The Necessity of the Holy Spirit in our Fellowship

The Necessity of the Holy Spirit in our Fellowship

All right, please take with me your Bibles this morning and turn to Romans chapter 8. Please, Romans chapter 8 this morning. And verse number 1 beginning, if you'll look there with me in Romans 8 beginning in verse number 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus have made me free from the Law of sin and death. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace because the carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God but ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is not of His and then in verses 15 and 16 for ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.

Let's mark our Bibles to this portion of Scripture this morning in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 this will be our Scripture text for today and let's once again bow our heads in a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father at this point in the service we want to take a moment now to ask that the things we have just read that you'll give us the grace and the wisdom to rightly divide your word, that you would help us, as we've already prayed Lord, in the application of it to our lives. We pray Lord that we thank you first of all for each and every one that is gathered here today. We pray for the freedom of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to each of our hearts. We pray that you would break the bread of life and that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, would be our teacher today. Lord, we pray that in our fellowship together, that it would be a time of sweet fellowship, a time of mutual edification, a time of looking back and remembering your goodness in each of our lives and how, as we look back and even as the psalmist did, this looking back over the faithfulness of God, it certainly ought to motivate us and inspire us to continue in faithful service to our God. Lord, we know that we're not the faithful ones, you're the faithful one, but we ought to be faithful because our God is faithful. So help us in that we pray. Bless now as we continue in this worship service in Jesus' name. Amen.

This morning we are speaking about the Holy Spirit that has been given to us in Romans chapter 8. You know the only way that we can have Christ's fellowship, church, is we must have the Holy Spirit. We must, the only way we can have fellowship is we must be led of the Spirit. In the flesh, walking according to the works of the flesh, it brings only death and division and deception, and yet we have been gifted, when Jesus Christ finished His work on this earth, the Holy Spirit He gave us that He might be our guide to the living word revealed in that word, that He might enable us, empower us to live our Christian life. So I've chosen in Romans chapter 8 to read verses 1 through 9 and then we also read verses 15 and 16 this morning. Let's turn in our Bibles back to that text, Romans chapter 8. It says in verse number 9, but ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. But it tells us in verse 15, for ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear. If you're in Christ, you've not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. The Spirit itself also beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Verse 17 says, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together.

When Jesus Christ came to this earth, He came to do two things: He came to expose our sin and to atone for it. He came to show us what we really were, what we really are. He removed the cloak for sin, and this is what upset the religious leaders of His day because He just brought it out into the open. He said we cannot cloak our sins into the religious facade, and you know, cleaning the outside of the cup, He said to His own disciples, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. So He came to expose sin, but He came to atone for it. In the preceding chapter, we would see Paul is speaking of a great incapability of his. He's speaking of an inability in his flesh to live the Christian life. He's speaking of great difficulty. He speaks even of having a desire to do what's right but not being able to do the right thing, and there's this struggle, this inability. He was incapable, and we are incapable in and of ourselves of pleasing God. We're incapable of maintaining this fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ. We're incapable, you know, I will mess it up, I will be the monkey wrench that just brings it all down if it's up to me because there is no ability in me or in any one of us apart from the Spirit of God, apart from the grace of God, to be what we ought to be.

So we notice here that as Paul is speaking about this conflict, this inability of his to do this, he doesn't stay in that state, does he? He doesn't remain in that quandary, in that conflict, in that vacillating kind of state that he's speaking of in chapter seven. We see in chapter eight, well even at the end of chapter seven, he thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin. He says in verse one of chapter eight, there is therefore now, obviously therefore is referring back to the preceding verses, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh according to the flesh but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus have made me free from the law of sin and death. Folks, this is something that has already been accomplished for us, but like he says in chapter six, reckon, apprehend, lay hold upon for your life what's already been given to you, what's already yours. He's told us very clearly that if in verse nine, we read just a moment ago, you're not in the flesh, as verse nine he says, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. If the Spirit of God doesn't dwell in you, then you're not, you don't belong to Him. But we have received the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and all of this is possible because of what the atonement, Christ's atonement, made it all possible.

The atonement, I looked up the definition, it is according to Noah Webster, expiation. Atonement is the act of atoning for a crime, satisfaction or reparation made by giving an equivalent for an injury or by doing or suffering that which is received in satisfaction for an offense or injury. On Wednesday night, we mentioned the word ransom. The ransom is the price that was paid for the redemption. In the culture of Jesus' day, in Paul's day, a ransom or a lutron was paid to redeem, to buy out of that marketplace, that slave market, a slave, to redeem them, to purchase them out of that market. Well, it's because of the purchase price and because of the act of atonement that has been made by our Lord and Savior with His precious blood that we have received the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. For in verse three, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, it's not that the law was unholy, the problem is that the law is holy, right? The law is holy and we are unholy, we are unrighteous. But what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, there's the problem, the sinful flesh. God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Every one of us would freely admit in our own flesh we cannot obtain salvation. We have to have atonement, right? We have to be born again, and we have to have atonement to live. We have to have the provided Holy Spirit that has been sent to us and given to us as children of God, not only to be born again but to live the Christian life.

It says in the Scripture that Jesus knew no sin, but He was made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And now, being made righteous, we have received the Holy Spirit. If you notice, Paul is calling our attention away from the problem. In verse seven, he calls our attention and points to Christ, and he's pointing us to the Holy Spirit that Jesus has given to us. Now, I remember listening back, I think Brother Bergman, Sister Bergman shared with us a recording not long after Dr. Oz had accepted Christ as Savior, and he mentioned the contrast between psychology and the gospel. He mentioned how he said, I came to realize that all I was doing was talking about the problem, the problem, the problem, all the time. There was no solution, there was no solution, you know, and there was so much focus on the problem. He says, but when we come to the Word of God, we find the solution for all of our problems. We find all the solutions, and the solution centrally is the Lord Jesus Christ and His atonement.

But we see in verse four, beginning in verse four in our text here, it says that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Verses four down through eight are really teaching that those who are in the flesh have minds controlled by the flesh, walk according to the flesh, cannot please God. Those who are in the flesh, who walk according to the flesh, whose minds are fleshly, are controlled by the sinful flesh, cannot please God. But Paul calls to look away to Christ, look to the Holy Spirit here that's pointed out in this passage today. He says in verse two, as we've already read, that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus have made me free from the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is already made me free. The freedom is there, the freedom is bought, the freedom is paid for, it is provided, and so now I need to walk in the liberty, right? I need to walk in this law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which contrasts with the law of sin and death. I need to walk according to this law.

You know something we see about the Holy Spirit is several times, a number of times in the Scriptures, He's referred to as the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. In fact, in Philippians 1:19, He's called the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Paul mentioned there, in 1 Peter 1:11, he speaks of the Spirit of Christ. In Galatians 4:6, he says that God, let's look over there in Galatians 4:6 together. In Galatians 4:6, it's told us there by Paul that because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father. Because ye are sons, I have heard people say that, well, I received the Holy Spirit before I was saved. That's not biblical, that's not biblical. You can't receive the Holy Spirit without receiving Christ. So we see that because ye are sons, God has sent forth His Spirit, right, the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, and it is that Spirit of His Son in our hearts that is crying Father, Abba Father. May I just pause at this moment? I don't want to take it for granted. Do you have the witness of the Holy Spirit in your life? Do you know this Spirit of God crying in your hearts Abba Father?

Well, look over with me in Luke 24, please. Luke chapter 24 in verse 49. What does Jesus say here? He says, and behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. So the Father is the one that's promised, and the Father is the one that's given, but it is through the Son. The Son is going to send the promise of the Father. The Son, you see this inner working of the Trinity here. The Son is going to give the Holy Spirit that is promised by the Father. And then in Acts 2:33, Peter says on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2 verse number 33, he makes this statement. Well, go back to verse 32 for the flow of the context. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. It's not that the Holy Spirit didn't exist before this moment in time, we certainly know that, but now the Son, who has ascended back to the right hand of the Father, is expressly giving the Holy Spirit to God's children, His sons, to enable them in their living of their Christian life.

We see a timid, faltering, weak band of disciples before Pentecost. Only we see a group of sheep that are scattered when the shepherd is smitten, but now we see the boldness, the clarity, the tenacity, the zeal, whatever words we can put there, of these men and women. But we see Peter preaching the word here. In John 3, we've been told that we've been born of the Spirit. I'm not going to read all of these passages, just going to allude to them. We've been born, those who are of God are born of the Spirit. Galatians 3:3, also speaking to the Galatians, says you've begun in the Spirit. Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Are you going to be able to mature into all that God wants you to be through the flesh? No, it's a rhetorical question, really. No, we cannot.

In Galatians 5, let's look there in verse 25. Paul says this, Galatians 5:25, if we live in the Spirit, well, if we've been born of the Spirit, if we've begun in the Spirit, if we are Christ's, because if we're not Christ's, then we don't have the Holy Spirit, right? If the Spirit lives in us, if we live in the Spirit, it says here, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us also walk in the Spirit. The Scripture makes it clear this is how we shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Let us walk in the Spirit. What is it that we used to do? John tells us in 1 John 2, what do we used to do? What does the world do? Lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, pride of life. I see it, I'm jealous because I see that person has it. I want what they've got. I want to have that, I want to be that. I'm not content with what I have. That's the world, that was us. And when I get it, I'm gonna stick out my chest and I'm gonna elevate myself above others and say, look at how good I am, look at what I have. Is that not true? Is that not true of the sinful human flesh? Just look at what people do on social media. That's the whole, that's the next show, that's all of it, what people boast about, what they can do and what they've gotten. It's our own sinful human nature will do that, but thank God, if we live in the Spirit, we don't have to live that way. We can walk, and we ought to, and we are commanded to walk in the Spirit.

Paul is not only in this chapter but even throughout Romans, it's certainly leading up to this chapter, is saying you're no longer in sin, you no longer in the flesh, you're not the servants of sin. Thank God you're not the servants of sin. Thank God that you were the servants of sin, you were the slaves of sin. Thank God you're not any longer, and thank God that you are now the servants of righteousness. And because you are, because the Spirit of God dwells in you, you have no excuse to live the way you used to live. You have no excuse to think the way you used to think. It is time, it is high time, put off that thinking, put off that living. You're not in the flesh, Paul says here in our text in verse number nine, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. We are to display, we are to bear in our lives the fruit of the Spirit.

Let's turn over to 1 John 4, please. 1 John 4 verse number 11. We have come through, and well, we are currently working on these verses, aren't we? But we have come through this study of 1 John in recent months, and we see here in 1 John 4:11, it says, beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. But I want us to particularly look at these first three verses of that portion that I just read there. John taught us, as we were looking through that study, remember John taught us that loving the brethren is an indicator of whether one's been born again, right? Do you love the brethren? Do you love the brethren? Those who don't love the brethren, it says, abide in death. Those who love the brethren abide in the light, they don't stumble in the darkness. And likewise, as Jesus laid down His life for us in loving us, we ought also to love other blood-bought believers. That's a difference from what our own life was. We were hateful and hating one another, the Scripture says. We were in envy, striving. But if we see a brother have need and withhold something from him, how can we say the love of God dwells in us, right? It's not enough to say I love your brother, but we must manifest that love toward another. This is that evidence. What does it say here in verse number 13? Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.

We all have different paths of life that the Lord is taking us down, but do you have the witness of the Holy Spirit at work in your heart? Does the Holy Spirit produce in you a love for the brethren? Does He convict you when you have not, when you have maybe said something to the brethren or you have acted in a way that you should not have acted towards the brethren? Is there a check in your spirit, and you say, the Holy Spirit, I will obey? Is that the response of our hearts? Is that the reality of our lives? You know, truly believing on what Christ has done for us and living and walking in the Holy Spirit, what else is it that sets us apart from the world? What is it that makes us different from the world? If we don't, if we have the Holy Spirit living in us and we are walking after the Spirit, there will be a difference in our lives. There will be that difference in our lives as we have read today.

But as we go back over to our text, please turn back over there with me to our text in Romans 8, please. Romans chapter 8, verse number 15, it says, for you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father. One thing about the Holy Spirit is that while He does convict us even of sin in our lives, He does not lead us to a place of fear. Something that we notice about the devil is that he would drown us in despair, and in the old life, we were bound in the fear of the future, the fear of what's going to happen, you know, the fear of what may happen to me. And therefore, we followed the lust of the flesh. He kept us entertained, we might say, with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye, so we didn't think about those fears, but they're always in the background. The wicked are like the troubled sea, they can't rest. There's no peace, there's no way of peace we had not known. But now in Christ, when I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God. That's what the Holy Spirit will point us to, is what Christ has done for us. I need not live in fear any longer because Christ has come, the Holy Spirit is living within me.

Do you delight to hear and meditate on what the Lord has done for you? I know we need to have introspection, we need to look at our lives, and we just say, is there some, and the Holy Spirit will convict us and point us to do that. But we need to stop, we don't need to stay looking at ourselves. We need to look at Christ and think, praise the Lord for what He's done for me, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That's what the Holy Spirit, the devil will keep you in fear. He'll keep you looking down and looking in and looking at all these things. That's what the devil does, but the Holy Spirit of God does not do that. It's not a Spirit of bondage again to fear that He's given us. The Holy Spirit will cause us to grieve over our sins but want to live better, want to move forward in the Lord. That's the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

In verse 16, we read this morning, the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. You know, Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 22, we are building together, brothers and sisters in Christ, for a habitation of God, how? Through the Spirit, not through the flesh, through the Spirit. We are building together for a habitation, a dwelling of God. Did you know that you're individual, you do this, you're bought with a price. What's that price? It's the lutron, it's the atoning blood of Christ. And being bought with that price, we are now a temple of the Holy Ghost. We are not our own, right? We are bought, and we are to glorify God in our body and spirit, which are His. So if that be the case, if first of all we've got to ask the question, not do you know about what Christ did for you, but do you believe on Christ and His atonement? Do you have the Holy Spirit living in you? If we don't have that, everything else we're saying today doesn't make any sense to you. It doesn't, it might make sense to you, but it's not the reality of your life. But if you are in Christ, if the Spirit of God lives in you, let's walk in the Spirit. Let us walk in the Spirit. Let's not deceive ourselves and say that we walk in the light. Let us walk in, let us walk in the Spirit. Let's walk in love. The Holy Spirit points us to Christ our Savior, and the result in our lives is that we point each other to the Savior in our words, in our actions, in our sacrifice one for another.

If the Spirit of God, if we're not walking according to the Spirit, we will not want to lead another to the Lord. This church will, this church without the work of the Spirit in our individual lives will disband, it will fall apart, or worse, it will turn into a hybrid like we saw this morning. It will turn into like the Samaritans, and it will be and will create another form of worship. May God help us to grow on and walk on in the Spirit and know what the fundamental, what the wonderful application of values in our relationship one with another is, brothers and sisters in Christ. May we be pointing one another to the Lord as the Holy Spirit, the witness in our hearts, points us to Christ.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these gathered here today. We thank you for these reminders from your word this morning that show us that if we are a believer, we have in our hearts, in our very own lives, the grand privilege of the blood-bought atonement of Christ. We have the Holy Spirit living in us because of what Christ did on that cross for us, and we have also a responsibility. We have each one of us a responsibility. We are today gathered here to remember what you did in the past and how you have blessed us and brought us to this hour. But Lord, we also have the responsibility to walk on in the Spirit. We have the responsibility to be led of the Spirit of God, and if that, and it will fall on our shoulders, what have we done with the stewardship you entrusted to us? What have we done as individual members? We might say, well, I'm not the preacher, I'm not a deacon, I'm not a teacher, but we are all members one of another, Lord. And we pray that as blood-bought believers, that we would each one of us be filled with and walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. May Christ Fellowship Church, no matter how big it may be or small it may be, may it have the evidence, the testimony, that those people do not walk according to the course of this world, they walk according to the Spirit. You can see it in the love they have one toward another. You can see it in the fellowship they enjoy and share because of what Christ has done for them. May that be said of this church, may that be said of our assembly as brothers and sisters in Christ. Help us not to think we can just lax it, basically, and we know that the devil is looking for any opportunity to tear apart churches in this day and time. So may we obey and be led by the Holy Spirit. Bless now as we conclude this service with a final hymn, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.