God is not like our earthly father. Praise God, his fatherhood is better. His fatherhood takes broken people and makes them whole. He is a Father who will never leave you. He is a Father who will never forsake you. A Father who will love you to the end and welcome you into his arms.

And Paul emphasizes the point that you are a child of God by saying in Romans 8:17 that you are not only a child but an heir.

Romans 8:17 CSB

17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

An heir is someone who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another. Paul is emphasizing the point that the testimony of the Holy Spirit in your life is evidence that you are a child of God and you are an heir. You will live with him for ever.

Coming to Jesus Christ, living under the submission to the spirit of God in your life means a couple of things.

The first is this.

Live under submission to the Holy Spirit and suffer with Christ.

Christianity has a great selling point. Come to Jesus and suffer. Who wants to sign up? He's the truth about the Christian life. You step into the Christian life, and you will find yourself in spiritual warfare.

You submit to the spirit of God in your life, and you step into a world as Peter described now as a stranger and an alien to it. The world is not under submission to the Holy Spirit. But Christians must be people under submission to the Holy Spirit. And as someone under submissions to the living God, you will find yourself walking directly into spiritual attack.

As a community of God, as a church, we find ourselves in an environment of spiritual attack against us. And spiritual attack is a testimony of the spirit of God working in your life, because the enemy is not worried about someone who's on his side. But when you go out and you start proclaiming Jesus Christ to your family, to your friends, to your neighbors, the enemy doesn't like that.

Christians are called to be people who suffer with Christ. But we don't suffer alone. We don’t suffer in our own power. You live under his power and his might and his strength, because you're now a child of God.

Saul, as he is going out to persecute the church, what does Jesus say to him? In Acts 9:4 Saul on his way to persecute the church, falls to the ground, and he hears Jesus say this to him.

Acts 9:4 CSB

4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”

We live in a culture that is openly antagonistic to Christianity. And there will be times that your faith is attacked, probably more times than not. But as a Christian living under submission to the will of to the spirit of God in your life, you are not alone. When the world persecutes a Christian or a church, they are not persecuting the Christian They are persecuting Jesus. because as a child of God. you are an heir with him, and he identifies with you and he loves you.

Second and last,

Live under submission to the Holy Spirit and live forever with Jesus in glory.

What does Paul mean in Romans 8:17 when he says that we will be glorified with Christ?

Romans 8:17 CSB

17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

He's speaking about our future with Jesus. It's so interesting in this text of how our life today impacts our life forever. And as I was looking at this, I was reminded of a prayer that Jesus says in John 17. Did you know that in the garden before the cross Jesus was praying for you?

In John 17:20 he makes it clear that he's not just praying for his disciples who are in front of him, but he is praying for everyone who will believe in him through their message, which includes you and me.

He prays for unity that all of us who believe in him will be one. Then he says something interesting. In John 17:24, he says this.

John 17:24 CSB

24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they will see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the world’s foundation.

The Son prays to the Father. And he says, Father, for all those who will believe in me, Father, this is what I ask of you. I want them to be with me. I want them to see my glory. The glory you gave me before the foundations of the world.

Conclusion

(As we begin to close, and the band comes up)

Friend, Jesus wants you to see his glory. You can begin to see his glory in your life today because his glory will start to workout itself out in your life as you live in submission to the Holy Spirit. As every day you go before him, and you say, “God, I surrender my passions and my desires to Jesus.” Every day, you.submit your will on the altar, and you say, “Lord let your will be done in my life.”

Live in submission to the Spirit of God, to the glory of Jesus Christ, and watch him do amazing things in your life. Amen.

Prayer

Communion

We will have communion together. Communion is a time for us to reflect in our hearts on where we are with Jesus Christ. Communion is a family matter. It's for those who are believers in Jesus Christ. So if you're not a believer in Jesus Christ today, we ask that you refrain from taking communion with us. But if you're a believer in Jesus Christ today, we welcome you to take communion with us to remember and reflect on what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 CSB

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Last Song

Doxology

Numbers 6:24–26 CSB

24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you; 25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’

Jude 24–25 CSB

24 Now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, without blemish and with great joy, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now and forever. Amen.

You are dismissed. Have a great week in the Lord!