I’m going to start today with something I’ve picked up in my daily readings by Max Lucado. Some of you may have read this.
God was with Adam and Eve, walking with them in the cool of the evening.
God was with Abraham, calling the patriarch his friend,
God was with Moses and the children of Israel…. He was with the apostles. Peter could touch God’s beard. John could watch God sleep. Multitudes could hear his voice. God was with them!
But he is in you…. He will do what you cannot. Imagine a million dollars being deposited into your cheque account. To an observer you look the same, except for the goofy smile, but are you? Not at all! With God in you, you have a million resources that you did not have before!
Can’t stop worrying? Christ can. And he lives in you.
Can’t forgive the Jerk, forget the past, or forsake your bad habits? Christ can and he lives in you.
Last week I started a series on Life in the Holy Spirit with a study of Romans 8:28. Now over the next few weeks to keep looking at what this life in the Spirit is about and how God travels with us on that journey. Last week I talked about how God works all things for our good as we take on the attributes of Jesus.
Starting back at the beginning of Romans 8.
Romans 8:1-14 is a discussion of where a believer stands with Jesus.
Paul points out from his own personal experience, that he has been liberated from “the law of sin and death”, “through Jesus Christ” and “the law of the Spirit of Life”. All who are followers of Jesus as the Christ are in the same boat. We have been set free from sin and death.
God did this by sending Jesus with a human nature in the likeness of our own sinful nature. Jesus then dealt with sin; he did this as a human.
This is a good point to stop and remember though that Jesus is both human and God, and that “He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:2) We have in the Salvation Army a doctrine, about the person of Jesus lets read it; “We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.” (Salvation Army, Doctrine 4)
Paul wrote that he was liberated from the law of sin and death, Paul was an expert in that law. He understood that the Law could show what sin is, and it could condemn sin, but the Law could not and cannot overcome sin.
Jesus did this, by breaking the power of sin, through never sinning and becoming a sin offering for the rest of us, for all who would accept this freedom, so that we too may be free, that all may be free. Jesus opened this door to life for us. He made it possible for us to take on his attributes, to be like him. He opened that door.
It is impossible to find an exact comparison, but this may be a way of seeing how one person can open a door for others.
Prior to Rodger Bannister running the mile in 3’59.4" in 1954 it was believed to be impossible, and that athletes would die in the attempt.
The ’four minute barrier’ has since been broken by many athletes, and is now the standard of all professional middle distance runners. In the last 50 years the mile record has been lowered by almost 17 seconds. John Walker managed to run 135 sub-four-minute miles during his career, “Go Kiwi!” Now it’s even been run by High School students and an over forty year old.
Bannister broke four minutes and opened the doorway to others; Jesus broke the power of sin and death and opened the door way to life.
In comparing Jesus gift and miracle of freedom from condemnation and sin and death with Rodger Bannister’s four minute mile there is an interesting point.
By the way has anyone here run a four minute mile?
Not all of us are able to experience the thrill of running the mile at that speed, but we are all able to accept freedom in Christ!
We are now all able to have that right relationship with God as we are no longer bound to our old self but are directed by the Holy Spirit.
In the Holy Spirit we are now able to have life as God intended it, free from the burden of our old self, no longer set on our own desires, those things that appear to be freedom but end up a load that’s too hard to carry.
Paul however tells us this with a warning looking at verses six and seven we read “The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.”
So when we have the Holy Spirit living with us we are no longer controlled by our sinful nature. We have life and peace through the Holy Spirit (SBI) Interestingly Paul calls the Holy Spirit in this instance the “Spirit of Christ.”
We have Jesus living with us!
So Jesus is living with us what happens from here on in, what does the Holy Spirit do?
1) Well, when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, you are in the words of William Barclay in his paraphrase of verse 9; “… not ruled by your lower human nature; you are ruled by the Spirit, - if it is true that the Spirit of God has really made his home in you.” The verse concludes “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ.” (NIV)
In this way Paul is stating that because believers have the Holy Spirit living in them life change occurs. They are no longer the old man or woman; they are controlled by the Spirit. They have life through the Holy Spirit. We heard earlier that Christ can do the things that you cannot and he lives in you. We have life and peace through the Holy Spirit (SBI). We are no longer going it alone.
This is fairly clear cut. You may say why then do some / most believers continue to sin?
2) The truth of the matter is that some of us struggle with our old nature more than others. There are some who battle for years with their sins, while others don’t.
An early Salvationist Holiness teacher, Samuel Logan Brengle tells the story of a brilliant young minister who approached him because he was struggling with temptation to the point of walking the streets almost in agony. Brengle says “He had been reconciled to God by the death of Jesus, but he had not yet learned that he could be saved to the uttermost by His life (that’s Jesus Life). But after having the way of holiness explained to him with all the simplicity of a little child, he yielded himself to Jesus and received Him by faith into his heart. He found himself filled with resurrection power and saved to the uttermost. Brengle in his book ‘Resurrection Life and Power’ then went onto explain the achievements of this Minister since their meeting and to explain that, “He received the very same Life and Spirit that the disciples had received in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, and it is for you, O my brother, my sister. Jesus is not dead, but living, but where?” His question to his readers is; “Is he living in your heart?” Is he living in your heart?
Brengle was quite blunt and this was a question to those who are followers of Jesus, “Is he living in your heart?” Let me be blunt, is he living in your heart?
Let’s be clear here this is not the organ that pumps blood around the body, Brengle is using the word ‘heart’ to mean whole person.
Paul in verses 12 to 14 sums up what the Holy Spirit does for us this way. “Therefore brothers, (and I’ll say sisters) we have an obligation – but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are lead by the Spirit of God are sons of ( and I’ll say daughters of) God.”
3) The truth is we all have sinful natures, the greatest of the saints was tempted, and Jesus himself was tempted because he was a man. If you don’t believe me read Matthew chapter four.
The difference is that he was a man that lived by the Spirit from the beginning, he had victory over sin and death and he has made it possible through his death for us to have the same victory. Not just a victory over sin but also a victory over death itself.
When we accept the Holy Spirit into our lives we to can be assured of our freedom. We have life and peace through the Holy Spirit (SBI).
What God does because of his love for us is to not just come along side us but to abide in us making real life possible we are able to shake off the old, what we could not do, Jesus does.
How do we overcome the past, how do we break the habit, break free from the addiction, how do we forgive that person or the people who caused us so much pain? Through the Holy Spirit, and his taking control of the issues!
How do we conquer our pride, our shyness, our worries, take on a new attitude that sets us free? That freedom, life and peace are available through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The million recourses that are available, to us they are there.
There are so many things that we can’t do in our own strengths. Jesus can, we have the victory because the Holy Spirit is living in our hearts.
If you have read this sermon please rate it, Ta , Andrew.
