The Liberty of the Spirit

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If you have your copy of God's Word, I invite you to take it out and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and find your place at verse 17.
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Earlier Brother Mike Smith in giving his announcements asked if we would finish today.
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Well last week we did one half of verse 17. So, if it were that we were staying consistent, maybe we'll do the other half today.
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But I had the intention of finishing out the chapter last week. It's just the reality of it is as we look at the riches of this chapter, we continue to find more that we are able to mine out of this important text.
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We have to consider the fact that every word of God is important.
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And yet there are certain places in the Word of God where there is such a concentration of truth that to seek to drink from that at one time would be overwhelming.
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And we are not like some of our ancestors who would come in the morning and stay all day.
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We have not made that our tradition here. Even though I wouldn't be a problem if you guys wanted to go grab something to eat and come right back and we could do it all again.
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But I do want us to consider the fact that the role of preaching is to take the
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Word of God and to read it, to interpret it, and to apply it.
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And if that goes quickly, then it goes quickly. And if it goes slowly, then it goes slowly. We want to truly seek to imbibe the
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Word of God. And over the past four weeks, rather the past I guess now five weeks, we have been in a mini -series within our study of 2
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Corinthians looking at the subject of the New Covenant. And as I said many weeks ago, the third chapter of 2
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Corinthians is like Paul has taken the entire book of Hebrews and he has condensed it down to one chapter.
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And therefore, as we come into this chapter, there's so much in it that it would be impossible for us to spend too much time here.
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Paul says in verse 6 that he is a minister of the New Covenant. He contrasts the transient nature of the
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Old Covenant with the permanent nature of the New Covenant. He describes the glory of the
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Old Covenant as a glory that has passed away and it has given way to a glory in the
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New Covenant that is forever. And therefore, we find the blessing of the
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New Covenant has been the focus of our several weeks. And this has been the sermon outline. We have looked at the promise of the
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New Covenant, which came to us in the Old Covenant. I would argue the promise of the New Covenant goes all the way back to the book of Genesis in chapter 3, where God promised that he was going to send the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent.
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We know the promise of the New Covenant is in the Abrahamic Covenant, where he was told through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed.
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And we give us and we're given a specific promise of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31, when he says,
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I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. So we have the promise of the
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New Covenant. Then we saw the inauguration of the New Covenant that is in the blood of Christ. The New Covenant is made in my blood.
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Jesus said as he held up the cup and he said, this cup is the New Covenant in my blood.
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After that, we saw the exposition of the New Covenant, where we walked through Paul talking about the
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New Covenant as being permanent, as opposed to the Old Covenant being transient. Then we asked the question, who are the members of the
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New Covenant? The members of the New Covenant are everyone who is joined to Christ.
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The Bible says that if we are in Christ, we have Abraham as our father. We have been grafted into Israel.
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We have been made part of the commonwealth of God. We have been brought into this family. We who were outside have been brought near by the blood of the cross.
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And then finally, last week, we looked at the work of the spirit in the New Covenant. And our first part of that last week is a three part sermon was the nature of the spirit.
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Paul says in verse 17, now the Lord is the spirit. And as you were here last week, if you remember, we use that to give an examination of what it means when we say the
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Lord is the spirit or the spirit is the Lord. Because we know that that points us to a greater truth, and that is the truth of the doctrine of the
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Trinity. God is one in essence, God is three in person, and these three persons are co -equal, co -eternal and distinct.
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That is a doctrine which is not one that can be laid aside. That is a doctrine that is not adiaphora or what is what means to be something that is debatable, something that is to be set aside or a third tier doctrine.
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The doctrine of the Trinity is not a third tier doctrine. It's not a second tier doctrine. But the doctrine of the Trinity is a primary doctrine because it deals with who
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Christ is, who God is and who the Holy Spirit is. That God is one in essence and three in person.
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Well, today, as we continue on in our study, we are going to look now that we have seen the nature of the spirit, we are going to look at the liberty of the spirit.
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And if the Lord gives us time, we will also look at the transforming work of the spirit.
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So let us stand together and read from the text. We are going to read verses 17 and 18.
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And I'm reading from the English Standard Version. Now, the
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Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
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And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the
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Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the
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Lord, who is the spirit. Father in heaven, I pray now. I pray that you would keep me from error.
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As Lord God, you know that I am a fallible man, I am capable of preaching error. And I pray every week,
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I pray every time I stand behind the pulpit or behind a desk to preach, Lord, I pray.
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That you would keep me from error for the sake of my conscience.
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For the sake of my hearers. And for the sake of your great name, Lord, I know.
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My own failures. And I pray that you would forgive me. And I pray that you would cleanse me, purify me, prepare me and fill me with your spirit for the preaching of your word.
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I pray even now, Lord, that you would prepare the hearts of the people as you have been preparing them all week, that you would prepare them even more in this moment to be fertile ground for the seed of the gospel,
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Lord, that we would not be. Rocky soil, that we would not be the hard clay of the pathway or the weedy ground which chokes out the root.
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The Lord God, that we would be fertile soil. Ready to receive your word.
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And bear fruit. And Lord, for those today who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ.
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Whether it be young or old. Lord. I pray that you would. Plant the seed of the word in their heart.
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And that it would bring forth life for only you,
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God, can take out the heart of stone. And put in a heart of flesh, so,
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Lord, we pray that you would do that today in Christ's name. Amen. When we consider the new covenant.
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We know, as we have already looked at several passages. That the new covenant is in Christ, it is in the blood of Christ, it is because of the work of Christ, it is mediated by Christ.
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And yet, in many ways, we could also say that the new covenant is the covenant of the spirit.
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For it is that when Paul describes the new covenant, even though we know that it is founded upon the work of Christ and that it is it is mediated by the person of Christ, it is applied and empowered by the person of the
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Holy Spirit. And therefore, when Paul throughout this chapter has been describing the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant, he has described the old covenant as one written with ink and the new covenant is one written in the spirit, not to say that the spirit was absent in the old covenant, but to point to the administration of the spirit in the new covenant, this new covenant with a new administration of the spirit.
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He said it's not of the letter, but of the spirit, he says in verse six, again, pointing out that the old covenant was not one that was that was perfect.
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But and when Hebrews tells us this, please don't think that I'm saying the word of God is not perfect. The word of God is perfect, but the covenant itself needed to be replaced with a perfect covenant, one that was ministered by the spirit of God.
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He calls the new covenant in verse eight, the ministry of the spirit.
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Spirit. And why? Because the new covenant promise is a new administration of the spirit, and I know what some of you are thinking.
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He said that last week. I can't say it enough. I want you to understand, beloved.
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That you are blessed in such a way that is actually greater.
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Than those who were under the old covenant, because you are blessed with an administration of the spirit that empowers you in a way that is different than the old covenant.
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The new covenant is not only a new covenant, it is a different covenant. This is one of the ways that we would differ somewhat from our
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Presbyterian brethren, even though our Presbyterian brethren we love and certainly they have great theological truths and many wonderful writers.
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But one of the great distinctions between Baptist and Presbyterian covenant theology is we do see more of a newness in the new covenant rather than simply a new administration of the same covenant.
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We see a new and different covenant, a new covenant which brings new promises with a new priest, a better priest and better sacrifices.
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And all of those things are part of this new covenant. And it is a new administration of the spirit.
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And again, I don't know how anyone can read the Bible and not come to that conclusion when we see Jesus making those very statements.
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That when I go away, I'm going to send to you the comforter, the paracletos, the one who will come and be with you forever, and he will not only be with you, he will be in you.
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Beloved, this is the promise of the new covenant. And so when we consider the importance of this, we look today at the liberty that is provided to us as members of this new covenant.
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As we looked last week at the nature of the spirit, the spirit's nature is that he is
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God, that he is fully divine, and that he is not simply a force as is described in Arianism with its modern expression, which is the
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Jehovah Witness movement. The Holy Spirit is not a third God, which is taught in tritheism and other forms of polytheistic worship, but that the
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Holy Spirit of God is fully God and that he shares the essence of God with the
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Father and the Son. And yet he is distinct from the Father and the Son. The Nicene expression, which means the expression of faith which comes out of the
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Nicene Creed in the 4th century, is that the Son is begotten of the
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Father before all ages and the spirit proceeds from the
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Father and the Son. And therefore, when we talk about the spirit, sometimes the word of God calls the spirit the spirit of Christ.
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Why? Because it's preceding he. I'll correct myself, don't say it. He, it's easy to do, right?
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It's easy to think of the spirit as simply a force or an emanation, but not. He proceeds from the
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Father and the Son. In fact, just a little historical note. If you don't know much about church history, one of the things that's important is in the 11th century, in 1058, there was a divide between the
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Eastern and the Western Church and the divide that happened between the Eastern and the Western Church.
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It's called the Great Schism or the Great Schism of the church. And what happened at that time was they the
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Nicene Creed, which originally simply said that the spirit proceeded from the father. Well, they had something called the philoque clause, which was the addition of the phrase and the son philoque is
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Latin for the son. And the addition to the Nicene Creed was that the spirit proceeded not only from the father, but from the father and the son.
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Why did that divide the church? Not because it's not true. It divided the church because Rome added that as a unilateral addition to a creed, which they really had no right to do unilaterally.
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And the Eastern Church saw that as an affront to their authority. And therefore, it was a divide more over politics than it was over theology.
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However, that has now led to many differences between the Eastern and Western Church. And there's a lot of other areas where they're wrong.
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So I don't want to get into all that. But the point of the matter is this, I think even though Rome had not the authority to do that,
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I do believe it is correct to say that the spirit of God proceeded from the father and the son.
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Why do I believe that? Because we see that in the scriptures. We see the spirit called the spirit of Christ.
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We see the spirit called the spirit of Jesus. We see the spirit referenced as Jesus says, if I go,
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I will send all those percolators. I will send another comforter.
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So we see that in the expression of the text. There's nothing wrong with seeing that. But the point of all of this is to simply say, when we consider the work of the spirit and the nature of the spirit, we must not sit back and think that the nature of the spirit doesn't matter.
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Or we must not sit back and think that the nature of the spirit should not be considered. If we are
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Christians who are seeking to understand our faith, these are things that we must investigate.
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These are things that we should seek out to know better what it is we believe. You understand one of the reasons why.
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The Jehovah Witnesses go door to door talking to people, and one of the ways that they go door to door talking to people is they challenge people on doctrines like this and they say, oh, that can't be true.
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That can't be true because of this, this and the other. And they'll point to this text or they'll point to that text. And people who have no historic basis in the scriptures, they have no historic basis in church history, who know nothing of what
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I just told you about the story of the division of the Eastern Western Church, who know nothing of the early councils and creeds and the fact that for hundreds of years, godly men debated and wrote and talked and apologized for these very things, not in the sense of apologies and saying they were sorry, but giving a defense for these things.
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If you know nothing of your history, you will easily be knocked off your feet when someone comes in claiming something that sounds reasonable when absolutely it is not.
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This is why I'm so committed and why our elders are so committed to teaching these things and why it is our job to teach these things.
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I was very grateful last week, Brother Stephen made a note and just said that he was thankful that having left the sermon last week, he felt better equipped.
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To address the doctrine of the Trinity in regard to those who would seek to come against it, and I was thankful for you writing that and saying that on on social media,
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I appreciate that. That's an encouragement to me because that's what we're doing. Preaching and teaching the word of God, you know, we come together 52 times a year.
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Right now, we have other times we can't get together in midweek, we can't get together in the afternoon on Sunday for the academy and these other things, but 52 times a year we should be here.
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So that we can learn our faith so that we can explain our faith so that when we go out into the world and share our faith, we actually have a foundation upon which to stand.
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This is where it comes from. This is the training opportunity. This is discipleship. I believe that discipleship begins in the pulpit.
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People say you teach more than you preach. Beloved, preaching and teaching go together.
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If all I do is get up and rant and rave for an hour, you've not left any better equipped than when you came, you might be excited for 20 minutes, but excitement fades.
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I'm not here to rip your cord and send you off running until the gas runs out. No, I'm here to seek with our elders to equip you for the work of ministry.
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And part of that is knowing the word of God. So last week we looked at the doctrine of the
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Trinity, the nature of the spirit. The Lord is the spirit. Now let's look at the second half of verse 17.
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And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
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King James Bible says there is liberty. Now, this may seem like a simple question since I sort of went over it already.
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But I want to ask it and have you answer it in your mind. It says, and where the spirit of the
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Lord is, there is freedom. Where, beloved, is the spirit of God? Now we could take the theological answer and go through the three omnis and come to that one that says omni present.
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And we could say that the spirit of God is everywhere. Psalm 139 says, I go into heaven and you are there.
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I make my bed in Sheol and you are there. I cannot escape from your presence. Certainly that is true.
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But that is not what's being spoken about here, because here is not just talking about the omnipresence of the spirit of God, but it's talking about the working presence of the spirit of God in the heart of the believer.
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Where the spirit is, there is freedom.
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And you say, well, where is the spirit? Well, let's stop for a moment and say, where is Christ? The Bible says when he ascended into heaven, he did what?
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He did sit at the right hand of the father. Now, does that mean the spirit of Christ, that Christ himself and his divinity is limited to sitting right next to the father and he never goes anywhere else?
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No, but in his humanity, we believe there is a presence of his human nature at the right hand of the father.
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I remember very much a few months ago, I was in a conversation with a group of men having a conversation on an online show.
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It was a podcast show. Several pastors were talking and one of the pastors said, when Jesus went into heaven, he stopped being human.
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I said, oh, nay, nay. And I stopped the show and I kind of felt like a jerk because they didn't ask me to stop the show, but I did.
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I said, wait, don't go any further. What he said was wrong. And everybody,
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I said, let me help you understand something, the hypostatic union, which is the union of natures, when the son took on flesh, the
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Bible says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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When he ascended, he did not give up flesh, but he remains a mediator forever.
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The hypostatic union is not something that ceases at the ascension, but Christ ascends into heaven.
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He ascends as the God man. He is seated at the right hand of power as the
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God man, and he will return as the God man. Beloved, this is not something
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I'm not coming up out of hope. This is our faith. This is what the early fathers argued for, that Christ in taking on flesh and in that flesh in the tomb received a glorified flesh.
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And when he came out, he demonstrated that the flesh that he had is the flesh we will have, because when we see him as he is, what?
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We will be as he is, right? That that glorified flesh goes on forever.
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So when we ask, where is Christ? Christ in his divinity is everywhere, but Christ in his humanity.
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And we don't make a divide, but we do make a distinction. We say in his humanity, he is at the right hand of the father.
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Where then is the spirit, as we said, the spirit is everywhere, the spirit is omnipresent, the spirit cannot be where there is nothing because he is everywhere.
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But in his work as the empowerer and in his work as the life giver, in his work as the regenerator, in his work as the indweller.
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He is in the heart of every believer. That's where the spirit is, and that's why it says and where the spirit is, there is freedom.
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Very quickly, just to show you that if you have your Bibles, turn with me to Galatians chapter four and go to verse six.
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Now, this is part of a larger section. That we may look at later if we have time, but because it's beginning of verse four or verse four, going down to verse seven is the part about the fullness of time,
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God sending forth his son, you all know that part, we sing a song about that. But in the middle of that, in verse six, it says, and because you are sons and why are you sons?
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Because you've been adopted into the family of God, because Christ has come and redeemed you, you are sons.
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And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son.
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Notice the Holy Spirit of God is called the spirit of the son. Again, this is the proceeding of the son, has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying,
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Abba, father. Where does the spirit reside? In our hearts, right?
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It says it right there. It says he sent the spirit in our hearts. So when
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Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 3, verse 17, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
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Where is the spirit? According to that verse, the spirit has been sent into our hearts.
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Now, here's an important thing. Turn with me to Romans chapter eight, because this
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I'm going to for a moment address something that is commonly taught in charismatic churches.
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But go first to Romans and you'll see what I mean. Go to Romans chapter eight and verse nine.
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Paul, speaking to the believers who are reading his epistle, says this. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit.
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If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ.
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And by the way, notice the parallel, please. First, he says spirit of God, then he says spirit of Christ. Again, the Trinity cannot be divided, but it can be distinguished.
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And here he calls the spirit, the spirit of God. And then he calls him the spirit of Christ. Interestingly enough, in the same context, in the very next sentence.
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But he says this. And because you are sons, God, I'm sorry. You, however, are not in the spirit, but in the flesh. Let me start over.
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I'm sorry, I have two verses together. 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.
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What does not belong to him?
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Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
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Now, if you are familiar with Pentecostal teachings and some of the history of the charismatic movement, those are not exactly the same.
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Pentecostalism came first. Charismaticism is a outgrowth of that. But one of the teachings, which is very prominent in those movements, is the teaching that you can believe, get saved.
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And then a second blessing comes, which is the blessing called the baptism of the spirit, where the spirit comes to be in you.
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And the demonstration of the baptism of the spirit, according to the Pentecostal and charismatic movement, is speaking with tongues, which they describe as or what
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I describe, what they do is ecstatic speech. Ecstatic speech or ecstatic utterances, or the more technical term is repetitive monosyllabic sound, because that's what it is.
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It's repetitive. It's monosyllabic. It's not verbal in the sense of words, but it simply is a syllables over and over.
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Repetitive monosyllabic sound is supposed to be the example that you have received the spirit.
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And so you will meet if you go to certain Pentecostal churches, not all, and I am in no way seeking to condemn.
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I'm just simply explaining a difference that they hold to. If you go into those churches, you will meet those who will say they have not yet spoken in tongues.
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Therefore, what is the what is the understanding? They've not yet been baptized in the spirit.
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So they would say, I'm I'm a believer. I've been saved, but I'm not yet baptized in the spirit.
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The problem with that. Is that if you are a believer and you have not yet, and by the way, the word baptism simply means the indwelling or the idea of being immersed into.
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If the spirit if you've not been immersed in the spirit, if the spirit is not in you, what does this text say?
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You don't belong to him. So this is one of my issues with the charismatic teaching.
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It's not that I really have a huge issue with the whole tongues thing, even though that's its own thing.
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We can talk about that. It's not that it's what it signifies. It signifies the idea if you don't do this, you're not a believer.
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I remember one time listening to Dr. James White debating a Pentecostal on the subject of the gift of the spirit, this very subject we're talking about.
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And in that debate. The charismatic preacher would not say James White was a believer, not because he was a
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Calvinist, a lot of them think that means we're not believers. But it was because he didn't speak with tongues, and I remember years ago,
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I've told the story before, but I was. Going to a camp meeting with a family member and the camp meeting was a
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Pentecostal camp meeting, and during the camp meeting, the pastor of the Pentecostal camp meeting came down off the dais and my family member introduced me to them.
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Now, this was a long time ago. I was still in seminary and they introduced me and said, this is
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Keith. He's a student at the Baptist seminary. Why they did that, why are you going to call me out like that in the middle of this movement?
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But the man grabbed my hand, he pulled me in tight, he looked me dead in the eye and he said,
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I want you to know that we believe the evidence of sanctification is the utterance of speaking in tongues. That was
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I'll never forget, that's exactly how he said it. We want you to know that we believe that the evidence of sanctification, by the way, verse 18, we're going to talk more about sanctification moving from glory to glory, but the evidence of sanctification, which means that the
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Spirit doesn't work in you. Sanctification is the Spirit's work in you, right? The evidence of sanctification is the utterance of speaking in tongues.
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Beloved, that cannot be the case. You know why? Because Paul, in 1
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Corinthians chapter 12, asks the very question, will all speak with tongues? And the answer implied in the
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Greek, because there's no answer given in the English, because it's not in the, there's not needing an answer because the
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Greek implies the answer in the negative. Will all speak with tongues?
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The answer is no. And therefore, to make that the standard, to assume that you have the
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Spirit of God in you, that's not the way it works. So how do you know if the
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Spirit of God is in you? First of all, you know the Spirit of God is in you if Christ has changed your life.
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If you have gone from one who hated the Lord, who hated the Word, who hated all of those things, and Christ changed your life to now love the
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Word, to pursue Christ, and want to submit to Him. That's the greatest work of the Spirit.
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Not that you would speak with another tongue, but that you would live with a new life. That's the evidence.
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And so where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Freedom from what? Beloved, to answer that question, you have to go back up.
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So if you do have your Bibles, just very quickly go back up with me, in chapter 3, and see what he says.
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In chapter 3, when he says, right before this verse, he says, speaking about the
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Jewish people, because we know it's talking about Moses. He says in verse 14, but their minds were hardened.
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Now I looked at that a few weeks ago, I don't want to explain it all again, but I'll just remind you what that is. The people of Israel, when they see the
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New Covenant come, they are blinded to it. Their hearts have been hardened to it. We talked about this in the sermon a few weeks ago.
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Right? Their hearts are hardened. For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that's talking about the Old Covenant Scriptures.
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When they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted. Because only through Christ is it taken away.
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That's why when a Jewish person reads the Old Covenant Scriptures, they don't see Christ there. Because they have a veil over their heart.
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They have a veil over their eyes. It's as if they have been blinded. And we're going to see in chapter 4, that Paul actually says that it's the
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God of this world, Satan himself, who blinds them. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.
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But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
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That is the freedom that Paul is referring to. The freedom to be able to see what before was blinded.
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The freedom to be able to see Christ and see Him in the Old Testament text.
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That's the freedom that we have as believers. Paul is saying that the freedom that was lacked, and is still lacked by many
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Jews. Not all, because thank God there are Jews who believe in Jesus. But the freedom that is lacked by many
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Jews today, we have in abundance. We have that freedom.
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They read the Old Covenant, they can't see Christ. I read the Old Covenant, I see nothing but Christ.
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And you say, well you're reading into the text. No, I'm reading with the eyes that God has given me.
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I'm reading through the hermeneutical lens that the New Testament provides to me.
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Because the New Testament tells me that Christ is there from beginning to end. So when
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I read the Old Testament, people say you read with a bias. Well sure I do. I read with a bias of the
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New Covenant. Because the New Covenant gives me eyes to see. It gives me freedom to understand.
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It gives me a new hermeneutic to look at the Scripture and understand. When you say new hermeneutic, what do I mean?
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We still use the grammatical historical method. What does that mean? We understand the grammar and the historical context, and that's what we use to interpret the text.
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However, every text of the Old Covenant is looked back at through the
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New Covenant. Which provides us, again, an understanding that we would not have had without it.
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And you say, well where do you come to that conclusion? Luke 24, Jesus with the two on the road to Emmaus.
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It said in starting with Moses and all the prophets, he showed them himself and all the
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Scriptures. How many times does the New Covenant over and over and over again quote the
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Old Covenant? Read the Gospel of Matthew. Over and over and over again the New Covenant quotes the
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Old Covenant. Why? Because Jesus is there. And where the
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Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom to see that. Where the Spirit of the
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Lord is, there is freedom to understand that. There is a veil over the eyes of the
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Jewish people, absolutely. But, they turn to Christ.
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It's as if a veil comes off and they can see him for who he is. Now, the
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Bible says that we were all slaves to sin.
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But we have been redeemed. We were blind.
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But now we see. That's the work of the Spirit. In giving us freedom.
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Because not only has the freedom given us the ability to see Christ. But the
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Spirit has given us the freedom to follow Christ. Understand this, beloved.
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And I hope you know this. Outside of the work of the Spirit of God, you would have no desire to follow
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Christ. Outside of the work of the Spirit of God, you would still be in the flesh.
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Again, think back to Romans 8. We just read it a few minutes ago. But it says, you however are not in the flesh, but in the
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Spirit. Why is Paul talking about that? Why is Paul referencing that? Because in that very section of the text of Romans.
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Paul says, if you are in the flesh, you cannot please God. By the way, that's one of those great
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Calvinistic verses. Because the whole Bible points to the truth of God's sovereignty in the work.
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There are no such thing as Calvinistic verses. They are just true verses that happen to point to the truth of what we believe. But the reality is,
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Romans chapter 8 tells us. That apart from the work of the Spirit, we cannot please
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God. It doesn't say we will not. It doesn't say we may not.
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It says we cannot please God. One of the things
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I ask my friends on the other side of the aisle. And I do believe they are brothers in Christ.
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I don't think that people who aren't Calvinist aren't believers. I do believe they are. And I believe that this is an issue that we can disagree about and still love the
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Lord. I was saved long before I became a Calvinist. But, in regard to this issue,
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I ask the question. Is faith pleasing to God? Oh yeah, it is.
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Because the Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. The book of Hebrews says that.
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Because without faith, it's impossible to please God. Which means faith is pleasing to God. And what does
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Romans say? In fact, let's go look at that. I just wanted to show you in Romans 8. Just so you get an actual visual of what I'm talking about here. Look over in Romans 8.
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Beginning at verse 1, we'll just start there. It says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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By the way, there's another use of the freedom. What has the Spirit set us free? Set us free from the law of sin and death.
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For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.
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And for sin, He condemns sin in the flesh. In order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.
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Who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.
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But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death.
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But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh. Listen, is hostile to God.
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Literally, is at war with God. The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.
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For it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.
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What can't? The mind that is set on the flesh cannot submit to God's law.
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And then verse 8. Those who are in the flesh cannot do what?
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Please God. Those who are in the flesh. If you are in the flesh, beloved, guess what?
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You can't please God. Faith is pleasing to God. So, I'm making a logical deduction, right? If faith is pleasing to God and you're in the flesh, what can't you do?
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Can't have faith. Right? So faith becomes then by what we call necessary inference.
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Faith is a gift that God gives us. We who are unable,
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God gives the ability. Now, it's still your faith and don't confuse this. You still believe. But it is
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God who empowers you to believe. What does the Bible say? No man can come to me unless it be granted to him by my
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Father. Right? So the work of believing. Yes, we believe. And this is something confusing sometimes
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I think for those who disagree. They say, well, you're saying God gives you faith. That means God puts the faith in you.
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No, the faith is in me. It's my faith. God empowers it. And you say, well, can you give an illustration of that?
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And this may be one you've heard before. But I think it's a pretty good illustration. Jesus told
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Lazarus to come forth. And dead men don't walk unless God gives them the ability.
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Unless God gives them life. And when God gave life to Lazarus, he came forth on his own feet.
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God didn't carry him out. He didn't hover out. He walked out on his own two feet.
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Having been empowered by God's Spirit who brought him to life.
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You were dead in your trespasses and sins. And God brought you to life.
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By grace you have been saved. Now, again, looking at this text.
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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the
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Spirit. See, you are not like the ones who can't believe.
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But you are ones who can believe if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. And anyone who does not have the
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Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. Now do you see the context? Now do you see what Paul is saying?
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You were dead in trespasses. You were dead in sin. You were unable to do anything good towards God. You couldn't submit to the law.
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You couldn't please God. But God, by the Spirit, has given you life. And because He's given you life, you now can walk in the newness of life because of Him.
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Your whole salvation is a Trinitarian work. God the
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Father chose you. God the Son redeemed you. And God the Spirit regenerated you and empowered you to be able to come.
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And without Him, you would not have come. And because of Him, you are now free.
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And whom the Lord sets free is free indeed.
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See, that's what Paul is saying. The Lord is the Spirit. And where the
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Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Are you free today?
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Are you free, not from the presence of sin, because we all deal with the flesh and abiding sin and besetting sins.
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We all deal with that. But are you free from the penalty of sin by placing your faith in Christ and having
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Christ's work pay the penalty for your sin? Are you free from the penalty of sin?
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Are you free from the blindness of unbelief? Has Christ given you eyes to see and ears to hear?
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Where before you didn't even care and now it's the most important thing in the world? And are you free to walk in the newness of life?
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And beloved, that is because of the work of the Spirit. Next time we come together, we're going to see that that work of the
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Spirit is moving us from one degree of glory to another.
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See, here's the beauty. And I'm going to give you a tip off to next week, because next week we're going to look at something in Romans 8.
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In Romans 8, a lot of people get confused about this, because it says, For whom he foreknew, he predestined. Whom he predestined, he justified.
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And whom he justified, he glorified. And a lot of people, and even myself, have said at times, I'll say that glorification is something in the future.
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That's God looking at a past thing as if it were past, but it's actually in the future. But the reality is you have already been seated in heavenly places with Christ, because when you were born again, in one sense you were glorified, and you're being moved from one degree of glory to another, until the day that Christ splits that eastern sky, and you will see him as he is, and you will be as he is.
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Beloved, what a day that will be when my Jesus I will see. Let's pray.
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Father, I pray now that if there are those here who have not come to an understanding of Christ, whereby they have bowed the knee to him and have given him their hearts, and Lord, have received from him the blessing of eternal life,
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I pray, Lord, that you would do that work now that only you can do. For the very bowing of the knee, the very bowing of the heart, the very turning our hearts towards you is a work that begins with you.
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So I pray, O God, that you would, in this day, in this hour, in this very moment, Lord, turn our hearts to you.