If the Spirit of God Dwells in you
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 85 viewsNotes
Transcript
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 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.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
In these verses, the apostle Paul gives very important and hope-filled assertions on how to know if you are a child of God
But to understand these verses, we must go back to the beginning of Romans 8 where Paul tells us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ because God sent his son - Jesus Christ - to do what the law could not do, and that is a route to redemption and reconciliation with the Father.
Paul then tells of the dangers of living in the sinful flesh before transitioning to the Spirit, and that is where we pick up in verse 9
These are very important verses for not only today’s sermon, but for your entire understanding of the Christian faith:
9 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. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 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.
The apostle Paul makes it very clear and very simple for us:
If you don’t have the Spirit of God in you, you are not a child of God
But how do you know if the Spirit of God dwells in you?
In verses 12-18, Paul gives us realities that WILL exist in the lives of those who are God’s children and have his Spirit.
You owe your life to the Spirit, not the flesh
You owe your life to the Spirit, not the flesh
According to verses 12 and 13, if I have the the Spirit of God in me, I cannot devote my life to sin.
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 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.
This is not merely an addition to a list of things I can’t do anymore because Christianity wont allow me to have fun anymore.
It literally means that because of a supernatural transformation that has taken place in my life and my personality I am totally unable to devote my life to sin
The supernatural force will not allow me to
It does not mean that I will forevermore live a perfect life for here on out
But it does mean that when the Holy Spirit invades my soul a spiritual internal war begins that I will desperately fight until God calls me home to glory and to perfection.
I agree with Charlotte Harriet when she wrote the beautiful hymn:
“Just as I am, without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me
And that thou bidst me come to Thee
O lamb of God, I come! I come.
Yes! Praise God that I am permitted to come to God just as I am (a wicked guilty despicable sinner) - because I can come no other way.
But listen! And listen close!
Though I am permitted to come just as I am, I am not permitted to remain as I am.
If the Spirit of God dwells in me, a supernatural transformation from God has taken place that begins, sustains, and facilitates a slow but sure pursuit of holiness.
We must not forget that we are called to holiness!
Yes! Grace is incredible, but the grace is given to facilitate holiness.
Holiness is the only attribute of God that is described to the third degree
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty
Not love, love, love
Not grace, grace, grace
But Holy, holy, holy
And we are called to pursue that holiness
This is not something that Paul is describing here as something you need try really hard at apart from God.
Paul is saying that if you have the Spirit of God in you, the Spirit, by your autonomy and through your personality will make you holy.
It is a supernatural process that the Holy Spirit facilitates.
I cannot intentionally and habitually devote my life to sexual sin, a lifestyle of deception, or any other sin
Because there is God’s Spirit in me that will not allow it
And it changes me so that I do not ultimately want it.
Paul reiterates the same thing to the Corinthians:
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
The writer of Hebrews says the same thing, possibly much more forcefully:
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
Paul does not make this a grey area:
13 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.
This is a spiritual death of hellfire and damnation, not a physical death.
You owe your life to the Spirit because it pulled you out of a senseless slavery to sin:
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
Why does Paul use the words “fear” and “slavery”?
The underlying question Paul is asking is why would you give your life to something you owe nothing to?
What has sin done for you that you owe it your life?
It has caused you nothing but fear, bondage, and death.
Stop being a scared slave to it, you owe it nothing!
But the Spirit, the Spirit pulls you out of the grime of sins bondage and gave you life, and therefore, you owe everything to the Spirit.
Im not saying that unless you live a perfect spotless life you are not a Christian.
We will continue to struggle with sin as longs as we are in this life.
What I am saying, what the apostle Paul is saying, is that those who have the Spirit of God in them - who are God’s children - will wage war on their sin.
They will strive to kill the sin in their lives - not indulge in it and make excuses for it.
We have to hate our sin
Are you disgusted with yourself every time you sin because you know that you have offended your God, your Creator, your Savior.
My boy is barely past a year old and this is what he looks like when I sternly tell him no. He breaks down and cries a cry that will just about break your heart. And do you know why he cries? its not because I spanked him or hurt him in any physical way. He cries because he knows that he has done something that displeases me. If you could take a snapshot of your heart and soul after you sin, is that what it would look like? Are you heartbroken because you have displeased your heavenly Father?
If you do not hate your sin, and if you do not wage war against it, you are not a Christian.
But if you if feel a crippling conviction that makes you want to vomit after you sin, rejoice because you are a child of God!
So, how do you know you are a child of God?
Are you, by the Spirit, waging war against your sin?
You are an adopted child of God
You are an adopted child of God
If the Spirit of God dwells in you, God is your father!
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
If you the Spirit of God dwells in you, God is your father!
Let that sink in for a second!
God, the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the Creator of the universe
He is not just your ruler, He is your dad!
But why does Paul use the word “adopt”?
In the Roman Culture, adoption was common
Men who did not have a biological son would adopt in order for their name to live on and to have someone to give an inheritance
So, when Paul uses the word “adopt” what he is saying is that if the Spirit of God dwells in you, you were specifically chose by the love of an almighty God to be his forever.
It is as if he walked into an orphanage and saw you as an ugly, despicable, and helpless baby laying there. No one wanted you! But God walked up to you, and by the blood of Jesus Christ, picked you up and said, “this one is mine. He is my son! She is my daughter! I will have him or her as my own and this child will be mine child forever.”
Do not brush off the fact that the Creator and Savior of the universe is your daddy!
Listen to this - this is your daddy:
9 Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” 10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. 18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. 21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Who has measured the waters in hollow of his hand? Your Father!
Who regards the nations like a drop in a bucket and counts them as the dust on the scales? Your Father!
Who sits above the earth and regards its people as grasshoppers? Your Father!
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain? Your Father!
Ladies and Gentlemen! Behold your God! Behold your Savior! Behold your Father!
If the Spirit of God dwells in you, this God is your daddy!
And the Spirit bears witness to the fact that He is our dad.
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
The Spirit effectively says, “He or she is a child of mine! I have led them to wage war against their sin and they are! They belong to me!”
And because we are his children, we cry out to him, “Abba, Father”
This is an emotionally charged term.
Paul did not merely report that we SAY “Abba, Father!”
He said that we CRY (κράζω - cry, scream, shriek), “Abba, Father!”
We cry out to God, “Daddy!”
“Daddy! I need you! I want you! I have to have you!”
“I need more of you!”
“Help me!”
So, how do you know you are a child of God?
Does a feeling of love and affection for your heavenly Father regularly arise within you?
And sonship brings with it a glorious reward:
You are a fellow heir of God with Christ
You are a fellow heir of God with Christ
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Do you realize that Jesus offered to share his inheritance with us?
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus was God’s only “natural” son.
We are not God’s “natural” children. We are adopted in as sons and daughters.
But what Jesus did when he died on the cross for our sins is give us the ability to be adopted children of God
To share in the inheritance of being with our Father forever in glory.
If the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are a coheir with Christ and will one day share in a glorious inheritance too great for you to comprehend!
As God’s child, at the resurrection, you will gain the whole world!
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.
29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
If you are Christ’s, you are Abraham’s offspring and you will gain the world!
That is why it makes no sense to make this world your treasure over God.
If you forsake God for money, fame, and fortune, if you lay up for yourself riches that are perishable, if you make this world your number one desire, you will lose your soul, spend an eternity in hell, and gain nothing!
But if God is your number one desire, and Christ is your supreme treasure, and if you devote your life to him, one day you will gain this world!
You either devote your attention to this world now and later be an heir of nothing, or devote your attention to God now and be an heir of the entire world later!
Those who suffer the misfortune and abuse that this world throws at them in this life will own that world in the next.
How do you know that you are a child of God?
Are you more in love with the glory to come than you are the treasures of this world?
But verse 17 has a conditional statement in it:
You will suffer to obtain glory
You will suffer to obtain glory
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
As we have already stated, Jesus offered to share his inheritance with us
We obtain glory in the same manner that the original heir (Jesus) obtained glory - and that was by being nailed to a cross.
Suffering equals glory.
No suffering, no glory!
There are two main types of suffering in Scripture:
Suffering produced by the world because of our service to God (unique to Christians).
Suffering produced by the fall of man (universal).
I take the suffering described here to mean the suffering that is universal to all humans that is produced by the fall of man and the spiritual turmoil that comes with it.
I know that I am 23 years old and my body still has vigor. But with every passing year, my body becomes weaker and weaker and weaker. It will likely endure sickness and injury and become brittle. And one day it will finish its decomposing process in the ground and this body will be no more. And along the way, I will have to deal with the sickness and death of the loved ones that go before me. It will cause me great spiritual anguish and I will cry. I will hurt. I will die.
But God is in total control of my suffering.
Which begs the question: “If God is in total control of my suffering, why doesn’t he stop my suffering?”
And that is a valid question.
Why does he not stop the disease?
Why does he not stop the cancer?
Why does he not stop the heartache?
God does not stop our suffering because it is for our good!
We are constantly tempted toward self-reliance.
Therefore, God does not stop the natural suffering in our lives in order to bring us back to a passionate dependence upon him.
Sometimes, he must break us in order to heal us! Sometimes He must break our leg in order to prevent us from trying to stand on our own!
Sometimes God must show us how helpless we are before we ask him for help.
And so, we must suffer in order to gain the glory that is Him!
He is the fruition of every longing we have in our bones!
That is why Paul says in verse 18
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Yes! we will suffer, but the suffering we endure now is not even worth comparing the overwhelming joy and satisfaction of being with him and inheriting the world later.
And so, how do you know you are a child of God?
Where does your suffering take you?
You can either shake your fist at God and forsake him because he wont take the suffering away - so so many have done just that.
Or you can embrace the suffering and cherish God because he has destined it for your good and his glory - to bring you closer to him
Conclusion
How do you know you are a Christian?
It is pretty simple
Paul makes it quite clear:
9 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.
If you have the Spirit of God in you, you are a Christian, you are a child of God.
But how do you know if the Spirit of God is in you?
Romans 8 is happy to provide that answer for you:
Are you, by the Spirit, waging war against your sin?
Does a feeling of love and affection for your heavenly Father regularly arise within you?
Are you more in love with the glory to come than you are the treasures of this world?
Where does your suffering take you?