You, However... Have the Holy Spirit

You, However… Have the Holy Spirit

1 Peter 1:1–4 ESV

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,

Titus 3:5 (ESV)

he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

John 3:3 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

You must be born anothen -

Matthew 27:51 ESV

51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.

John 3:31 ESV

31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

Born again, the new birth - you do not have the resources to save yourself, to change yourself, to transform yourself

To be born again you must be born from above. Jesus was sent from above to be our savior. The Holy Spirit has been given from above to create in us new life - to regenerate you and transform you so that you might be able to say that you have been from from above. And this, according to Romans 6:23 is the gift of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit - this gift is eternal life.

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Romans 1:18 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 7:22 ESV

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,

Romans 5:1 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:9–13 ESV

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. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

The passage before us presents what it means to be a Christian. Paul has already told us that we are in Christ. We have been delivered from sin by the Spirit of life, that is we have been set free from the reign and of sin and death by the Holy Spirit who gives spiritual life to those who were spiritually dead.

(1) What this means positionally:

Where you are - Paul has already said that those in the flesh can never please God (v8)

The you, we anyone

Where the Spirit is

Where Christ is

Who the Spirit is

What the Spirit is doing in you

The Epistle to the Romans 1. The Opposition of Flesh and Spirit, 8:1–11

The verb have, like lives earlier in the verse, points to more than a passing contact. There is the thought of continuity. Of anyone who lacks the Spirit Paul says, “he is no Christian” (NEB). He does not belong. The presence of the Spirit in believers is not an interesting extra to be seen in a few unusual people (as in the case of the “pneumatic” men of some ancient religions). It is the normal and necessary feature of being a Christian at all.

v10

He said "I was in my early forties With a lot of life before me When a moment came that stopped me on a dime I spent most of the next days Looking at the x-rays And talkin' 'bout the options And talkin' 'bout sweet time" I asked him "When it sank in That this might really be the real end How's it hit you When you get that kind of news? Man, what'd you do?"

And he said "I went skydiving I went Rocky Mountain climbing I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu And I loved deeper And I spoke sweeter And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying" And he said "Someday I hope you get the chance To live like you were dying"

He said "I was finally the husband That most of the time I wasn't And I became a friend a friend would like to have And all of a sudden going fishin' Wasn't such an imposition And I went three times that year I lost my dad Well I, I finally read the Good Book, and I Took a good, long, hard look At what I'd do if I could do it all again And then

I went skydiving I went Rocky Mountain climbing I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu And I loved deeper And I spoke sweeter And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying" And he said "Someday I hope you get the chance To live like you were dying Like tomorrow was a gift And you've got eternity To think about What you'd do with it What could you do with it What did I do with it? What would I do with it?

Skydiving I went Rocky mountain climbing I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu Man, I loved deeper And I spoke sweeter And I watched an eagle as it was flying" And he said "Someday I hope you get the chance To live like you were dying To live like you were dying To live like you were dying To live like you were dying To live like you were dying"

There are no second rate Christians. If you have come to Christ God is working gloriously in you. If your spiritual eyes are open you need to open your heart to God and let him know that you are willing to let Him change you from the inside out.

(2) What this means practically:

The Epistle to the Romans 2. The Family of God, 8:12–17

Having made it clear that Christ gives life to believers, Paul goes on to bring out some of the implications of all this. It is important that those who are Christ’s live as those who are Christ’s. Paul reminds us of the obligations that rest upon us and of the place of mortification in the Christian life. And that brings us to the Holy Spirit, for it is what the Spirit does in us that enables us to render the service to which we are called.

You have an obligation

You are to live according to the Spirit - we were unable but are now able

This is a constant theme. You can’t turn it on, turn it off. There is no carnal Christian. If you are in Christ this is who you are.

You are to live in companionship with the Spirit

The Epistle to the Romans 2. The Family of God, 8:12–17

If you mortify (“put to death”, GNB)54 the body’s deeds you will live. The verb may be used of literally putting a person to death (Luke 21:16 etc.), or of undergoing the danger of death (v. 36). Mortifying deeds means killing them off, getting rid of them altogether. But the tense is present, which indicates a continuing activity. It is not something that we can do once and for all and be done with. It is a daily duty. What is to be killed is “the deeds of the body”. NIV has misdeeds, a translation that can be defended, for the word is sometimes used of evil actions (as in Luke 23:51). Such actions are the objects of decisive and hostile action as far as the believer is concerned.

The Epistle to the Romans 2. The Family of God, 8:12–17

this is to take place through an action of the believer (“you put to death”), though not an unaided action, for the mortification is to be done “by the Spirit”. It is the energy of the divine Spirit, not the energy of the flesh, that enables the believer to put the body’s deeds to death

reading the bible - letting the word of God dwell in you richly is to be filled with the Spirit

praying with your spouse - I promise I’ll change

The Epistle to the Romans 2. The Family of God, 8:12–17

If you do this, Paul says, you will live. Real life is not a possibility when we choose to luxuriate in the body’s deeds. We must renounce all such deeds if we are to experience life in the Spirit. This is not because some meritorious achievement is required of us as a way of earning such life. It is because the two are incompatible. The one excludes the other. There is a living that is death and there is a putting to death that is life.

Let’s talk about one of my favorite insects - ants.

This time of year it’s dry and ants start looking for water.

Dealing with ants - you can kill them one at at time or you can use borax to deal with the entire problem. You will not kill every ant in the world but you will have victory.

They seem to come on even stronger because of the bait.