Systematic Theology (part 42)

Heavenly Father, we're grateful for Your Word. We're grateful for the Lord Jesus that indwells us. We're grateful that You indwell us.

We pray that as we look at the Word this morning that You would encourage us with Your presence and with what we can know about You and know about who we are in Christ.

It's in His name we pray that He might be glorified this morning. Amen. We have been talking about progressive sanctification, which has gotten us over to Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8, which in my view are the great treatises on that subject, covering everything from justification to glorification.

In Romans chapter 7, of course, we find the great struggle of the Apostle Paul with the fact that he has what he calls flesh that is an impulse to sin even though he knows

Christ, and it is a great conflict. And that very conflict, by the way, is evidence that we do know the

Lord. People that are outside of Christ can sin in varying degrees with impunity, and it's all right with them.

But once we come to know Christ, we are set up for a big battle. Well, Major Ian Thomas, who perhaps you have heard of, has written this, and I thought it was good, so I thought

I'd share it with you this morning. Because this includes some confession of the truth as well as prayer.

He says this, In every conflict between your moral wills, see, when we come to Christ now, we have a moral will that is directed toward God.

If you've ever watched any of these debates between the current crop of atheist spear throwers and whoever they're debating,

Lane, Craig, anyway, the guy from Biola, and you hear them doing that, they'll say to you,

Oh, I can be moral without there being a God. You can be moral without there being a

God, but the morality is all judged by you. It's your own morality. It's your own standard.

But once we come to Christ, we have a moral will that lines up with God's will.

That's why Paul says, The things that I don't want to do, I do. The things that I should do,

I don't do. And then concludes all of that with, Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin?

Well, here's Ian Thomas on that subject. See there? The thing just started to dim.

I told you, this electronics thing would get you in big trouble. Not only that, it just flashed off the wrong page.

I'm telling you. So, I'm right. Here we go.

Just came rolling back on. In every conflict between your moral will and the flesh, regarding how your natural will is to be exercised in determining the things you think and say and do, you will say to Christ, you will confess, you will rehearse,

Dear Lord, thank you for your Holy Spirit. I yield my will to Him. Now, that's been encouraged in Romans chapter 6, right?

So, he is rehearsing in his prayer the great truths of these chapters that we're looking at.

I yield my will to Him, and by His gracious presence, we're going to look at that this morning,

I share your life and your victory. I know I cannot overcome the principle of sin within me, nor put my flesh to death.

Did you get that? I cannot overcome the principle of sin within me. And right now, you ought to be thinking,

Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 7, Romans chapter 7. It is the great conflict.

Nor put my flesh to death, but I thank you that you can, and you did, when you died upon the cross, and, now here's the confession, and I died with you.

Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?

We were therefore buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too may walk in newness of life. That's what's found right there in what He has said.

Thank you for your Holy Spirit, for He alone can make this real in my experience, mortifying those deeds of my body, which have their origin in Satan.

There are deeds of our bodies that have their origin in Satan. And we can trace that right back to God's holding out on you.

If you eat the fruit, you'll find it's good. You'll be like God. All of that requires appetites and impulses of the body to carry out which

Adam and Eve did. I am willing for you to invade my soul, to control my mind, to control my emotions, and to control my will, so that every decision within my soul will be in perfect harmony with my

Spirit. You say, well, how can the decisions of my mind, my will, and my emotions be in harmony with my

Spirit? Because when we come to Christ, we get a living Spirit, right?

Your body is dead, 8 -10. Your body is dead because of sin, but your Spirit is alive because of imputed righteousness.

Now we have a Spirit that is living and that wants to go in God's direction, and there is a harmony with that Spirit, and so that my

Spirit will be in perfect harmony with your Spirit. And we're going to get today, aren't we, too?

His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And my

Spirit will be in perfect harmony with you, so that my whole being may declare your praise.

Lord Jesus, I can't, but You can. You did. Thank you so much.

I thought that was an excellent prayer. Okay, now they tell me this thing bleeds through or something like that, so I'm going to shut it off.

Okay, let's go to Romans 8. I want to begin at verse 9.

I don't know whether this is again or whether this is at the beginning, but I want to begin at verse 9.

Paul has started out this chapter. There is therefore now no condemnation to people that are crying out,

O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of sin. Okay?

For people that cry out and say, I don't do what I want to do, but I do what I don't want to do, but triumphantly cry out, therefore it is no longer

I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For those people, for saved people, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And then he goes on to talk about how we have met the righteous requirements of the law in Christ.

He talks about the state of people whose minds are set on the flesh, they are unsaved, and people whose minds are set on the

Spirit, they are saved people. Then at verse 9, he talks to the Romans and says to them, you, however, are not in the flesh.

And I think I said last week that Paul notes in chapter 7 of Romans that he is of the flesh, he has a body, he has this impulse that still is there to sin, that crucified flesh that we talked about, but he is not in the flesh.

And he says to the Romans, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the

Spirit. And I'm going to translate, these are the ifs, and the condition is taken to be true.

Alright? So I'm going to translate since. Since in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

I want you to underline in your mind or in your Bible, the Spirit of God dwells in you.

You Romans, you believers, you West Boylstonites, the

Spirit of God dwells in you. Why? Because when we come to Christ, the Spirit of God takes up residence in us.

Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul writes to the Corinthians. But I want you to note something else here now too.

Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you,

He just previously has said the Holy Spirit is in you. And now it is, but since Christ is in you,

Christ is in you. Although the body is dead because of sin, the

Spirit, your Spirit, your human Spirit is alive because of righteousness, the imputed righteousness of Christ.

Now watch it. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, or since the

Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, now who is the

Him that raised Jesus from the dead? Without question, it is the Father that raised

Jesus from the dead. I just quoted that from Romans chapter 6. That the

Father has raised Jesus from the dead. So here we have three dwells in you's in this little section, don't we?

The Spirit of God dwells in you. Christ is in you. The Father is in you.

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.

There it is again. So we can ask the question, okay, so which is it? Does the

Holy Spirit indwell me? Is it Christ that indwells me? Paul said to the

Colossians, there is a great mystery that has not been known for all of the ages until now.

When part of that mystery is the Gentiles shockingly could be included in the salvation of God.

Okay, and the mystery is this. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So which is it? Am I indwelt by the Holy Spirit? Am I indwelt by Christ? Am I indwelt by the

Father? And the answer to that is yes. Okay? And that rubs us right up against the

Trinity. And it rubs us right up against eternity. And so I want to talk a few minutes, or an hour, whatever, okay?

I want to talk about the nature of God indwelling believers.

My guess is that most of us think of it this way.

And there's a reason we think of it this way. And it's not an evil reason. It's just because of what we are and who we are and that we are trapped in space and we are trapped in time.

We think of ourselves, okay, here I am. And now I come to Christ and now the Holy Spirit of God or God the

Holy Spirit comes to dwell in me. And so we think in our minds, whether we think we think in our minds or not, we think of it this way.

We think, okay, here I am. Here's God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit takes up residence in me.

And so here we are. Me and God the Holy Spirit. And that is not what the

Bible describes. As Lewis Johnson says, it's much more involved than that.

It's much more complex than that. It's much more complete than that. Okay? And his word is, it is elemental.

What does he mean by elemental? He goes on to explain that in terms of the ancients' conception of the nature of the universe.

One of the first conceptions when people began to think about how is this all made? How did it get here?

Why did it get here? And all of that. One of the first by the Greeks was that everything is made of earth, water, fire, and air.

That won't get you through Chemistry 101, by the way. All right? But that's what he thought.

That's what they thought. And so Johnson goes on to say it's like this. When we think of, right now, we've had a little taste of spring.

Don't be deceived, folks. Do not be deceived. All right? This was just a little trick.

Okay? But the lilac bush, the buds are starting to swell on our lilac bush, and it's starting to think, oh,

I should get green. It's also deceived. All right? And, but here's the deal.

If everything is made of earth, water, fire, and air, here's the lilac bush, here's the earth. Okay? Now, the lilac bush and the earth are inseparable.

Buds are swelling on the lilac bush because it is taking something from the earth in order for that to happen.

And at the same time, the lilac bush is in the earth, and the earth is in the lilac bush.

So we would ask ourselves, okay, now what is it? Is the earth in the lilac bush, or is the lilac bush in the earth?

And the answer is yes. Okay? That's the answer. If you separate the lilac bush from the earth, then the buds won't swell.

And so the earth is in the lilac bush, and the lilac bush is in the earth.

The two are inseparable. Watch this. This even sneaks us up from the creation on the idea that is revealed to us about the

Trinity. Don't run out of here and say, I think the Trinity includes lilac bushes. Okay, don't do that.

All right? But it is this. The lilac bush and the earth are inseparable.

In fact, when we put the question, is the earth in the lilac bush, or the lilac bush in the earth, we go, well, they both have to be together.

Yet they are distinct, and they are separate, but they are one. Otherwise, there would be no life.

Okay? Earth, water, fire, and air. So Johnson asked this question. Is the fish in the water, or is the water in the fish?

And the answer is, the water is in the fish, and the fish is in the water.

The fish is drawing his life from the water, and the water contains the fish.

So which is it? In other words, and his word is, it is elemental. Meaning, they are inseparably united in a way which produces life.

Earth, water, fire, and air. Even when you take a cold piece of steel and put it in a hot fire, and it turns red, it will only stay red if it's in the fire.

That was the conception of the ancients. And so the two things are inseparable. And they are joined together.

Okay? And then finally, air. The question, of course, would be, is the bird in the air, or is the air in the bird?

And the answer is, yes. Okay? And so, am I indwelt by God's Holy Spirit?

And what is the nature of that indwelling? Am I in the Spirit, or is the Spirit in me? And the answer is, yes.

We are inseparable. Now the New Testament is going to talk about that in several ways.

But as we begin to think about our union with Christ and His union with us, those two things are not separable.

Except maybe in our creaturely minds, it is rubbing us up against eternity.

It is akin, this whole thing of the elemental thing that S.

Lewis Johnson talks about, it is akin to what I would call nowness. Do you know what nowness is?

Here's a biblical, a New Testament word for nowness. Really an Old Testament word too.

Eternity. Eternity. Okay? We can't get our heads around that.

We are going to have the same problem as we contemplate our union with Christ. It will be described to us, but we will not fully comprehend it.

But we will experience it, because it is true. You say, what is nowness?

Well, nowness means, for God, every event is now. Okay? The Trinity is now.

Let there be light is now. Let there be Adam is now. Let there be, you know, sin enters the world now.

Abraham comes along, and God makes all the promises to him about salvation, about the land, and about the people.

That's all now. Okay? David comes along. He is now.

Moses comes along. He is now. You come along. I come along. We are now.

That's why the Bible is filled with phrases like, for God, a thousand years is as a day, and He is the

Eternal One. He is from everlasting to everlasting. Those are ways to try to describe to creatures what eternity is all about.

And you say, well, that's really an Advil headache. I can't get my head around that, you know.

But you know what? The Bible talks about that. The reason that Paul says to the Ephesians, you are seated in the heavenlies, is because for God, every event is now.

I came along now. I was a sinner when I came along now.

Christ came to die for me now. I trusted Christ now.

I am in His presence now. I am seated in the heavenlies like the Ephesians now.

You say, well, it all seems to be strung out to me in a big long line, and that is because we are trapped in space and time.

But for God, every event is now. It is an Advil headache.

And it is akin to what is true of us as the Spirit indwells us, or the

New Testament says, Christ is in you, the hope of glory. The Spirit of Him who raised

Christ from the dead dwells in you. So who is it? Is it the

Holy Spirit? Is it Christ? Is it the Father? The answer is yes. Yes.

Let's go back to John chapter 6. And just try to get our heads around this a little bit.

What is it about? For Christ to be in me. John chapter 6 can be a troubling passage.

I am going to begin. It would really be great to do this whole chapter, but it can't be done in one shot.

So I am going to begin at verse 47, at the end of this episode.

The background of course is that Jesus has fed 5 ,000 men and their families out of a sack lunch.

And then He goes off across the Sea of Galilee and they find out that He is over there and they come running over and say,

Sir, give us this bread so that we don't ever have to go get bread again. And then He declares that He is the bread of life.

But I am going to skip down to 47. Truly, truly, I say to you whoever believes has eternal life.

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and they died.

This, speaking of Himself, is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying,

How can this man give us His flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, and here is the part that some are troubled about,

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

For My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink. Now, I don't know what you had for breakfast this morning, but compared to this, it's not true food and it's not true drink because you are going to have to go back and get some more later.

However, there is something about it which is very akin to what we are reading here. Alright?

Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him. Did you get that phrase?

He abides in Me and I in him. Now, the

Holy Spirit indwells believers, Christ in you, the hope of glory, the Spirit of Him who raised

Christ from the dead dwells in you. Got it? Abides in Me and I in him.

As the Living Father sent Me, I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

Jesus said these things in the synagogue as He taught at Capernaum. Now, why that illustration?

I think we can probably all agree that Jesus was not offering His arm for them to take a bite out of.

Nor was He offering some of His blood for them to drink on the spot or anything like that.

But where is He going with this? It's wrapped up in that phrase,

He who abides in Me, I will abide in him. It is about the indwelling that takes place when believers come to Christ.

And it is indispensable, it is indispensable for our lives.

And it is a union which is akin to the Trinity.

And we're going to get to that in a moment. Akin. I didn't say we've entered the Trinity. Don't be silly. Alright? But it is akin to that.

Alright? We could go back to the lilac bush in the earth.

I don't know what you had for breakfast this morning. Did you have one of those little toaster tarts or whatever it is?

Here's the deal. Are you in the toaster tart or is the toaster tart in you?

And you say, well, I don't know. It's all become part of me. And the answer is, you're correct.

You don't know. It's all become part of you. You and the toaster tart are one for a while. Alright? Until the good stuff is taken out of it and it provides you life.

The toaster tart abides in you. And you abide in the toaster tart.

Alright? Some of that, if you think about it, might get you through the first three hours of Chemistry 101.

Anyway, let's go on to John 7. Verse 37.

And by the way, when we come to communion and we celebrate the Lord's Supper, and we eat the bread and drink the cup, we do show the

Lord's death till He comes. That's what Paul said to the Corinthians. And that's great.

But understand, those very symbols, the bread and the cup, speak of the indwelling of God the

Holy Spirit, of Christ in you, the hope of glory, of the Spirit of Him who raised

Christ from the dead, who dwells in you, that speaks of that abiding which

Jesus spoke of here. At verse 37 of chapter 7, on the last day of the

Feast of Tabernacles, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

Oh, He's going to start that discourse again. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Now watch this. Now this He said about the Spirit. Whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the

Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Jesus was here.

He was not crucified. He was not buried. He was not risen again yet. He was in their presence.

And so God the Holy Spirit had not taken up residence in any of their bodies. But He said the day comes when rivers of living water flow from you.

And the source of those rivers of living water is what? It is the indwelling

Holy Spirit. He had spoken of that in a different way back there in John chapter 6.

Now let's go over to John chapter 14. We have to go quickly. And I'm only using the Gospel of John this morning.

And not the several other places where this kind of thing is spoken of. John chapter 14, verse 15,

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another

Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, the

Holy Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees

Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

He will be in you as intimately as your food is a part of your body, and your body is a part of your food.

It's not just that He is a little thing that takes up residence in here. It's not that. He becomes part of you.

Alright? I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.

Yet a little while, and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.

Now watch this. In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

Do you get it? It's not, here's Me, here's God the Holy Spirit, here's Christ in Me, here's the

Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwelling in Me. And so, here I am and here they are.

No, no. This becomes an intimate union that is inseparable.

And it gives us, does it not, a little insight into the whole idea and doctrine of eternal security.

Doesn't it? See, if my conception of Christ in Me, the hope of glory, is here's

Me, here's Jesus, or the Holy Spirit indwelling Me is here's Me, here's the

Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, the Father, dwelling in Me, here's

Me, here's the Father. Now we might do that because we're caught in space and time. But that's not what's going on here.

It is the same kind of thing, we're going to come to it in John chapter 17, where we see the

Father in the Son, and the Son in the Father, and now because Christ has died, because He has been buried, because He rose again from the dead, now we become included in that same kind of intimate fellowship.

That same kind of union which is akin, not equal to, not identical to, but akin to the union of the

Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We get dragged into this.

Why? You in Me, I in You. I am in Father, You in Me, I in You.

It's the lilac bush and the earth, there's the earth and the lilac bush. Okay?

It's much more than a conception of here's an individual that came alongside Me, although the

Holy Spirit is spoken of in that way. John chapter 15, you're familiar with this.

Verse 5 verses, I am the true vine, My Father is the vinedresser, He is the farmer. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit,

He takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from Me you can do nothing. So the question might be, am

I in Christ or is Christ in me? And the answer is yes.

In the same kind of intimacy that the lilac bush has to the earth, only better and more complete.

Now we come to John chapter 17. This is worth about four weeks, but we don't have time.

Let's go down to verse 19. Well, let me read the first five verses.

Because here we see Jesus now looking back into the fellowship that He had with the

Father in the Trinity before He ever came to earth. When Jesus had spoken these words,

He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, He's praying now in the presence of the apostles,

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given

Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.

See, this doesn't happen with one person of the Trinity alone. The whole Trinity is involved in salvation.

We are given to Jesus by the Father. We are given back to the Father by Jesus. And this is eternal life that they know

You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave

Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory

I had with You before the world existed. Okay?

I've made Your name known to the people whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were. You gave them to Me.

And they have kept Your Word. If you've come to Christ this morning and you have trusted Christ, you have repented of your sin, you have named

Jesus to be the great Savior, the only Savior from sin, the only name under heaven whereby we must be saved, you have kept

His Word. You are saved. Alright? Now they know that everything

You have given Me is from You. I have given them the words that You gave Me. And they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent

Me. I am praying for them. I'm praying not for the world, but for those You've given Me, for they are

Yours. All Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.

And here you begin to see in His praying for them, you begin to see that union that is going to end up in Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Alright? I have to skip on or we're not going to get done here. Verse 19.

At verse 20, well, let me start at 19.

For their sake I consecrate Myself. For their sake who? For the apostles' sake, I consecrate

Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. And now His prayer shoots down through 2 ,000 years to February, West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Okay? For He prays, I do not ask for these only, these apostles only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.

That's us. We have believed in Jesus through the word of the apostles. It's recorded here in the

New Testament. That they may all be one. Whoa! That they may all be what? That they may all be one.

Now, liberal theologians take a statement like that and they go, yes, yes, that's good. Let's all go to the campfire and sing

Kumbaya. We will all be one. Okay? That is so anemic.

I mean, you know, okay, campfire, Kumbaya. I've done it. Alright?

But that is so anemic. For it goes on, He goes on to say that they may all be one just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us.

Whoa! So that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given

Me, I have given to them. And here He says it again. That they may be one even as We are one.

I in them, You in Me, that they may become perfectly one.

That doesn't mean perfectly one singing Kumbaya around the campfire. That they may become perfectly one with Us, Father.

And that's expressed over in Romans as the Spirit who dwells in You, Christ who dwells in You, the

Father who dwells in You. You say, I can't get my head around that. It doesn't matter. It's all put together in one.

Alright? And we have, in a sense, we have been invited into the fellowship of the

Trinity. But more than that, they have deigned to take up residence in Us.

That's how close that is. Father, I desire that they also whom

You have given Me may be with Me where I am. He's talking about us now, not just the apostles. Father, I desire that they also whom

You have given Me may be with Me where I am. Where is He? He's seated at the right hand of the

Father. He's indwelling every believer. We are that intimately connected to Him this morning.

That's what I'm trying to get you to appreciate as we read this. Ephesians, You are seated in the heavenlies.

Does that ring any bells? Yeah. Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me may be with Me where I am.

Ephesians, You are seated in the heavenlies. West Boylstonites, You are seated in the heavenlies.

Every believer in Jesus, You are seated in the heavenlies. That You may be with Him where He is.

Okay? But more than that, He is dwelling in us. That is a glorious thing.

Where I am to see My glory that You have given Me because You loved Me from the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, even though the world does not know You, I know You. And these know that You have sent

Me. You believer this morning, do you know that the Father sent Jesus to be your Savior? Yes, you do.

Otherwise, you wouldn't be a believer this morning. And He prayed that 2 ,000 years ago for us.

And that brings us up against the nowness, doesn't it? Jesus prayed for me now.

I am saved now. He died for me now. He rose again for me now.

It's all one to God. It's all in the same moments. I made known to them

Your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them and I in them.

Got it? I don't have time. I'm going to go by chapter 20 and back to Romans chapter 8 so we can wrap this up this morning.

But in John chapter 20, Jesus in a post -resurrection appearance appears to the apostles and He says to them,

Receive the Holy Spirit. This indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this indwelling of God, if you will, in us is just like this.

It's not like this and like this. It's like this. And we are inseparable.

And it gives meaning, does it not, to the doctrine of eternal security. How are you going to separate?

How are you going to separate that which has come together in an inseparable union?

The union with Christ, with the Spirit, with the Father is inseparable. You can't pull that apart.

These people look at John chapter 10 and say, well, I know Jesus said nobody can pluck them out of My hand.

But I can jump out. No, you cannot. Not if you are a believer. No, you cannot.

You know why not? Because you are joined to God just like this. Not like this and like this.

Well, here I am in Jesus' hand, but today I think I'll jump out. No, that's not how it is.

That's not how it is. Alright. Back to Romans chapter 8.

Mercy. Well, let me read through five verses quickly because I want to get to the end of the book.

Not the Bible. Romans chapter 8. The chapter. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

Why? Because we are joined to Him like this. Alright? For if you live according to the flesh, you would die.

But if by the Spirit, you put to death... That's a present imperative active voice verb.

And the idea is since by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

You Romans, this is happening. You say, well, I'm not so good at putting to death the deeds of my body.

I get it. But it has all happened now. Alright? I am in His presence now.

I am seated in the heavenlies with Him now. And whatever is going on here, every deal is a done deal.

And so you are putting to death the deeds of the body because you are in the Spirit. Don't go in a corner and contemplate your spiritual navel and ask yourself, am

I in the Spirit today or am I in the flesh? You are in the Spirit. You know why? Because of this.

Because of the indwelling Spirit, Christ and Father. Okay? There's no need for you to ask yourself, am

I in the Spirit today or am I not? If you know Jesus, you are. For all who are led by the

Spirit of God are sons of God. Okay. Am I being led by the

Spirit of God today? Yes, you are. But you don't know the sin I got into today.

I don't. I'm sure you're thankful for that and I'm not telling you anything about me either. Alright?

I don't. But if you are grieving over that sin that you got into, let me tell you something.

You are led by the Spirit of God to grieve over that sin. Paul said to the

Corinthian church, the squirreliest church in the New Testament, he said to them, there is a godly sorrow which leads to repentance.

When we get involved in sin, a la Romans chapter 7, there is a godly sorrow which makes us cry out,

O wretched people that we are, who will deliver us from this body of sin?

Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the deal is done. The union is so complete that it is a union akin to the union of the

Father, the Son, and the Spirit in the Trinity. And it cannot be dissolved because I do something stupid.

Okay? And that is one of the glorious features of our great salvation. So, are you being led by the

Spirit of God? Yes. Because you are a child of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, as children, by whom we cry,

Abba, Father. I don't have time to talk about this this morning.

But that cry of the believer toward God, Abba, Father, that is revolutionary.

There was no Abba, Father in the Old Testament. Only because of all that Jesus has done do we now cry.

Now when Mike gets into Hebrews and he gets into the business about let us enter the throne of grace boldly and so on, that's all about this, but it's all about what

Jesus has done. And the union that we have with Him. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ. Now if you're sitting there thinking the

Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God, I don't feel the Holy Spirit bearing witness with my spirit that I am a child of God.

Ian Thomas also said this and I think it's good. The indwelling Holy Spirit is a miracle.

It's that miracle that I've been talking about that makes the union like this. Not like this and like this.

But like this. Ian Thomas says that's a miracle, but it's not sensational.

It's a miracle. It's not about my senses. And I get it. We live in a touchy -feely society.

We have lots of charismatic brethren who are really touchy -feely. And so we say, well, if it's

God's Holy Spirit, it's got to be something that's... Let me ask you a question. Have you been aware recently of your spleen?

You say, well, no, actually not. Unless it starts to misbehave in some way and I have to see a doctor.

No, I haven't been aware of it. Have you been thinking about it this morning? Well, no, actually

I have not. Well, do you have one? Yes, I do. Okay? It's kind of like that.

God's Holy Spirit dwells in me. This I know for what? For the Bible tells me so.

Not because I have some sensational experience of some kind that I think ought to be what the

Holy Spirit of God looks like. The Bible says the Holy Spirit of God bears witness with me that I am a child of God as I relate to the sin which overtakes me from time to time, as I relate to the great facts of the faith that are in the

Scriptures, as I confess those and rehearse those. That is the evidence of the

Spirit of God and we will never encounter the Spirit of God more than we will encounter

Him in the book which describes Him. So, His Spirit does bear witness with our spirit that we are children of the

God. Your living Spirit has prompted you to be here this morning and not on a golf course.

Okay? Your living Spirit has prompted your interest in this living

Word of God. Your living Spirit has prompted you to thank Jesus for your salvation.

His Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. If you had a dead spirit, none of that would be interesting to you.

And by the way, if you dabble in seeker sensitivity in the church, I say, how do you think you can ever lure a dead spirit off a golf course at 11 o 'clock on Sunday morning?

I don't think it can be done. So forget it and let's just keep our noses in the book. Alright? If we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, our older brother, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may be also glorified with Him.

You say, well, I'm not suffering with Christ. You're not. If you get involved in sin and you cry out,

O wretched person that I am who will deliver me from this body of death, you are suffering over sin.

And it's the kind of suffering that drove Jesus to the cross. And there is a mutual suffering there.

Now, I've got to get to the end of the book. Otherwise, Mike is going to come in here and say, OK, it's my turn. Alright, now, at the end of chapter 8 of Romans, I read this.

In all these things. Well, let me go back earlier. What shall we say to these things?

Verse 31, If God be for us, who can be against us? If God be in us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not graciously, also with Him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who declares not guilty.

Who is to condemn? It is Christ who is the One who died for that sin.

More than that, was raised from the dead and is now at the right hand of God and is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

It's written, For your sake we are being killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. And that is because we are inseparably united to Him.

We are in Him. He is in us. And you can't get us apart. And I can't get us apart.

And there is nothing that can get us apart because it's that kind of union, not this, me, and the

Holy Spirit, me and Jesus, me and the Father. No, no. Nothing will be able to separate us.

In other words, nothing can break that bond of indwelling, what S. Lewis Johnson called, it is elemental.

It is so intimate that it is inseparable. Can't tell us apart. Let's pray.

Thank You, Lord, that You are in us and that we are in You.

And that bond is inseparable. The identity is inseparable.

We are in You. You are in us. We are all one. And it cannot be taken apart.

We thank You, Lord Jesus, and we praise You that You entered this sinful world, died in our place, was buried, rose again, now at the right hand of the

Father interceding for us. That when You died, we died. When You were buried, we were buried.

When You were resurrected, we are resurrected. We are seated in the heavenlies even this morning because of what

You have done and because of the great salvation devised and procured by God the

Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It's in Jesus' name we praise