Living the Spirit-Filled Life
Romans: Building the Church Through the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted
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Sermon Series for Romans 8
Title: "You CanDo It!" – The Possibility of Following Christ Perfectly!
Review last week's sermon in a sentence - Living the Peace-Filled Life!
Review last week's passage – Romans 8:5-8
Main Idea - In a world that is Chaotic, You Can Live a Life of Peace!
ENGAGE
Charles Spurgeon said these words...
“Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless.” - C.H. Spurgeon
Is he right? Are we useless?
I think he is correct in the sense that we can accomplish nothing of significant, eternal value apart from the Ministry of the Holy Spirit!
In fact, I submit to you this morning that when we become a Christian we dream of what God might do in and through us!
Could we lead many to Christ?
Could we disciple person after person into mature followers of Christ?
Could I be known for my kindness, love and patience?
Could I start a church?
Could I go to a foreign land and reach people for Jesus?
What could my life be like as one who is sold out for Christ.
ENCOUNTER
Main Idea - The Life You’ve Longed For Is Found Only in the Spirit.
What does this life look like?
How do I get this kind of life?
You must wrap your mind around three profound realities for the Christian.
And when you do, watch out! Your life will never be the same!
The first profound reality? If you are a Christian...
1. You Are IN the Spirit (vs. 9)
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.
One or the Other
Writing to the church at Rome, Paul wants them to understand something well. You can’t be “kinda Christian.” You can be both Christian and nonChristian. You are either one or the other. There is no middle ground whatsoever.
Paul experienced this radical transformation...
So did you if you are a Christian. Your conversion might not be a spectacular as Paul’s, but believe me, it is spectacular nonetheless!
23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
And if you are a Christian, you are no longer in the flesh (characterized by sin) category, but you are - IN THE SPIRIT
What does IN THE SPIRIT MEAN?
It means that you are POSSESSED by God!
The ESV Study Bible Chapter 8
Paul alternates between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ here, showing that Christ and God share the same status.
Being in the Spirit means that one is identified as a spirit-filled person. The indwelling Spirit is the transformational power source that makes you like Jesus.
Paul’s point? You are either Spirit-filled or you are not Spirit-filled. There is no in between.
Verse 9 - “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, IF IN FACT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU...”
Never Assume!
True to form, Paul never assumes someone’s position in Christ. In other words, Just because Paul is writing to a church, doesn’t mean he assumes everyone in the church at Rome are true followers of Jesus.
We are wise to follow Paul’s lead. We can’t assume just because someone goes to church or uses “God-Speak” or “Christianeeze” that they are genuine followers of Jesus.
Paul doesn’t assume, he continues to raise the question. Why do you think this is so?
Because, one’s eternal destination is that crucial. Paul is so concerned that the people who make up the physical church at Rome are authentically part of the spiritual church at Rome.
Did you know that Allendale Baptist Church has a physical church and a spiritual church?
Because you came to church this morning makes you a part of the physical church. But it doesn’t make you part of the physical church!
In order to be a part of the Spiritual Church, you must be Spiritually indwelt! The Holy Spirit of God must be living within you!
So, this begs the question...
Are You IN the Spirit?
Look at the last part of verse 9
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.
This is a bold, cold, hard, truth. If you do not have the “Spirit of Christ” another name for the Holy Spirit, you DO NOT BELONG TO CHRIST and therefore you are lost. You do no have the key to eternal life. You will not be able to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
If God’s Spirit does not DWELL in you, you will not DWELL in His Heaven.
Illustrate - Passage teaching the necessity of being saved in order to get into His Heaven.
Apply - If you are in the Spirit, you have a bright future ahead of you. You will live in the new heavens and the new earth.
However, if the Spirit doesn’t live within you, you are doomed to the reality of outer darkness.
How do you know if the Spirit lives within you? Let me give you 9 ways you can know from Pastor Steven J. Cole...
If the Spirit dwells in you, you have experienced the new birth.
If the Spirit dwells in you, you are drawn to Jesus Christ and you desire to know and honor Him.
16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
If the Spirit dwells in you, you have been flooded with God’s love so that you have hope in Him.
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
If the Spirit dwells in you, you regard Scripture as His Word of truth and you are growing to understand it.
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
If the Spirit dwells in you, His fruit is growing in your life and the deeds of the flesh are diminishing.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
If the Spirit dwells in you, you will have a growing hatred of sin and love of holiness.
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.
If the Spirit dwells in you, you will be growing in praise, joy, and thankfulness toward God.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
If the Spirit dwells in you, you will be growing in prayer.
18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
If the Spirit dwells in you, you will tell others about Christ.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Review - The Life You’ve Longed For Is Found Only in the Spirit.
You Are IN the Spirit
Transition - The second profound reality?
2. You Are Alive In the Spirit! (vs. 10)
Don’t Worry About Death Because You Are Alive IN the Spirit
10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
A Believer’s Favorite Conjunction
“BUT if Christ is in you...”
Talk about a sentence that is packed full of hope!
The if is turned on its head and begins to paint the beautiful reality of Jesus Christ living in believers and the profound result of this reality.
Imagine in your mind right now - Jesus actually living within you at this very moment...
Do you know what St. Patrick had to say about this?
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ IN ME...
Who is this Christ? Who is this Jesus? The second person of the trinity. The holy Savior of the world. God very God! This Jesus is living within every believer...
Death is Your Reality
“although the body is dead because of sin...”
Do you understand Paul’s point? Even as a follower of Christ, our bodies are still subject to decay and death. I’ve said it before - look around, none of us are getting any younger. We are not getting better. We are on a slow slow towards our eventual demise. From our first breath, we begin the process of death. At some point these old bodies just give out!
Paul makes this clear that this is our present reality EVEN as followers of Christ.
Christian, unless you are part of God’s glorious rapture that one day will come to usher in the end of the age, you will die! You will go through the portal of death. And until that day you will struggle with the aches and pains of this sin cursed body - there is no escaping this reality.
Your body is, for all intents and purposes, dead because of sin!
For the unbeliever, this is your unfortunate reality and this life and this body that you have is as good as it is going to get.
But for the believer, there is so much more!
Life is Your Hope
“The Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
By God’s grace and through the Holy Spirit you have been given a very special gift. You have the gift of life because the Spirit is life.
it is “because of righteousness.” What does this mean?
You have no righteousness on your own. You are not righteous and you need to be in order to have a relationship with God and enter into the eternal dwelling place with Him.
It’s God’s heavenly home and he gets to decide who lives there and who does not.
He cannot - He will not have any unrighteous live in His eternal home.
Because you are unrighteous, you are not qualified.
However, there is one who is qualified - Jesus Christ.
He is not only righteous, He has the power to make you righteous as well.
How? Through His sacrificial death on the cross. He atoned (paid for) your sin debt.
And by faith you can received the free gift of eternal life.
31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Listen, there is nothing I want more for you than to see the deadly nature of your sin, for you to turn from your sin (that’s repentance) and turn toward Jesus Christ.
And Paul’s point in verse 10 is that for the Christian, God has made you right with Him! You have LIFE because of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
Listen to how the New Living Translation renders this verse...
10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.
The Holy Spirit gives you new life - eternal life - life everlasting.
How is this possible? Because you have been made right with God!
How is this possible? Nicodemus asked the same question...
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Illustrate - Q. What is your only comfort
in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven;
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.
Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.
Apply - So what? What’s so great about being ALIVE in the Spirit? Let’s get practical.
Three Powerful Benefits of Being Alive in the Spirit.
You belong to Jesus!
You are safe in His loving arms!
You can live for Him! - This brings you amazing purpose in this life
Review - The Life You’ve Longed For Is Found Only in the Spirit.
You Are IN the Spirit
You Are Alive IN the Spirit!
Transition - Probably the most profound reality of them all?
3. You Are Powerful In the Spirit - (vs. 11)
Never Forget The Unfathomable Power of the Spirit IN You. Think about this as I read verse 11.
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.
Who Lives In You?
Do you see what Paul is talking about here? The Holy Spirit with resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead....
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
This is the one and the same Holy Spirit that lives in you!
3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Folks - THIS SAME GOD LIVES IN YOU!
But it gets better...
An Amazing Promise
If this Holy Spirit lives in you…this spirit who raised Jesus from the dead…He promises to do something for you as well!
God promises through the POWER of the Spirit “to give life to your mortal bodies...”
What does this mean?
“In other words, God promises spiritual resurrection life now for each believer’s mortal body...
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
...and physical resurrection in the future for that mortal body.” - BKC
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
What does this mean? It means that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you are not only spiritual new, but there is coming a day when this old body of our will be traded in for a new model! And incorruptible, perfect model!
You and I will not float around in heaven without a body. God will recreate us and make us physically new.
53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
I, for one, cannot wait! Not simply because it will be cool to have a new body that will last forever, but I will be recreated to SERVE MY GOD FOR ALL ETERNITY WITHOUT GROWING WEARY OR WEARING OUT!
In this body I get weary. I get tired both emotionally and physically.
But there is coming a day when that will all change because He will change me in the twinkling of an eye...
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
You won’t need to workout or watch your diet for this change, God will take care of it in a slit second!
Do you know what the word “Maranatha” means?
“Maranatha” is an Aramaic word that means “the Lord is coming” or “come, O Lord.”
So, MARANATHA!!!
Oh and one more thing...
In Case You Forgot
Paul says it one more time. You will get you new bodies “through his Spirit who dwells in you.”
Why does Paul not want us to forget?
Simple - if you have the resurrecting power of the Holy Spirit living within you, you can and will face everything this sin cursed life can though at you with this same power!
If the Holy Spirit’s power can resurrect you it can give you the power to...
Save your marriage
raise your child in the Lord
love your neighbor
Honor your father and mother
submit to your unreasonable employer
be gracious to your enemies
eccetera
You are powerful - not in yourself - but by the Holy Spirit!
Illustrate - “If the Holy Spirit can take over the subconscious with our consent and cooperation, then we have almighty Power working at the basis of our lives, then we can do anything we ought to do, go anywhere we ought to go, and be anything we ought to be.” - E. Stanley Jones (the Billy Graham of India)
Apply - Friends - would you say that your Christian life is characterized by FEAR or POWER?
I want to stop living my Christian life by fear. I don’t want to make decisions based on fear. I want to live boldly for Christ. I want the Spirit’s Power to be evident in everything I do, say or even think.
7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Will you join me?
Review - The Life You’ve Longed For Is Found Only in the Spirit.
You Are IN the Spirit
You Are Alive IN the Spirit!
You Are Powerful IN the Spirit
Transition -
EMPOWER
In light of what Paul has to say in these verses, do you agree with Spurgeon when he says,
“Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless.” - C.H. Spurgeon
Now, let’s flip this on its head.
With the Spirit of God we can accomplish astounding things for God. We are useful tools in the hands of God.
Can you imagine what God could accomplish through you as a spirit-filled follower of Jesus?
Why don’t you offer him your life right now and see what he can and will do through you!