Transcription
[Music] We're at Romans chapter eight verses five through eleven. Romans eight is one of the great chapters in all of God's Word. In fact, you could say it is one of the crown jewels, not only of the book of Romans but of the Bible itself. Donald Gray Barnhouse, the great Presbyterian minister, pastored Tenth Presbyterian Church for decades. He said if he were stranded alone on a desert island, it could only have one chapter of the Bible with him, it would be Romans chapter 8. It's a powerful chapter. It's a chapter that starts with the words "no condemnation" and ends with the words "no separation."
Now, as we as we get ready to look at the verses, I want to really kind of get us all back on the page of Romans so we're thinking about what Paul is writing about. And for those who are new, you're able to kind of get a sense for where we're at in our study of the book. One of the great mysteries of Scripture is God himself. Though through Scripture, He reveals Himself to us, truth be told, there's as much about Him and the expression of Himself that we will only understand and begin to comprehend when we get to heaven. He is a triune being, one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And all of God is involved in all that God does. And when it comes to our salvation, all of God is involved in our salvation.
The Father's will, see in Chapter nine, planned it in love. He predestined us to be adopted as His children, Paul writes in Ephesians 1. The Son, Jesus Christ, carried it out. He was the means for it. He came to earth, He lived a righteous, perfect life. He gave that life for us on the cross. He bore our sins and the wrath of God for our sins. And then He tasted death for every man, that we would not die but live. And then the Holy Spirit completes our salvation. He was at work before you got saved, convicting. He was at work the moment we got saved, washing us with renewing by His regenerating power, as Paul writes in Titus. He empowers us, He teaches us, He enlightens our heart and our mind. He leads us, He prays for us, He helps us.
And when you come to Romans chapter 8, one of the powerful things about this chapter is you will see all three members of the Godhead working for our salvation. You get a sense of it: the Father in verse 33, Romans 8:33, He is justifying us. "It is God who justifies." You have the Son in verse 34. The Son is interceding for us. "Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us." And you have the Spirit, the Holy Spirit helping us. Romans 8:26, "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses." All of God working in your salvation, doing what only He can do.
As Paul thinks about the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, about what they're doing, he literally bursts forth in praise in that most familiar of verses, Romans chapter 8 and verse 31. "What then shall we say to these things?" What things? That the Father's justifying, that the Son is interceding, that the Spirit is helping. What are you going to say about that? How do I, how do you, how do you wrap your mind around that? Look at what he says: "If God is for us, who can be against us?" I mean, come on. If you've got God working in you, what's going to stand in the way of your salvation? That's good news. God is at work.
Now, just by way of reminder, at salvation, the moment you're saved, we've learned in Romans that we are justified. What does that mean? It's a theological word that is very important. We've defined it this way: it is the act of God whereby the sinner is given faith to believe. You didn't, you didn't, you know, a lot of people say, "You know, I just believe." Like they did it. No, you were given faith to believe that enabled you to believe. And that faith wasn't from you in the first place. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8: "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." So that no one can boast. God gave you the faith. God energized you to believe. God is the one who so wanted you to be saved that God was activating faith in your heart, whereby the sinner is given faith to believe, receives forgiveness of all sin. How much sin? All sin. What's "all" include? It includes all. It includes your past sin, every sin you ever sinned before you prayed the sinner's prayer, gone, forgiven. But that doesn't stop there. When you come to Christ, every sin you will currently sin, gone, forgiven. When it doesn't stop there, every sin you will ever sin from now to the time you're in glory, gone, washed, covered, forgiven by the blood of Christ, forgotten, removed from us as far as the east is from the west. All sin is all sin. He forgave all sin. And that awesome? But you just feel good knowing that He doesn't stop there. I mean, He dumped the truckload of His riches on us. And what else did He do? And assigned the righteousness of Christ. He credited to us. He clothed us. He covered us in Christ's righteousness. On the cross, Christ took our unrighteousness that we might have His righteous life. So when God looks at us, He sees the righteousness of Christ. He sees us as righteous as Him, which makes relationship with God possible. We've been justified.
And the God who began salvation is the God who will complete salvation. He's committed to His salvation work in you. That's good news. Very good news. Fact, Romans chapter 8, verse 30: "And those whom he [that's God] predestined, so long ago." Any eternity before time began, God said, "I'm going to establish a company of people who will be my special possession." He predestined. And as He was thinking of a company, He was thinking of individuals in that company. It's not just corporate, it's individual. That God had you on His mind before the foundation of the world began. He wrote your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Check it out in the book of Revelation. It says it twice. That God, He predestined, and He called. And those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. If He justifies you, He's going to glorify you. He's going to see it through. What He starts, He finishes.
Now, this is really important for Christians to get ahold of. You see, here's the problem for a lot of Christians, and it, I think, it causes them to struggle in their walk with God, to get off track, to live a life that is that is burdened, that is heavy, that is frustrating, that lacks the essential element of joy, which the joy of the Lord is our strength. And all because they don't understand salvation as being primarily what God is doing. They look at salvation as primarily what they're trying to do. Here's the way it starts. Too many believers have an egocentric view of salvation. "Well, you know, I just, I wasn't doing so well, and then I went to church, and then I heard the preacher, and then I decided, 'Well, what have I got to lose? I might as well believe.' And then I went forward, and then I was baptized, and now I'm trying to get it. Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, thinking about themselves." The problem is that if salvation, if our view of it is based on what I did to get saved, then the bareable, the logical conclusion becomes, "What must I do to stay saved?" And when people live there, what happens is they find themselves frustrated. They find themselves joyless. And often they find themselves legalistic. Because if it's up to you, you got to have a way to measure how you're doing. "So, well, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this." Somebody because, you know, it's what I did. So it's what I do. But if it's what He did, then it's what He does. And that's a whole lot more joyful.
Let me say this: I'm not suggesting we have no role. I'm advocating that God's role in our salvation and ultimately our glorification is about twenty quadrillion times greater than anything we would ever do. From Him and to Him and through Him are all things, including our salvation. That it is God who is at work in you. And if God be for you, who can be against you? And the one who started it is the one who will finish it. And the one who called is the one who justifies. And the one who justifies is the one who glorifies. God is at work. God loves you. God is for you. God is at work in you. All these things together, you see this in Scripture. Philippians chapter 1. It's the reason Paul writes. "And I am certain that God who began the good work within you, who began it, He did." Watch this. "Will continue His work." He didn't stop working the minute you got saved. He continues working until it's finally finished. Who finishes it? He finishes it. When you cross the finish line, it was by His power, His grace, His working, His glory, His, His everything, pulling us across the line on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
Now, all of that is simply an introduction. Turn to your neighbor and say, "Ho boy, this can be a long one." I never cited. Makes you feel like learning about Romans. Romans chapter eight verses five through eleven. And we come to a real change, a real shift in the book of Romans. Because in Romans chapters 1 through 7, the Holy Spirit's mentioned one time. You get to Romans chapter 8, and the Holy Spirit is mentioned 20 times. Because He is the active agent of the Godhead in our experience of God, and His working of God, in the revelation of God to us and to our hearts and to our lives. He is at work, and His work is a transforming, powerful work, as we're going to see.
The key verse, and anytime you're reading a passage, you get to a paragraph, it's important to say, "Well, what would be the key verse?" And the key verse would be verse 9. Let's look at it. Romans chapter 8 and verse 9: "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 does not belong to him." At salvation, what happens is the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, takes up residence in you. He lives in you. He works in you from the inside out, if you will. But you are His temple. We've said it before, in the Old Testament, God had a temple for His people. In the New Testament, the New Covenant, God has a people for His temple. He lives in them. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, "Do you not know?" In other words, whenever Paul says it's like, "Don't forget this, you should know this, this is fundamental." "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?" So He's living. If you're a believer, in you, whom you have received from God. The Holy Spirit doesn't live in you because you're not a Christian. Now, obviously, we would understand, and we talk at other times about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. We talk about the Spirit of God coming upon somebody. The baptism of the Holy Spirit isn't when He saves you. It is when He comes upon you with power. But that's for a different time and place. Paul is talking about is the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in us who believe.
So what I want to do is I want you to notice two things the Holy Spirit does. First of all, He works powerfully in us. If you're a believer, the Holy Spirit's working in you. If you know Jesus, He, He's working in you. He's not just working when you're in church. He's not just working when you read your Bible. He's not just working when you're praying. No, when you were asleep, He was working in you. When you got up and you were right wiping your eyes to try to get them open for the morning, before you had your coffee, He was powerfully working in you. He was at work. He was helping you. He was strengthening you. He was working in you. He's working all the time, bringing you along, changing you, sculpting you into the image of Christ, empowering you to live for God, to love God, to know God. He's revealing things to you. He is working powerfully in you.
Let's look at it. Verse 5: "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit." Let me say a couple of things. Paul's not talking to Christians and saying, "You know, there are some of you Christians, and you live according to the Spirit, and there's other of you Christians, you live according to the flesh." It's not what he's saying. He's saying what we've said before, that essentially there are two categories of people. There are those who are in Adam, and there are those who have come to faith in Christ, they're in Christ. There are those who are under God's wrath, there are there are those who are under grace. There are those who are unsaved, there are those who are saved. There are those, this is another, another title you could put over the categories: there are those who have their mind set on the things of the flesh, and those who have their mind set on the things of the Spirit.
You say, "Well, what are we talking about when we're talking about the flesh?" Well, I'm going to give you three different definitions you could use. One: the fallen, unredeemed, egocentric human nature. It's a person who doesn't know God. It's a person who makes their life about themselves. Which, if you don't know God, that's what you do. Your life is what you want to do, when you want to do it, how you want to do it, what you think, what you don't think. It's the egocentric, fallen, unredeemed human nature. The second definition you could use for the flesh: the sinful, selfish, unsaved state of mind. So it's just, you know, about myself, do what I want, when I want, how I want, where I want. Or John Bunyan, not the brother of Paul Bunyan, but the writer of Pilgrim's Progress, defined it as worldly-mindedness. And notice, would use, you go back to that verse, that they've set their minds. So people who are living according to flesh, what causes them to live according to the flesh? They set their minds. People who live according to the Spirit, what causes them to live according to the Spirit? This phrase, "they set their minds." It has less to do with a cognitive thought than it has to do with the disposition of life. We're talking about somebody who's kind of set their sails for a certain direction. They're headed in a certain way. Let's say they've got a certain desire. Let me suggest to you that it's not your thinking that affects your desires as an unsaved person, or even, I would suggest, as a saved person. Thinking comes in more clearly, but it's your desires that set your thinking. So what a person desires affects not only their thinking, it affects their emotions, it affects their actions, it affects their patterns of life. In other words, when you set your mind, when you say, "You know what, this is what my, this is what I think my life should be like. This is what I, this is the way I want to do life." Think of it that way. When you decide that, you've set your mind, and now all of a sudden, your desires, your thinking, your emotions, your actions will all follow that. It's the parameters for the way you're going to do life and live life.
Now, two questions, because my fear is in Romans, we can get real academic, and we can we can start thinking about all these things, and we learn a lot of theology, we just don't apply it. But preaching and the reading of the Word is designed for personal application. Here's the first question I would ask you: What is it that frames or creates the parameters of what you desire in life? What is it that determines? What is it that drives you? What is it that you want out of life? What, what is it that, how do you want your life to look? How do you define that? Honestly, there are only two answers. Either your relationship to God, or to be your relationship to the world. Either it'll be your life's about God primarily, and that desire to make your life about God will reflect what you think about, how you, how you process your feelings, it will process, it will determine what you do, your priorities of your life, it will set the parameters of your life. Or, if it's not about God, then it's about the world, and your, and the world, and it's what you can get out of the world.
Number two: How do you know if you're saved? How would you know? Here's the answer: Have you set your mind on the flesh, the things of the flesh, or have you set your mind on the things of the Spirit? Because if you've set your mind on the things of your Spirit, your life's going to reflect that. If you've set your mind on the things of the flesh, your life's gonna reflect that. What Paul does in these verses is he tells us, and we're just gonna do this very quickly because I want to focus on what the Spirit does, but he tells us about the person who lives according to the flesh. Five things. Once you notice: Number one, their mind is set on the things of the flesh. Romans 8, verse 5: "For those who live according to the flesh set their mind." In other words, babe, they were had a predisposition. They're the disposition of their life was, "I like the world. I like the things the world offers. That's what I'm about." I'm not saying they don't ever think about God, but they think either wrongly about God, differently about God, or lastly about God, because there are just frankly too many other things that are too important. I mean, all they want to think about is worldly things, themselves, their interests, their pursuits, their desires, the world around them, which includes everything from fashion to finances, from work to recreation, from relationships to whatever they can watch or they can view or they can listen to. And God, if He's found at all, is found at the bottom. I'm not saying God isn't there. Oftentimes people who live according to the flesh reference God, talk about God, might even have good thoughts toward God. It's just God is not the preeminent priority in their life. He's like number 10 on the list.
Number two: Not only is their mind set on the things of the flesh, the mind set on the flesh leads to death. Look at this: "To set the mind on the flesh is death." What does that mean? How do we understand that? Spiritual death. You're spiritually dead. You're not alive to God. When a person, before, in apart from Christ, you can't see, you can't understand. It's like you're spiritually blind or spiritually dead. Paul says, "You were dead in your trespasses and sins." No. How would you define death? Death is the inability to respond to the environment around you. So when somebody's physically dead, they can't respond to the physical environment around them. If somebody's spiritually dead, they can't respond to the spiritual environment around them. They can't, they can't respond to God. He's there. I'm not saying they can't sense God. I'm not saying there's just zero awareness. So oftentimes there is. We're saying if there's any, it's very, very limited. It leads to death.
There's a third thing: the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God." We see that very, very evidently in the culture in which we live. We live in a society that has jettisoned the Bible and the God of the Bible. And what they've done in His place, they have put a God. They envision a God who thinks what they think, a God who feels what they feel, who only does what they think is right. Here's how it plays out: "You know, I just don't think God's like that." "Oh, you don't know." "I just don't believe in a God that would do that." "I don't, I don't believe in God sending people to hell." "I, I don't think, I don't think God is that." "I mean, I don't think there's just like one way." "I think." Did you see what I'm saying? They're hostile to the God of the Bible. And everything is just simply what they think, what they feel. And only does what they think. He is certainly not their God. Certainly not above their values or the judge of their values. He is basically the reflection of their values. For others, God is less a person. And you hear this often: "I don't know that I believe in a personal God. I believe in a force, kind of like Star Wars. You know, 'The Force be with you.'" For others, even the idea of God is mythical. They're like, "You know what? That whole concept needs to be done away with because it's for illogical, intolerant, small-minded souls who need a crutch to lean on or a warm blanket to wrap themselves in against the cold wind of life." They're hostile to God. The only time a thought of God ever comes up is is when they're mad at Him. "I don't know why God let that happen to me." "I don't know, I don't know a good God could let that happen to them." Hostile to God. God gets the blame because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God.
Number four: The mind of the flesh, or the mind set on the flesh, won't submit to God's law. "For the mind that is on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot." Men, you know, "I don't want to do what you want me to do. I want to do what I want to do." Or, "I'll do part of what you want me to do, but I'll do, but I'm going to do, and that's part is nothing."
Number five: The mind set on flesh cannot please God. "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." Because the person with a mind set on the flesh is spiritually dead. They're hostile to God. They won't submit to God's law. They cannot please God. And, and essentially, what they want is they want God to be satisfied with whatever it is they choose to give Him. Man, that's the mindset of the flesh. "Well, at least I went to church." "Well, and you know, at least I'm better than a lot of other people I know." Or, "I'm better than a lot of Christians I know. God should be." As if God should be happy with whatever they decide they will give Him. If that is where you are at, then your mind set on the flesh. Let me, let me take it a step further. If that is where you're at, you're not a Christian. You're not a believer. The Holy Spirit is not working in you in a saving way.
Romans chapter 8, verse 9: "You, however, not in the flesh but in the spirit." See, see, you have to be in one or the other. You're either in the flesh or you're in the spirit. And if the Spirit of God dwells in you, you can't be in the flesh. When a person comes to Christ, the Holy Spirit begins to work in them, and the Holy Spirit changes them, and they become a different person. For example, we always quote this at the invitation, almost always. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." When, when I got saved, no one told me what I needed to do. Honestly, I don't ever remember. I never went to new believers' class. I never had anybody saying, "Now, okay, now you've made your decision, do this, this, and this, and this." I just knew this. I knew that after a month at most, I realized I didn't want to do what I used to do all the time and love doing. In six months, I realized that the things I thought were valuable in life no longer seemed as attractive to me. They just didn't hold the interest to me. A year later, I found my life had absolutely totally changed. And not because anybody told me to do it. Not because anybody made me do it. But because the Spirit of God was working in me, and He worked from the inside out, and He changed me into a different person. That is salvation. It's how you know if you're saved. It's how you know if you came to Christ. If you're not any different a year later than you were last year, you didn't get saved. You say, "Well, I, I, hey, now that waited just, man, I had a, you know, I had blinding lights, and had, you know, stardust on me, and a rainbow over my head for a day, and I think something happened." But if, when you look at your life, there is no fruit, it's because there's no root. And if there is no root, you're not a Christian. And I think it's important for Christians. Let's cut to the chase. Listen, I'm just trying to be mean. I'm not trying to be caustic. But my concern as a pastor is that there could be hundreds of people sitting in a church this size who are who think they're saved and they're not. And so it doesn't do anybody any favors for me to leave you all feeling good when, in fact, you should be in great concern and anguish over the fate of your soul.
The Holy Spirit works powerfully in us. What does He do? Number one, the Holy Spirit works to change our thinking. Here's what happens: "But those who live according to the Spirit." How are they able to do that? "They set their minds on the things of the Spirit." They're habitually dominated by the Spirit. The parameters of their life are filtered through the Spirit of God. You say, "What does that mean?" They think about the things of the Spirit. They get excited about the things of God. They care about who God is. They care about what God thinks. I care about what God reveals about Himself in the Word of God. They care about what God's asked them to do. They care about the way God's asked them to live. They don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit or offend the Holy Spirit. Because as you grow in the Lord, you find out that that's possible. And you're like, "Oh, wow. I don't want to do anything when He's working so powerfully in my life. I don't want to get in the way of that, because I want all that He's got for me, and I want Him to be free to work in my life." And so all of a sudden, what happens is, I've set my mind on Him. I care about Him. And He wins all ties. Is that true of your life? I mean, is it true He wins all ties? When there's a choice between, I'm not talking about getting away in taking a break. I'm not talking about the exception or the time that things didn't work out that, you know, so, you know, there were two things going on, you're like, "I just have to do this." I'm talking about the general trend and the pattern of your life.
There are some, and honestly, parents, you are making a massive mistake. God loses every tie with your kids. Every activity. God loses. Got to get him to this. Gotta get him to that. Gotta get him over there. How about, "Gotta get him to church"? How about, "How about, gotta make sure that they grow in their walk with the Lord"? How about, "Gotta get them in the presence of God so the presence of God can transform their life"? How about, "Gotta teach them to love God with all their heart"? I'm just simply saying, you'll save yourself a whole lot of headache down the line. Because I rarely see it work out when God loses every time. Listen, the Holy Spirit, He works to change our thinking. He makes, and I'm just saying, over time, God becomes more and more important to us. If God's not more important to you today than when you were say five years ago, something's happened. Your growth's been stunted. If there's something that's not right, there's something sick about your Christianity, if you have Christianity at all. Because Paul says, "We go from glory to glory to glory to glory."
Well, number two: The Holy Spirit works to create life in us. "But to set the mind on the Spirit is life." I mean, what's true of life? When something is alive, it's living, it's green, it's fruitful, it has a procreative capacity, it can create. You can tell a healthy plant, it produces fruit. Listen, you could put it this way: the difference between a saved person and an unsaved person could be compared to the difference between a Christmas tree and a real tree. You know, on a Christmas tree, you put decorations, and you know, maybe you've seen those trees where they have fruit hanging on the tree, and it's not real fruit. It's, or it's maybe was at one time. Don't eat it, but it's fake. Somebody had to put it there. That tree didn't produce it. What happens is when a person has their mind set on the Spirit, He produces life in us. He produces that same fruitfulness in us. What does that fruitfulness look like? Well, Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22 says, "the fruit of the Spirit is." Notice, it's not the fruit of John Mendel trying hard. That fruit is nasty. But the fruit of the Spirit. What is God producing in the heart of every believer? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He's producing it in you.
Look at it. Romans 8 and verse 10: "But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." Now, the word "Spirit" there, really, I think, and commentators are split on it. I would say it shouldn't be capitalized because I don't think it's talking about the Holy Spirit. I think it's talking about our spirit. The, it's, it's a comparison. "If Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin." So our body will die. Our body is dying from the moment you drew your first breath. You were breathing some of your last. The scope of eternity, you were, you started dying the minute you started living. We know that. Romans chapter 5, remember, "through sin death entered the world, and death came to all men, therefore all men die." I mean, you started, yeah, I mean, the newborn baby's breathing, starting to breathe it's last. And the proof of that is when you're, when you get to 25 or a little after, you start looking in the mirror like, "Yeah, it's dying." I mean, that's it. I mean, it's, you know, you get to 50, and it's, I mean, this, the hill gets steeper. I'm telling you. You're like, "No." You know, you're trying to hang on. Oh, I gotta stick to my notes. Okay. Here's the comparison: "The body is dead because of sin." We're gonna get a new body. We're gonna look at that. But "the Spirit is life because of righteousness." My spirit produces, my spirit is alive, my spirit is living, my spirit is a living being because of the righteousness of Christ. I've got life springing up, welling up within me. He's producing it in me. When I'm in church, and when I'm not in church, He's producing it all the time, working in me, convicting me, shaping me, moving me, stirring me, moving me forward to be more like Christ, chiseling off the rough edges, saying, saying to me, "Don't do that. Do this." Constantly working. I think it's similar this verse to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 16, where Paul says this: "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day." How? By the Spirit. By the Holy Spirit.
Well, number three: The Spirit produces peace for us. Romans 8:6: "But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." The Spirit brings us to Christ, begins working with us to make us more like Christ. He gives us peace with God, and then He gives us the peace of God, and then He helps us to be at peace with others. Because Paul's later gonna say, "As far as it depends on you, be at peace with everyone around you." Because the Spirit of God is working His peace in you. Can't you be a peacemaker in the places where you go? Do you get what I'm saying? The Spirit of God is working. He's producing all that. He works powerfully in us.
Let me give you a second thing the Spirit of God does. He will powerfully resurrect us. This, this is exciting. This is important. Because when we understand how powerfully He resurrects us, it gives us a sense of how powerfully He's working in us. If He powerfully will resurrect us, He will powerfully work in us. And I think this, a lot of believers have forgotten about the resurrection. We talk about it on Easter, appropriately so. We talk about it at a funeral, which is certainly appropriate. But we need to talk about it more, because it's a big deal in Scripture. Over and over again, the Scriptures talk about how the Spirit of God is the resurrecting power. Main. Look at it. Verse 11, chapter 8: "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead." So you know how powerful the Spirit is. The, the Spirit who's working in you, that power is so powerful, it raised Jesus from the dead. Remember Paul talks about that in Ephesians chapter 1, in verse 18. "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you." If you're a believer, He does. You've got the same Spirit with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead at work in you. Do you think that's not going to change you? Do you think that's not going to transform you? Do you think that's not going to bear fruit in you? Do you think that's not going to give you peace? Impossible. Powerful enough to raise somebody from the dead, powerful enough to make me love, to give me joy, to give me peace, to give me patience. Watch this. "He raised Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." In other words, He is the one who is going to resurrect us. Look at Philippians chapter 3. "But we are citizens of heaven." "Are not will be." "Are." You got a brand new passport the day you got saved. It says this: "A citizen of heaven." Mean, we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly awaiting for Him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak, mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like His own." Now, that's pretty exciting. You say, "What's that gonna be like?" You'll be able to appear and disappear. For some of you, that's gonna be a lot of fun. You'll be able to walk through walls if you want to. You'll be able to transport yourself just by thinking, "Oh, I'd like to be, I'd like to be in, I don't know, Hawaii." That sounds good. They believe food. I mean, what would heaven be without food? It's gonna be the best food. I can't wait. You will be recognizable. I mean, people will recognize you from the earth. I mean, Jesus, they saw the scars in His hands and in His feet and in His side. He was the same, but He was different. They will recognize you. They'll say, "You know, you look the same, but honestly, you look a whole lot better. You've never looked so good." So you look awesome. You'll be able to speak and be understood. You'll be able. I love this. This is gonna be so fun. You'll be able to fly, and you won't even need wings. Okay, back to my notes. "He will take our weak, mortal bodies, change them into His glories and into glorious bodies like His own, using the same power with which He will bring everyone under His control." The same power to transform us. Listen, musicians, you can come. The Holy Spirit works powerfully in us, and the Holy Spirit will powerfully resurrect us. You're not on your own in this thing called salvation. This God whose power is great enough to take all of the dust and all of the decay and bring back together a body that will withstand the glory and the length of eternity and never age. The power that powerful is at work in you today, powerfully working, shaping, changing you, making you like Jesus. That's the power of the Holy Spirit working in the believer when you've set your mind on Him and you've been saved by Him.