Cameron: 00:00

Amen. Morning, conduit. How are you? Good. Good.

Cameron: 00:03

It's good to see you this morning. Good to be with you this morning. Okay. So we have the last several weeks and even before that, before, Christmas for the Christmas season, we were studying the book of Romans or Paul's letter, to the Romans. And we're going to be back there today starting in chapter 8.

Cameron: 00:24

Okay? So if you have a Bible, I would encourage you to open it up to Romans chapter 8. If you don't have a Bible, you don't own a Bible and you would like a Bible and you see a bible in the seat next to you or in the pew, in the pew with you and you don't have a bible, you can take that Bible home with you. We hope that you do. You can make it your own.

Cameron: 00:44

You can underline it. You can write notes in the margin. We, we want you to have that. So we'll also have it up here on the screen. The reason we encourage you to have your own bible with you is that one, so that you can follow along as we as we study the word, so that you have an assurance that the truth of God's word can be revealed into your heart, irrespective of, someone standing up on a stage telling you, hey, this is what it says.

Cameron: 01:16

You don't need you don't need me to tell you that. Right? That we trust, that the Holy Spirit will reveal God's word to you as you as you, as you give yourself to its study. And, this morning, we have kind of a we have a we have a big shift in Paul's letter to the Romans. Here last week we talked about or in Romans chapter 7.

Cameron: 01:41

And how Romans chapter 7 is kind of this, it almost reads like or sounds like Paul's, personal diary of his struggle with sin. Dear Diary, I there are things that I want to do, but the things that I want to do, I can't I for whatever reason, I'm not able to do them anymore or I can't do them. There are things that I don't wanna do and and those are the things that I keep doing. And and I'm frustrated and and he says at the end of that, he says at the end of chapter 7, kind of in this exasperated, frustrated cry of his heart, who will save me from this body of death? Who is going to show up and kind of make things different for me?

Cameron: 02:38

And in a in a in a way, not in a way, it's very, in in a in a truth that's applicable into our hearts, just like it was into Paul's own life. We we all can kind of recognize and reflect that same exasperation in in our lives. Or at least, I won't speak for you, but at least I can. Where where I have struggled with sin and struggled with sin and struggled with sin, And I want to pursue holiness and I want to please God and I, want to live the righteous life that God has created in me through my faith in Jesus, but I still struggle against the power of sin and the things that I don't want to do, those end up being the things that I do. And then there's things that I really want to do and and and need to do and then I don't do them.

Cameron: 03:34

And so then you you sit down in a moment of frustration and almost despair, and you say, Lord, will anything ever change in my life? Will I ever actually really experience the transformation that I believe is possible through faith in Jesus Christ? I read it. I see it. I want to believe it, Lord.

Cameron: 03:58

But someone needs to save me from this body of death because every bit of effort that I have put into my own transformation myself, every bit of work that I have done, you know, reading listening to the podcasts and reading the books and going to like, it nothing has worked, Lord. Who is going to save me from this body of death? And then Paul answers his own what is basically his own rhetorical question at the end of chapter 7, where he says, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Who will save me from this body of death?

Cameron: 04:41

It's a who. It's not a what. Alright? It is a who is gonna save me. It's Jesus Christ our lord.

Cameron: 04:48

It's not a what. It's not a program. It's not a system. It's not a book. It's not a podcast.

Cameron: 04:53

It's not just one bit of advice or wisdom that you've been missing in order to put all the pieces back together, in order to produce life transformation in you. It is a person and his name is Jesus. And so now when we go into chapter 8, Paul, like I said, the chapter headings in our modern Bibles kind of do us a disservice to think that Paul is now starting a new argument or a new topic in in Romans chapter 8 when in reality, it's the same. He's carrying the same spirit, the same conversation all the way through because he gets to now the beginning of chapter 8. And he says, therefore so given all that we talked about before, beloved, given all the struggle of sin, given all the calling out to the Lord to save him and transform him transform me.

Cameron: 05:41

Now in chapter 8 verse 1, therefore, because of all this, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. You know, in our battle and struggle against sin and the exasperation that comes from not being or feeling like we are not free from it. We sit underneath this not so invisible, sometimes it's really palatable in our life, this kind of weight or yoke of condemnation. I am I am condemned because of my sin.

Cameron: 06:29

I am I am ashamed because of my sin. I am carrying continually the burden of guilt because of my sin. I can't get out from underneath it. Woe is me. I can just imagine what god thinks of me.

Cameron: 06:46

I can just imagine how the lord looks at me. And so we end up walking in the midst of a kind of self fulfilling prophecy of shame and condemnation where now Paul addresses it. The word addresses it, and he's like, no. No. No.

Cameron: 07:06

Like like like, listen. Even in the midst of all of the realities of chapter 7, the struggle against sin, the desire for transformation. Listen, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. And every bit of condemnation, every bit of shame, every bit of desire that you have to isolate yourself from God because of these looming, this looming sense of the weight of sin that you are carrying.

Cameron: 07:43

Paul says, the word says that the spirit of God sets us free from having to carry that weight. See, the word that Paul uses here is the word condemnation. There is now, therefore now, no condemnation. It's an interesting word that he uses because for us, it is it's a word that is, feels more emotional and mental. Like we feel condemned, right?

Cameron: 08:09

We feel condemned in our mind. We feel condemned in our in our spirit, right? Sometimes we feel condemnation coming from the outside, from a person or persons against us. Right? But primarily, condemnation comes across in our lives as an inward feeling or thought, something that does affect us.

Cameron: 08:29

Right? But even in the way that Paul uses it here, condemnation was not primarily internal, but it had an external, meaning or application in his cultural context. And it was the it was the definition of what it meant essentially that condemnation was equal to or alluded to a sense of penal servitude. Like the person was actually actually in prison, in jail, and that they were they were forced to serve or be a slave to their master in the midst of their bondage. There was a there was a famous, not so famous probably for you, he was famous for us theology nerds and geeks that read commentaries for fun, but a theologian and pastor named FF Bruce, and he wrote this about this particular this particular verse here, Romans chapter 8 verse 2.

Cameron: 09:28

He says, there he kind of paraphrase Romans 2. He says, there is no reason why those who are in Christ Jesus should go on doing penal servitude as though they had never been pardoned and liberated from the prison house of sin. That there is no reason why that those of us who are in Christ Jesus should go on living as if we are serving some type of prison sentence because of our sin that we are unable to escape from. We do not suffer under the yoke of sin, the burden of sin any longer. It is no longer our task master.

Cameron: 10:19

It cannot demand things of us any longer. We are in every way freed from the power and freed from the penalty of sin through our faith in Jesus Christ. But what is more both more and most spectacular about Romans chapter 8, all of these verses, is is what exactly Paul introduces or it's not even really a what. It's rather who Paul introduces that gives us the power of liberation from the sin that was mentioned and struggled with in Romans chapter 7. What is the, for lack of a better term, the silver bullet, Paul?

Cameron: 11:09

What is the thing that moves us from point a to point z in the struggle to be freed from the power and the servitude that sin has put us under. Let me give you a little bit of, little bit of a preview. It's not our willpower. K? It's not our just try a little bit harder.

Cameron: 11:36

K? In this in the struggle against sin, in the in the the the walk of holiness that takes us one step further in our relationship with Jesus that begins to produce transformation in us. It is it is not what Paul is gonna say is, okay. Here is the three points to your personal transformation into life of Christ where everything that had entangled you now is going to begin to be broken off. And now you can walk in the freedom that God has promised.

Cameron: 12:06

It's not has nothing to do with you or us at all. Paul calls it, it's the spirit of life that liberates us from the power and the penalty of sin. He says, therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is verse 12 again, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death. Listen, Paul in Romans chapter 8, he's got Paul has gone 7 chapters in his letter to the Romans barely mentioning the word even the word spirit up until now.

Cameron: 12:58

Not insinuating even that the Holy Spirit of God has a significant role in our transformation in life in Christ. So far, it's all it's all been about the, the the the wrath of the father that's being revealed from heaven in verses 1, 2, and 3. The role of the son in affecting our salvation as the sacrifice on the cross, the justification that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Right? The reconciliation that happens when we are united with him in death and life as in our baptism.

Cameron: 13:32

And now he gets to Romans chapter 8 having not talked about the spirit at all. And in Romans chapter 8, he talks about the holy spirit 25 times in one chapter. It was like, you've been wondering, you've been stuck in sin, you've been bound by chains, You've been unable to experience the power of transformation in your life so far so far? It's because you lack the power of the holy spirit within you. It's because by by our faith in Jesus Christ, we are now unified with the spirit of life, the spirit of Christ, the spirit of God, and it is the spirit now that walks us from slavery into freedom.

Cameron: 14:24

This is the beginning of Paul's whole belief in theology on the holy spirit of god. Paul's argument in all of chapter 8 is that the power of the holy spirit of god, the spirit of life, the spirit of Christ, you're going to see that he uses these words and names and descriptions interchangeably all throughout the scripture, is living in us through our faith and unification with Jesus. And this is the thing that begins to separate us from the life of sin and death. It's not our willpower. It's not our good intentions.

Cameron: 14:59

It's the spirit of the living God living and breathing and moving within us. Through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and death. It's like almost like Paul uses the word law or the term law to denote kind of like the principle by which we live, the principle by which we pursue God. This old principle, the principle of the law, like we talked about last week, it's stirred up sin in our life, right? It engaged the heart of sin.

Cameron: 15:38

It produced sin in us. It magnified and held up like a mirror our sin to us so that we became now so aware of our need for a savior. It showed us our sin and in so showing us our sin, it now shows us our death. It shows us our separation. It shows us our inability to live up to in our own willpower, the righteous decrees of God, the righteousness of the law.

Cameron: 16:11

But now he says a new principle is at work through faith in Jesus Christ. We are no longer bound by the old principle of the law, which only brings sin and death. But now the of the law, which only brings sin and death. But now the new principle, the one of the spirit leads us to both life and freedom. So whereas the spirit of the law has brought only sin and death into our life, Paul says now the principle or the law of the spirit, the spirit of Christ now leads us into freedom and life.

Cameron: 16:48

And so here, Paul even begins to help us to develop, right, a a, a theology or a a belief and understanding, a belief here so that then we can apply it here and then we can practice it here, who the holy spirit is, what he has come to do, and how he functions in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. It's really interesting how Paul talks about how Paul experienced the power of the Holy Spirit of God. For instance, here, he calls he calls the spirit here in the first couple of verses the spirit of life. As if this is a commonly understood, way in which the Holy Spirit shows up in the creation as the spirit of life. I'm like, well, I mean, that's the weird way to talk about the Holy Spirit.

Cameron: 17:52

I thought we just talked about the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, kind of like the the weird one of the Trinity. Right? But the reality is is that Paul here is not developing any type of new idea or new belief here. Paul is going back to literally the very first sentence of the scripture. Where there was nothingness and darkness and chaos and the spirit of God.

Cameron: 18:26

The spirit of god, over top of the nothingness and over top of the care over top of the chaos, breathed life into creation through the word of the father. It was the spirit of god who brought life when there was nothingness, who brought life when there was chaos, who brought life when there was darkness, all the way back to the beginning of creation. And now Paul says the same spirit of god, the same spirit of Christ that brought all creation into existence when there was nothing but darkness. It is the same spirit of God that will bring life from the death of your sin, that will bring freedom from the bondage and control that the law had you under. It is the spirit of god, Paul says.

Cameron: 19:20

Nothing else and nothing more. There are a few things here that Paul goes on to say about the spirit. Okay? And while it is impossible in a 1,000 sermons to talk about everything and who the whole I mean, we're talking about God of God, the Holy Spirit, the member of the church. Impossible to talk about all of the things about the Holy Spirit in 1 sermon or a 1000 sermons.

Cameron: 19:54

Right? In these next 17 verses of Romans chapter 8, we're gonna hit some of these things that we can know and understand and believe and by God's grace, apply to our lives as we talk about the Holy Spirit. Verse 5 through 8, Paul has this little section here where he talks about how the spirit of God changes. Our kids are rocking out down there, I love it. When Pastor Luke says, hey look, if you're I don't know if you know or not, some some of you just come in these doors and you sit down.

Cameron: 20:34

Right? And like and then some some of you know, some of you don't, but we literally got a whole other church that meets in the rest of the building. I'm not kidding. You're like, if we if we have, you know, roughly on a Sunday morning, we'll have, like, between 2 hundred, 230 people in the building. Alright.

Cameron: 20:55

A third to a half of them are kids. K? A third to a half of them are kids. Be like, well, we gotta put our kids somewhere else in the building so us adults can do the important work of learning about Jesus up here in the sanctuary. Right?

Cameron: 21:11

Well, it's listen. The important ministry of proclaiming the gospel and giving those kids an opportunity to learn about Jesus and be in community with one another and worship and be discipled. Right? Like, it is it is there there there is no, like, this is serious church and that's fun church. Okay?

Cameron: 21:37

That's this is church and that's spiritual babysitting. There's, like, there's none of that. Right? We need to we need to remove these ideas from our mind that when we come to church, we place our kids away so that we can grow in Jesus. Okay?

Cameron: 21:53

It is we are growing in Jesus together. Right? And it is and it is our job together as a community to ensure that everyone in the community is is growing in their relationship with Jesus. Right? So, yes, it is your part of your responsibility in the midst of community to ensure that we are helping the kids to grow in their relationship with Jesus just as it is their responsibility as a part of the body of Christ, right, to to do the same for you.

Cameron: 22:35

So that's why I tell them to turn the music up, not down. Right? K? Because they're not they're not disturbing the church. They are the church.

Cameron: 22:46

They are they are doing the church thing downstairs. They are worshiping. Okay? So get over yourself if it's too loud. How about that?

Cameron: 22:57

Alright. Back to the sermon. Could someone grab grab me a glass of water from out in the lobby, please, Henry or someone? Thank you. Okay.

Cameron: 23:10

Where was I? Verse 5. Here we go. Alright. So Paul begins to talk about the Holy Spirit, and he he talks in verses 5 through 8 about how when, when the spirit of God or the spirit of Christ is in us it takes us from having a mindset that is that is focused on the desires of the flesh, the desires of sin, the desires of the world, and switches our mindset to, thank you, to things that have a desire of the spirit.

Cameron: 23:51

K? And is this not the the prayer and the cry of our heart as we come into faith in Jesus? Is that lord is that, Lord, would would you in me create a new mind that is no longer that is no longer conformed. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 12. We're gonna talk about it in a few weeks when we get there.

Cameron: 24:13

No longer a mind that is no longer conformed to the patterns it's like it's like when I come to faith in Jesus Christ, now my prayer and my invitation to the holy spirit is to come and change my mind from a thing that focuses only on what the sinful nature, desired. But now, lord, give me a mind that focuses on what the spirit of god desires. The things that you love, I wanna love. The things that you think about, I wanna think about. The people that you wanna spend time with, lord, that's who I wanna spend time with.

Cameron: 24:57

Lord, make my mind aligned with the mind of the spirit so that from my mind down into my emotions and soul, I am transformed. Because do we not all recognize that the patterns of sin that we have been in bondage bondage to pre the work of Christ in our life were taking us or did take us to a place that only was death. They had no life there. They had no future there. It was the grave, but we were enslaved to the way in which our mind took us, the way in which our mind controlled and enslaved us to those sinful desires, we had no way out.

Cameron: 25:51

Paul says exactly this. It was like the mind that is focused on the natural things or the things of the flesh is death. Verses 5 through 8 in Romans chapter 8, those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. And then Paul here primarily talks about the life or the disposition of the one who has their mind set on the sinful nature rather than on the spirit.

Cameron: 26:28

He says in verse 6, The mind of the 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. When the spirit of god sets us free from sin and death through faith in Jesus Christ, our whole mindset needs changing.

Cameron: 27:05

Our whole mind, our mind the orientation of our mind now begins to change. Where whereas once while we were still living according to the sinful nature, Paul says that it was impossible for us to please God. Now in Jesus Christ, we have minds that are fixated and focused on the things that the spirits desi that the spirit desires. And when our minds are focused on the things that the spirit desires, life and peace is the byproduct of our life. Life and peace then becomes the byproduct.

Cameron: 27:48

But see the bulk of the description here in verses 5 through 8 is actually on the one who is still living according to the sinful nature. They're described as having their mind set on what that nature desires. And while the mind that is set on what the spirit desires brings life and peace, the mind that is set on what the sinful nature desires, like we said, only brings death. And what Paul says, cannot or there is an impossibility of a person with a mind that is focused on sinful desires' ability to please god. And it comes primarily through what Paul says, a hostility to god, an unwillingness to submit to god's law.

Cameron: 28:40

No. I don't know why I can't break free from sin. I don't know why my I don't know why my my my life is still going this direction. I don't like there's gotta be something there's gotta be something wrong. Like, my mind is completely off the power of the spirit in me, I can't be transformed, it's gotta be something really, really complex, it's gotta be something deep within me, it's gotta be something from my past, It's gotta be this.

Cameron: 29:03

It's gotta be that. It's gotta be this over and over and over and over and over again. The scripture declares really, really quickly that virtually every every bit of our sin and our inability to have the spirit of god transform us from toe to head is our unwillingness to submit to god. It is our unwillingness to say, lord, you are you are my lord. You are my god.

Cameron: 29:33

I am not my god. My desires are not my god. My thoughts are not my god. My past is not my god. My emotions are not my god.

Cameron: 29:41

Lord, you are my god. And in fullness and obedience and surrender, I give myself fully to you. I submit myself fully to you. And what Paul says here, it is that it is the life of those whose mind is set in the sinful direction that cannot and will not submit to god. They won't.

Cameron: 30:01

They won't do it. They are they they they are in love. They are in love with their own life so much that they are unwilling to submit to God's law. They are unwilling to submit to him. And submission is like this.

Cameron: 30:21

It is like a swear word in this culture. Submit to who? I am an American. Right? Right?

Cameron: 30:32

I I have freedom. Right? You are a slave. We are not free. We are not.

Cameron: 30:48

Paul says in Romans chapter 6 that we are we we we are not free to live our lives as though we have no god. We are we are god has set us free from slavery that leads to death so that we might now become slaves to another thing, righteousness, that leads to holiness and eternal life. So you can choose who you desire to be enslaved to. Right? But you are not your own task master.

Cameron: 31:22

You will either be enslaved to sin, which leads to destruction in your life, or you will be enslaved to righteousness, which will develop the holiness of God in you and lead to eternal life. You have a choice. It's one of those 2. To choose myself is to choose death. To choose the the the life of the spirit is to choose holiness and life.

Cameron: 31:53

Paul says in another letter, this is not just like some offshoot point of Paul. He says in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14, he says essentially the same thing. He's like, the man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Okay. So Paul talking about mindset, he's talking about the way the spirit changes our minds.

Cameron: 32:32

Now he is like he he continues on this path, like how we talked about Romans chapter 8. There's like 25 references to the Holy Spirit. This is one of the first times in Romans in all of Romans where he, he be he talks about the spirit. Now look at this. Romans 9 through 11, Paul, he he doesn't intend to do this, but I'm gonna we're we're gonna intend to do this through the words of Paul here and do a little do a little building of theology in our minds.

Cameron: 33:04

Okay? Because it's important here that we do not ignore we we wanna we wanna preach we wanna preach and proclaim the word of god so that it addresses our heart issues. K? But then it also addresses our head issues. Because often it is our minds that need transformed.

Cameron: 33:28

Right? And then and then we then we need to take this, you know, the longest distance in the that the truth has to travel. You've heard this. Right? The longest distance that the truth has to travel is the 18 inches between your head and your heart.

Cameron: 33:43

Right? We get the truth of God into our head. Right? And then the Holy Spirit of God, we trust because Jesus says this is part of his job. This is part of the things that the holy spirit does, is to take the truth of God and shove it down into the recesses of our soul.

Cameron: 34:00

So that now it's not just some benign bit of knowledge or information that we have up here, but it is actually now affecting with truth the trajectory of our lives, the inner workings of our souls. But we must not ignore the the, like, the the building of our theological knowledge so that we have the seeds necessary for the Holy Spirit to plant. And this is something that Paul does unintentionally in verses 9 through 11. He does 2 things here. Paul's going to give us a few things.

Cameron: 34:33

The first thing that he's going to give us is a model for Trinitarian belief. Talk about that in a second. And the second thing he's going to do is he's going to give us truth about both eternity and the resurrection. Okay? This is us building our theology together as a community.

Cameron: 34:53

So in verse 9 of Romans chapter 8, we see Paul use words or descriptions of God, the spirit of Jesus, almost interchangeably. All right? This is why it's important for you to have your scriptures so you can see it here in your own Bible, right? Look at verse 9. He says, You you, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature, but by the spirit.

Cameron: 35:23

Okay? If the spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Okay. So listen.

Cameron: 35:39

Paul Paul here seems to use different descriptions or, names of or words for God almost interchangeably here without much intention on delineating one from the the other. Paul uses in verse, in verse 9, the the name or the word spirit, which we would assume, okay. Yeah. That's that's the holy spirit. Right?

Cameron: 36:06

Like, I mean, that makes sense for us. Right? That's the holy spirit. Then he uses the term the spirit of God. Like, okay, well, God, like like the father, like the spirit of God, the father or the Holy Spirit.

Cameron: 36:19

Like, okay, that's another way of kind of talking about the same thing. But then he goes and he says, then he says the spirit of Christ. And we're like, okay, hold on a second, Paul. Are we talking about the spirit? Are we talking about the spirit of God?

Cameron: 36:36

Or are we talking about the spirit of Christ? And if we were to ask that kind of rhetorical question, I think Paul would say, yes. Yes, we are. Well, are we talking about no. No.

Cameron: 36:52

No. No. Let me rephrase the question. Are we talking about the Holy Spirit? Are we talking about the spirit of God?

Cameron: 36:58

Are we talking about the spirit of Christ? Yes, we are. Like, we're talking about that, right? Listen. You will hear people say.

Cameron: 37:13

Right? So Christians, for all of Christian history, have believed that God, the God who created. Right? The God of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the God the God that we learn about and reveals himself here in in in his word is a triune God. Or we talk about the we talk about God as trinity, the theological concept of the trinity.

Cameron: 37:41

And and and there will be people who will say, well, the word trinity is not even in the bible, so I don't know how you could possibly believe that god is like 3 separate, but all one, all in the same thing. It doesn't make sense. And the word trinity is not even in the bible, so I don't really believe in the trinity. And you know what? They would they'd be right that the word trinity is not in the bible.

Cameron: 38:07

Right? And that we don't believe that God is triune because Jesus said, hey, the the father, the spirit, and the and and me, the son, were, like, all of the same and just consider us, like, all, like, distinct, but also together. And it's kind of like a trinity and you're not going to really get it. It's a holy mystery, but just believe it. Right?

Cameron: 38:31

You're not gonna see that anywhere in scripture. But what we do see time and time and time and time and time and time again, we're gonna give you some examples here this morning, is that the way in which God is revealed through scripture, the way in which God is revealed through the life and words of Jesus Christ is that God is 3, but he is also distinctively 1. And so in a verse like this, Romans chapter 8 verse 9, we begin to understand how Christians over centuries have developed, millennium really, have developed this understanding that that we're not talking about 3 separate gods who all kind of just go do their own thing and work and live autonomously from one another, but they exist in co unity with one another to create the world, to redeem the world, to forgive the world, to bring the world back into reconciliation, to renew the world through Jesus Christ. And what Paul says here is that the spirit of God is just as much. It's not like the weird one of the trinity, not one of the outside of the trinity.

Cameron: 39:41

He's not like, oh, we really get Jesus and we really get God with the holy spirit when he's kind of weird. I don't know. Right? But know that Paul's whole argument here is that the holy spirit of God was the agent of Crete. He was the one that hovered above the waters and breathed life, the life of God, into into all of creation.

Cameron: 40:04

We do not believe in God as a triune God because the Bible comes out and says God is Trinity. But because this is how we see God show up and display his glory in father, in son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. And we see Jesus. This is not just Paul's idea. We see Jesus saying the same things.

Cameron: 40:25

In John chapter 14. Look at this. John chapter 14 verses 25 through 26. This is just as, just as Jesus was preparing to leave, ascend back into heaven after his resurrection or before his, before his, crucifixion and resurrection, he was preparing his disciples for his exit. He's saying, hey.

Cameron: 40:54

Like, I'm leaving. Not gonna be with you any longer. And they're like, woah. Put, like, slam on the brakes. What do you mean?

Cameron: 41:03

We're just getting used to your presence among us. Like, stay, please. He was like, look. You want me to leave. You do.

Cameron: 41:13

You want me to leave because when I leave, I'm going into heaven, and I'm gonna tell the father to send the holy spirit. Like, what? What? He's, like, he's, like, it's actually good that I'm gonna leave, because until I leave, the comforter, the counselor, the holy spirit, he won't come. But he's coming as soon as I leave.

Cameron: 41:34

Then we have the whole book of Acts, where the holy spirit's just, like, blowing up all over the place. But here, John chapter 14 is when he begins to talk about this reality. John chapter 14, starting at verse 25. All of this I have spoken while still with you. So who's talking?

Cameron: 41:52

Jesus. Okay, so we have member number 1 of the trinity or one member of the trinity. Right? All of this I have spoken while still with with you, but the counselor, the Holy Spirit. Right?

Cameron: 42:06

Whom the what? Father will send in my name. Then he talks about the things that the spirit does. Will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that I have said to you. So even Jesus is like, hey.

Cameron: 42:23

I'm Jesus here. Gonna go into heaven. I'm gonna tell the father to send the holy spirit. Good on you. Alright?

Cameron: 42:29

All 3 of us. You got it. Right? So, like, oh, there's no trinity in the bible. You're right.

Cameron: 42:34

But Jesus here, right, the word the very words of Jesus himself communicates that there is a unity and diversity within god himself. He says it later in John chapter 16 as well. John chapter 16 verses 12 through 15, he says this. Jesus Jesus says alright. So we already know we have Jesus.

Cameron: 43:01

I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear. But when he, the spirit of truth. Okay. There's another name for the Holy Spirit. The spirit of truth comes.

Cameron: 43:13

He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. Right. So he's not independent. He's not autonomous.

Cameron: 43:21

He's not somehow separated. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the father is mine.

Cameron: 43:48

This is why I said the spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. So Jesus again declaring hell, like, hey. Look. We are like bros, man. Inseparable.

Cameron: 44:05

The Holy Spirit comes to bring glory here to me, Jesus says. But he doesn't speak on his own. He speaks only what is what he hears. And what he hears, he hears from me. And what I speak, I received from the father.

Cameron: 44:22

And so they they live together in holy unity. The other thing that Paul does here in this verse is in Romans chapter 89 through 11 is he gives us an understanding of of, both eternity and resurrection. Right? This is a theology building lesson for us. And, it's a it's a beautiful, like, Lenten season, pre Easter piece of theology, to ask the holy spirit to plant deep within our souls.

Cameron: 44:51

He says in Romans chapter 8 verse 11, and if the spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you. Listen, understand this, believe this, get this down into who you are. Core critical piece of Christian theology here, listen, is that eternal life will be experienced in bodily form, not spiritual form. We will not be ghosts living in the clouds, disembodied, able to walk through walls because there's nothing material about us. Right?

Cameron: 45:42

It is not as if god wants to free us from these ugly dirty bodies that he created good and that sin has destroyed, But that in his destruction of sin through our faith in Jesus Christ, he's taking the thing that he created as good and redeeming it and resurrecting it in the same way that Jesus physical body was resurrected from the grave and came out not in some ghostly spiritual form, but as a man who had a body, who could be touched. Thomas said, let me put my fingers in the holes of your hands inside so that I may know you are real. Our our eternity, our resurrection because of our unification with Jesus Christ by faith is the same type of resurrection that Jesus experienced. It says that the holy spirit of God gave life to our mortal bodies just as it did to Jesus. Scripture is clear, especially in Romans.

Cameron: 47:01

Paul makes this makes this so clear. Romans chapter 6 verse 4, he says, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the father, we too may live a new life. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too may live a new life. Romans chapter 8 verse 11 says the same thing. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to what?

Cameron: 47:42

Your mortal bodies through his spirit who lives in you. I am running out of time, church. So given all of this reality, right, given the reality of the spirit's work to give us a new mindset, given the reality of the spirit's work to resurrect our mortal bodies like he resurrected the body of Christ. Paul says we now have a response. We have a new obligation.

Cameron: 48:22

Both with this knowledge and with this truth and reality of the spirit's life in us. Says you are now obligated. You are now committed. Right? You are with essentially, without excuse.

Cameron: 48:36

This is who you are now. Verses 12 through 13, he says, therefore, brothers and sisters, we have now an obligation, but it's no longer to the sinful nature. Right? In the power and bondage of sin, it was like we had an obligation to abide by the demands of the sinful nature. We had no power over it.

Cameron: 49:00

We were powerless against it. We were enslaved to its desires. We had an obligation to it. But now, he says, you no longer have an obligation to the sinful nature, but now you have an obligation to the spiritual nature to live according to it. Verse 13, for each of you live according to the sinful nature, you will die.

Cameron: 49:22

But if by the spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. If by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Our obligation here now, our obligation as those who have faith in Jesus Christ and are filled with the Holy Spirit is that we partner with the ways that the holy spirit goes to work, ridding our lives of the chains and bonds of sin, the misdeeds of the body. We let the spirit do the work that he has come to do without openly opposing and restraining his work in our life to sanctify us from the inside out. What are the things that Jesus promised the spirit would do?

Cameron: 50:21

Well, we just talked we just read really all of the a good portion of the things that the spirit came to do in John chapter 14 and John chapter 16. What we just read here, well, that that that the Holy Spirit has come to teach and remind the people of what Jesus has said. Let us let us let us remind let us remind the people of what Jesus has said, the holy spirit says. Alright? That Jesus has come in the fullness of God, that he has come with the fullness of the spirit.

Cameron: 50:54

And now that he has gone, it's the holy spirit's role to remind the us of what he has said. The holy spirit's job is to bring conviction into our hearts. Like Like, whenever you have felt a sense of, like, conviction by the Lord over sin and guilt and righteousness, One of the things that you can do is, Lord, thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit in my life in this moment. Thank you for the work of the holy spirit who is bringing conviction of sin into my heart that I might see my sin. Because listen, without seeing your sin, you cannot repent of your sin.

Cameron: 51:40

Without repenting of your sin, you cannot be restored from your sin. Without being restored, you cannot be forgiven and freed to new life. The work of the holy spirit to bring conviction of our sin is a grace of god that draws us back into the freedom of life with him. It is a thing that we can glory over, thank the Lord over. Conviction is not something that should be avoided.

Cameron: 52:04

We should run headlong into conviction knowing that the Lord has not withdrawn his Holy Spirit from us. Because if we are receiving, conviction, we know that the presence of God through his holy spirit is working deep within us to root out all sin. So the spirit teaches and reminds us the things of what Jesus said. It brings conviction in regards to sin and righteousness and judgment. It guides us.

Cameron: 52:35

The Holy Spirit guides us into truth. It doesn't leave us without a rudder to walk the life of faith. It guides us into truth. And this is this is this, to me, this last one is, like, incredible. The role of the holy spirit is to bring glory to Jesus.

Cameron: 53:00

The role of the Holy Spirit is to bring glory to Jesus. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will come and bring glory to me. It will move in our hearts and lives, so that as we are worshiping and and calling out on the calling out the name of Jesus, that glory is being revealed on his behalf. Finally, through the presence of the spirit, through the indwelling of the spirit in our lives, we are given a new identity. It's not our it's not just our mind that has changed.

Cameron: 53:39

It's not just our direction that has changed. It's our last name that has changed. It's our inheritance that has changed. It's our family that is changed. We are given a new identity for you did not receive verse 15 or sorry, I'm sorry, verse 14.

Cameron: 54:00

Because those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received a spirit of sonship and by him we cry, Abba, father. It's interesting. You know how many people in the old testament, you know how many old people in the new testament from this point, from this point before called God the father, Abba? 1.

Cameron: 54:34

Who? Jesus. Why? Right? Because the word Abba was a term of it was an it was a way of talking about or to God with a deep, deep sense of intimacy, vulnerability, and openness.

Cameron: 54:58

Where where those before Jesus would not dare in holy reverence refer to god as anything but Yahweh. Because of his holiness and his glory. But now Jesus coming along and both in the garden and on the cross refers to the father as Abba. The only one in all of scripture that we see has ever referred to God with such a personal name. And now what the word says is that because of the spirit of God that lives in you, you now have been adopted so deeply into the family of God that the same way in which Jesus himself loved and interacted with and spoke to the heavenly father.

Cameron: 55:51

Jesus' name for God is now the name of God that you get to use too. He is not far off. He is not removed. He is not he is not separated himself from you in his holiness or glory. He says, call me by my most intimate and personal name because I am right here with you.

Cameron: 56:10

And in the intimacy of our spiritual union, I am your father and you are my child. And every bit of what I have given to Jesus, I now give to you. Says that. Now if we are children, then we are heirs. We are heirs of God and listen, co heirs with Christ.

Cameron: 56:42

If we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. That everything that is Christ's is now ours. Through the life of the spirit in us, we are not left as orphans. We are not left as slaves. We are not we are not left chained by sin any longer.

Cameron: 57:12

That god has set us free through the power of the holy spirit, and he has set us free not to be rudderless ship going in our own direction, but he said, no. No. No. You are not an orphan. You are now mine.

Cameron: 57:26

You are a son. You are a daughter. I am your father, and all that I have given to Christ, I now give to you. That is our inheritance. That is what we are given through the power of the spirit.

Cameron: 57:47

Let's let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for the mind of the spirit given to those of us who have expressed faith in Jesus Christ. We ask, Lord, that the mind of the spirit would help us to focus on the things that the spirit desires. Lord, that our mind would no longer be focused on the things that the sinful nature desires. That bring death and destruction into our lives.

Cameron: 58:31

Lord, we submit our lives to you. We submit ourselves to you so that your spirit may do his work in us. So that your spirit may continue to free us from the power of sin. That your spirit may continue to speak the truth of Jesus into our life. That your spirit may continue to convict us of sin and guilt and righteousness.

Cameron: 58:52

That we may be in right relationship with you, Lord. Abba, we are your children. Father, Abba, would you show us the depth of our inheritance in Jesus Christ? Would you show us the inheritance that you have prepared for us even before the foundations of the world in our unity with Jesus. In your name, we pray.

Cameron: 59:28

Amen.