In his sermon, Jason Dohm explores the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, focusing on Romans 8:1-27. He explains that the Holy Spirit liberates believers from the law of sin and death, guiding them into new patterns of life and thought. The sermon emphasizes that the Holy Spirit dwells within believers, influencing them like a law of gravity, and is essential for their spiritual transformation and resurrection. Dohm also highlights the Spirit's role in leading believers, interceding for them, and providing assurance of their adoption as God's children. He cautions against grieving or quenching the Spirit, which can result in a diminished sense of His presence, and encourages believers to actively seek more of the Holy Spirit by asking God, promising that God is predisposed to give the Spirit generously.

Good morning. Good morning. Today's sermon text will be Romans 8. We'll be reading verses 1 through 27. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to 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, nor indeed can be.

So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, but if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly but because of him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For We know that the whole creation groans in labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly awaiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weakness, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." The title of the sermon today is the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer?

What is the Holy Spirit to us? That's what we're talking about today. Last week we were in Romans chapter 8 verses 26 and 27. And the title of the sermon was The Spirit's Help. Paul set before us the Holy Spirit as a helper to us because we have many weaknesses.

We need help. God hasn't left us without help. He's given us help. Believers are new creations in Christ. We're radically different than what we were before trusting in Christ.

But we still have many weaknesses. Can I get an amen? However, Jesus hasn't left us as orphans. That's one of the places we went last week was John 14. When Jesus promised His disciples, He told them He was leaving.

He was 24 hours from dying on the cross. He told them he was leaving, but he promised them he wouldn't leave them as orphans. He said he would send them another helper. He had been helping them in the flesh, present, face to face, like we're face to face. And that was no longer going to be the case because he was going to die, he was going to rise again, and then 40 days later he was going to ascend into heaven, but he promised he wouldn't leave them as orphans.

He would send them another helper to do the things for them that he had been doing in the flesh and actually more than that as we study it out. He would send the Spirit to help. Interestingly, in our study of Romans, Paul said almost Zippo, almost nothing about the Holy Spirit in the first seven chapters. Seven chapters he's been almost completely silent about the Holy Spirit. But now in chapter 8 there's this eruption of teaching instruction on the Holy Spirit.

There's something like 20 mentions of the Holy Spirit in what Bob just read, verses 1-27. So if you came hoping for an exhaustive doctrine of the Holy Spirit to be taught in 45 minutes, you're going to walk out of this place sorely disappointed. I'm not any more capable of that, any more than I would be teaching an exhaustive doctrine of God the Father or an exhaustive doctrine of God the Son. But, if you came for a summary of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer in Romans chapter 8, along with a couple of other important thoughts, hopefully you came to the right place. So, I want to lower your expectations.

You are not leaving here with an exhaustive, comprehensive doctrine of the Holy Spirit. But, we will look at Romans chapter 8 and survey what Paul has said before us in these 20 mentions of the Holy Spirit. And I have a couple of thoughts to add, and then we'll eat lunch. How about that? Let's pray.

God, We thank you that your Word has much to say. Paul has given us much instruction just in this one chapter on the Holy Spirit. We're thankful for that. But we say to you now that we want our knowledge of these things to transcend the academic, to go so far beyond just facts to be considered and memorized. We want so badly to know these things experientially, to experience them over and over, to know without Romans chapter 8 before us the certainty of the presence of the Spirit, and to have this great sense of being helped by Him hour by hour in life.

Let it be so, God, in Jesus' name, Amen. Okay, so let's look at the Holy Spirit in Romans 8. If you're taking notes on the handout, just that first heading is the Holy Spirit in Romans 8. Romans 8 fills in the two blanks. I'm going to give you ten things.

I gave a summary at the end of the sermon last week and I missed several, so the number is growing. I'm going to give you ten things from Romans chapter 8 that Paul says about the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. To preface that, I want to just have you consider something that Peter said at the very end of his preaching in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 is the day of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the New Testament Church. Peter has really been doing some hard preaching.

He's actually condemning his hearers of killing Jesus. They're pierced by his preaching. They're pricked in their hearts. Their consciences have been disquieted by Peter's accusation that they had killed the Lord of glory. And so they say, what should we do?

And this is what Peter says in Acts 2, 38 and 39. Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." So here I stand in a pulpit, a far off from Peter on the day of Pentecost, and Peter is assuring me at the end of his sermon the promises to you, Jason Dome or Josh Johnson or Stephen Lundquist or Lydia or Riley or Chelsea, the promises to us, to any and all who the Lord our God would call. If He calls you, then He calls you to repentance. And when you repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

That is the promise. So really, the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 is simply unfolding the fulfillment of this promise that the Holy Spirit is a gift given to all who repent in the Lord Jesus Christ. That what Jesus said in John 14 has come true. That He did leave earth, He's not on earth, in the flesh like He was in His incarnation. But he did not leave us as orphans, but he sent us another helper to do everything for us that Jesus did for his disciples when he was living with them in the flesh and more.

Ten things from Romans chapter 8. You'll need your Bibles open, thankfully. Romans chapter 8, this is number 1 from verse 1. So look again at verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

And we have that same description in verse 4, I won't reread it because it's the same words, who do not walk according to the flesh, but walk according to the Spirit. So number one is this. Number one of ten is this. Those who are in Christ Jesus walk according to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings the believer into new patterns of life.

You see the term walk in the New Testament, It's just talking about your patterns of life. What normally characterizes you? What are your habits? That is your walk. So those who are in Jesus Christ, who belong to Jesus by faith, are brought by the Holy Spirit into new patterns of life.

They're not what they were. The things that used to characterize them in their old unbelieving life, Little by little those things become a thing of the past. And we become new. We are new. And our patterns become new.

So this is not a condition, meaning you have to be this in order to be in Jesus. So it's not a condition. Walk in the Spirit or you're not in Jesus. It is actually a description. When you're in Jesus, then this describes you.

So you have to get that right otherwise you just end up with works based righteousness which can't be found anywhere in the New Testament. The Bible doesn't teach you can be made right by works. So it cannot be, now you guys walk right and if you walk right then you're in Jesus. It's exactly the opposite of that. When you're in Jesus you become new and that works its way out into the pattern of your life.

The Holy Spirit being with you, helping you, dwelling in you, brings you into new patterns of life. Now, how do we know that it is a description and not a condition for being in Christ? Well, consider the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. Now there's a list.

There are nine things on the list. You know those nine things. Love, joy, peace, and on and on. Do these things come to us naturally? You born into these world characterized by these things?

No, actually, you're actually born into the world characterized by the polar opposite of these things in your heart of hearts. Now, you might have been respectable about it in the outward facade that you put up. You know that you were born with a heart that is characterized by the opposite of these things. They do not come naturally to us. They are produced in believers by the Holy Spirit, that's why they're called fruits.

Union with Christ is the root, and the bow and branches is the Holy Spirit dwelling in the believer, helping the believer, producing character traits that don't come naturally to the believer within the believers. They are the fruit of the Spirit produced in us by the Spirit. And so these inward qualities begin to work their way out so that our patterns are different. We had patterns of life before we believed in Jesus and they change when we're made new in Jesus. That's number one.

Those who are in Christ Jesus walk according to the Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings us into completely new patterns of life. Number two. Look at verse two. There's something in almost every verse here.

Paul's just saying something new. It's a barrage. I love it. Verse 2, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. So number two is from verse two.

The Holy Spirit is a law of life who makes the believer free from the law of sin and death. The Holy Spirit is a law of life. A do this, don't do that law? No, no, no. A law like the law of gravity.

Do you remember when we preached through this we kept saying it's like gravity. It's not the do this, don't do that kind of law. It's the other use of that same word. It is a principle that exerts strong influence, that kind of law. Does gravity fit that description?

Is gravity a principle that exerts strong influence so that this act is 100% predictable. You know what's going to happen? One million, one trillion times out of one trillion. When you let go of the Bible, it hits the pulpit because this influence is being reliably exerted in a powerful way. It's that kind of law.

The Holy Spirit is a law of life like that, that exerts a powerful influence on the believer to make the believer free from this other influence that is exerted. The law of sin and death. When I was an unbeliever I was totally dominated by this influence of sin and What sin brings to life, which is death, that was the dominant influence. Well that's over in the life of the believer. Why is that over?

Because The Holy Spirit is a law of life who makes the believer free from the law of sin and death. So sin and death used to be like gravity to you and your unbelieving state. Oh, there's a new gravity. There's a new influence being exerted. And it's an influence of life, and the Holy Spirit is that influence.

Number three. Look at verse five. Verse five. For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh. For Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

Those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Number three is this out of what I just read verse five. The Holy Spirit brings the believer into new patterns of thought. The first thing I said was the Holy Spirit brings the believer into new patterns of thought. The first thing I said was the Holy Spirit brings the believer into new patterns of life.

This is the Holy Spirit brings the believer into new patterns of thought. Our brains don't work the same as they used to work. The minds of unbelievers, their thoughts, and the workings of their mind, even how their mind works, are on just the earthly plane. The things of the flesh. The flesh suggests things to them and their thoughts and the way their mind works gravitates towards all the insinuations, the inclinations, the suggestions of the flesh.

They can't get off of this plane. They have no way to set their eyes heavenwards. Why? Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. The carnal mind can't even receive spiritual things because it's dead to those things.

So their foolishness to the carnal man, this is 1 Corinthians 2, 14. Foolishness to them. It can't submit to the things of God, the ways of God, the law of God, it doesn't want those things, it doesn't understand those things, it has no inclination towards those things. All of those things change when Jesus becomes king. Why is that?

It is the influence of the Holy Spirit bringing the believer into new patterns of thought. Their thoughts are different. They gravitate towards thinking about different things than we used to in our unbelieving days. Even the way our minds work is different. Why?

It's the Holy Spirit. Number four. Look at verse nine. Verse nine, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He is not His.

Number four is this. The Holy Spirit dwells in the believer. Everyone who belongs to Jesus by faith, believers, has the Holy Spirit dwelling within him or her. It is impossible to be a true believer and not have the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. I said this when I preached through it.

This verse is definitional. It actually defines the terms. Christian equals indwelt with the Spirit. Having the Spirit dwelling within. So if you have the Spirit dwelling within, then you are a Christian, you are in Jesus Christ, and if you are in Jesus Christ, then you have the Spirit dwelling within.

One always goes with the other. They are unbreakably linked. Unbreakably linked. Here in verse 9, the Holy Spirit is called both the Spirit of God, early in the verse, and the Spirit of Christ, later in the verse. Not because there are two different spirits.

There's one spirit of God, there's one spirit of Christ, no no no. It's the same Holy Spirit is being described in two different ways. And Paul is doing that because the Holy Spirit proceeds from and has been sent by both God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father and God the Son, and has been deployed by, sent from, both God the Father and God the Son. That's why he uses these two different phrases.

If you are a son or a daughter of God by faith in His Son Jesus, The Holy Spirit does not visit you, He dwells within you. This is an important distinction, I believe, between before the day of Pentecost and after the day of Pentecost. If you are a son or daughter of God the Father, by God the Son, Jesus Christ, then The Holy Spirit does not simply visit you from time to time, show up, give you a little help, and then exit stage right. He dwells within you. This is what Paul says in the most explicit words.

Number five. Look at verses 10 and 11. Verses 10 and 11. By the way, it's hard to take notes when there are lists. Afterwards, if you want me to email this to you so you can be more sparing in your note taking, I'd be delighted.

Just let me know. This is number five, and we're looking at verses ten and eleven now. Paul writes, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So number five based on verses 10 and 11 is this.

The Holy Spirit will be the instrument of the bodily resurrection for the believer. If you're a believer and Jesus doesn't come back first, you're going to die. Mortality rate on planet Earth is well established. But if you're in Jesus, your body will be raised again to life. How's that going to work?

I don't know. I assume it's none of my business because God hasn't given us the inner workings of that. He's only promised us that it will be so. Our bodies will be resurrected. What will be the instrument of that?

The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to carry out that task. The Holy Spirit will be the instrument of the bodily resurrection for the believer. Sin made my body subject to death. If Jesus doesn't come back first, I will die, that is sure.

But the righteousness of Jesus secures for me the presence of this life-giving Spirit. Sin made my body subject to death, but Jesus' righteousness, which becomes my righteousness by faith, secures for me the presence of this life-giving spirit. Listen, this is great. So that as surely as Jesus was raised from the dead, I will be raised from the dead. If you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead and you have entrusted yourself to him, just as surely as he was, you will be.

This is what Paul is saying in these verses. It's as certain as Jesus' resurrection. I find that wonderful. Number six. Look at verse 13.

Let me reread verse 13. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh or of the body you will live. If you live according to the flesh you'll die but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. So this is number six.

The believer puts to death the deeds of the body by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been given by God to be a mighty weapon in the hand of the believer for putting to death the deeds of the flesh. Mighty weapon. God has given us a mighty weapon for putting to death all these things that are so unfitting to a new creature, a new creation in Christ. The things of the old man, he gave you, put in your hand a mighty weapon for putting those things to death.

You're a believer, but you have these remaining corruptions that clamor to be served every day. They're demanding service. These remaining corruptions. How are you going to make progress in an environment like that? You can identify what's happening by the Holy Spirit.

Unbelievers don't even know that it's happening. There are flesh clamors to be served and they served it and they can't step outside that and see this is what's happening. I have inherited corruptions that are dominating me. Unbelievers don't think in those terms. You think unbelievers think they're walking around dominated by corruptions that were inherited from Adam?

You think they've even heard those phrases? You think that occurs to them? It does not. But believers actually can step outside of what is happening and diagnose because the Holy Spirit gives them an aliveness to spiritual things in a way to see things through spiritual lenses to identify what is actually happening. And you can wage war then against those remaining corruptions and win!

Does that mean believers always win all the time? That's not what I said. I didn't say that. I wish I could say that. I don't think I can say that in good conscience because I don't think Paul said that.

I think Paul says in some ways the exact opposite of that. Opposite of that. We don't win all the time, but we can win. We can have victory over these deeds of the flesh that were so common in our lives before we entrusted ourselves to Jesus Christ. They can become less common, and less common, and less common, and in some categories they can really disappear.

The Holy Spirit gives the believer power where once there was only weakness. You had no weapon at all against the deeds of the flesh, but now God has put a mighty weapon into your hand by giving the Holy Spirit to His people. We have power where there once was only weakness. Number seven. Verse 14.

Look at verse 14. Weakness. Number seven, verse fourteen. Look at verse fourteen. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, These are the sons of God.

The Holy Spirit leads every son, every daughter of God. If you are a son or daughter of God, This is another one of those verses that's definitional. It's defining the terms. If you are a son or daughter of God, then you are led by the Spirit. If you are led by the Spirit, you are a son or daughter of God.

Believers can have so much more confidence going through life knowing that they are led by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes sensibly, meaning sometimes You see it when it's happening. This has to be the leading of the Holy Spirit because of this, this, or this. Sometimes totally insensibly. Do you think you know every time this Holy Spirit is leading you?

You do not. Does it matter? I think it does not. What matters is that he leads his people by his spirit. He, the Holy Spirit, remember the Holy Spirit is not the force.

The Holy Spirit is a person, The Holy Spirit is a he. He does this in different ways. Sometimes he brings to remembrance scriptures and throws light on those scriptures. Just out of the blue comes a portion of the Word of God to remembrance. That is the Holy Spirit leading you.

And just illuminates the exact application. That is the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, He gives you a strong sense of what you should do. It's happened to me so many times. Now, this one's mystical, so that should probably come with a warning.

When the word of God comes to mind, that's not mystical, you can go look it up. That is black and white. That is on a physical page. And so that part of it is not mystical. A strong sense that I should do this is mystical, meaning what's tangible there that you can read off the page, nothing.

So my warning is this. Every strong sense, I think you want some things to corroborate that. Meaning, have you ever had a strong sense, but in hindsight, you ought not to be blaming that on the Holy Spirit. I've had that many times too. So, I love a strong sense that I can look back on and know that that strong sense was from the Holy Spirit but often the absolute bulletproof determination of that is in the future when you look back on it.

I know that Christians blame bad ideas on the Holy Spirit a lot and I don't want to be guilty with that. So just be careful about the talk about God told me. Be comfortable with, my sense of it is the Lord is leading me into that, I'm comfortable with that. I get very uncomfortable very fast with God told me this. Oh yeah, I've seen a lot of really bad ideas blamed on God.

And you don't want to be guilty of that. Just be careful how you think of these things. Sometimes, but I don't want to say the caution and warning and take all the teeth out of the truth that The Holy Spirit does lead us in mystical ways, meaning not tangible ways. He does give us a strong sense of what we should do sometimes, and it really is the Holy Spirit. So that is a reality.

I don't want to take all the teeth out of that. Sometimes He sends you just the right person at just the right moment. Has that ever happened to you? Out of the blue, God sends you just the right person at just the right moment to say something to you. And the timing is perfect.

If that hasn't happened to you, you haven't been in the Lord for very long, I think. Or he's working with you in very different ways than he's working with me and the people that I know in the Lord. So often the Holy Spirit leads us in indirect ways. Is that okay? It's okay with me.

It's okay with me if He sends just the right person at just the right time to say just the right thing about just the right current thing in my life. Number 8. Look at verses 15 and 16. Verses 15 through 17. Verses 15 through 17.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified together. So number eight from verses 15 and 17 is this the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of adoption Causing the believer to cry out to God Abba Father. The Holy Spirit is called something here, the Spirit of Adoption, causing, the Holy Spirit causes the believer to cry out to God, Abba, Father. This is a most tender term, but also filled with reverence and honor, all rolled into one.

Abba Father. I'm a believer. I've been a believer for a long time. How do I know that God is my Father? The Bible tells me so.

Amen. The Bible does tell me so. I'm thankful for it to have it in black and white. Is that all? No, that is not all.

I do have this internal impulse that puts me completely at ease to address God as Father in prayer. I'm totally at ease to do that after four decades. I'm totally at ease with addressing God as Father in prayer. I have a sense within me that God is my Father. So should you always trust your internal senses?

No. The infallible way is that the Word of God says it. God can't lie and doesn't lie and has given us His Word. I'm thankful for it. But I'm very thankful also for this internal impulse to where when I see Paul say that the Holy Spirit gives the believer an impulse that God is our Father, that we can address him in the most tender yet honoring terms.

I don't just say, oh interesting I think I'll memorize that, there's something in my heart that says amen, amen. That's so. That lines up 1000% with my experience. Yes, it's there in black and white, so I know that it's true, but it also lines up with my experience. God is my Father.

If you told me today, no, God's not your Father, I would have to say you're wrong. You're wrong. Not just based on the Word of God, but also based on something that is in my heart now. I know that God is my Father. God does this for His children through His Spirit.

The Holy Spirit bears witness with the spirit of believer that we are children of God, and if we're children, then we're heirs. And if we're heirs, then we're co-heirs with Christ. We know He deserves to inherit, and we get a claim on that inheritance right alongside the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption. All that comes together.

Number 9, verse 23. Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. So this is number nine out of verse 23. The Holy Spirit causes believers to groan for the day when we will enjoy all the rights and privileges of adoption. The Holy Spirit causes believers to groan, there's this internal sighing, for the day when we will enjoy all of the rights and privileges of adoption.

Have we been adopted? Yes. Or you go earlier in the chapter, Paul makes it clear the adoption has happened. Do we enjoy all the rights and privileges of adoption? Not this side of heaven.

Is there a sighing in you that makes you long for the day when all the rights and all the privileges of adoption can be entered into. If so, that's the Holy Spirit giving you this longing for future things that are as good as the things are now in the Lord. They'll be so much better than. There are so many encumbrances that we long to shake off. That's really what this is about.

Paul had just said that all creation is groaning. Why? Because when mankind brought sin and death into the world, this had implications for all of creation. All of creation was created for the glory of God, and it can't really fulfill the fullness of what God created it for, that He would be glorified by creation. So creation is groaning to throw off all these corruptions so it can do what God made it to do to fully bring Him glory.

Believers are like that. Believers are groaning for the day When we can do, when we can be image bearers like God made us to be, really reflect His image. That's a good thing when you're groaning for this future time, when all the weights and all the sins that are so easily entangled are left in the rear view mirror forever, are left behind forever. This is good. This is a longing that God puts in the hearts of believers.

The Holy Spirit gives us this Impulse number 10 last on the list Last on the list number 10 look at verse 26 Likewise the spirit also helps in our weaknesses For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." So number 10 out of verse 26 is this. The Spirit also helps the believer in his or her weaknesses by interceding for us. We haven't been left as orphans. Here we are, we still have all of these weaknesses, but the Spirit helps the believer in his or her weaknesses by interceding for us, by pleading for us for our good with God the Father. As believers we still have all of these weaknesses, but we're not the right ones to properly diagnose our problems.

Remember last week? Do we have weaknesses? Yes. Do we see them rightly, fully? No.

Are we the ones to correctly diagnose all our problems? No we are not. Are we the ones to prescribe the right solutions? No we are not. We went to 2nd Corinthians last week and looked at the life of Paul, God brought affliction upon him to keep him humble, but Paul couldn't see that, so he said, please remove the affliction, remove the thorn in my flesh.

He asked him for it, he asked him for it, he asked him for it, he was asking for the wrong thing. He was asking for God to remove what God had brought into his life for a very specific and good purpose, but Paul didn't know that. He wasn't the right one to diagnose his problems or to offer the right solution. God's the right one, because He sees the full picture. He knows what He's doing, even when we don't.

Enter the Holy Spirit. He is the perfect one to diagnose my problems, to intercede about my weaknesses. I should be pleading with God about my weaknesses, but I don't see them according to perfect wisdom like the Holy Spirit does. What a list. Just Romans 8.

That's not a comprehensive doctrine of the Holy Spirit. That's just Romans 8. 10 things that Paul has instructed us in just this one chapter. No wonder Jesus said this. James reminded me of this yesterday.

Thank you James. You can thank James for this moment in preaching. From John chapter 16 verse 7, listen to what Jesus said. This is a mind blower. John chapter 16 verse 7, Jesus said, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.

For if I do not go away, the Spirit will not come to you, but if I depart I will send him to you it is better to have all that God promised about the Holy Spirit In your life than it is to have Jesus present in the flesh Can you even make yourself believe such a thing? It is good that I go away. If I don't go away, you won't get the Holy Spirit, but if I go away I'll send Him and then you'll get all the help that you've been getting from me and the more full ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is working from the inside, we need an insider giving us help. Alright, I'm going to end with this.

We're not that close to the end of the sermon. So look alive. That sounded like I was winding down. I'm not winding down. I'm winding up.

So look alive. If you're taking notes on the handout, There are a couple of blanks here, this second heading. Can there be more or less? I want to consider that. More or less, fill in the two blanks.

Can there be more or less? We've just seen from Romans 8 that the Holy Spirit dwells in the believer. He doesn't visit, come, give you a little help, go away, come back in later time, give you a little more help. He dwells in the believer. Does that mean there is an ever constant influence with no ebb and flow?

So does the fact that he indwells us, he's not just coming and going, coming for a visit, and he'll leave, he'll come for another visit later, but he indwells us. Does that mean that the Holy Spirit is an ever constant influence with no ebb and flow. Ebb and flow is tide terminology. The tide goes out, does that mean there's no ocean, there's no water? Of course not.

All the water is there, but the tide has gone out, but then it comes back in. It's less, it's more, it's always there. It does not mean, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit does not mean that there is an ever constant influence with no ebb and no flow. The Bible actually teaches there's ebb and flow. There is a tide receding and a tide coming in, in this category of the influence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

I want to consider these two verses and how they relate to each other. Are you ready? I'm going to give you two verses. Ephesians 4.30. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Following that verse, there's a list of things that grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Things like anger, hatred, evil speaking. So we can grieve the Holy Spirit. Now this word that's translated grieve comes from a Greek word that has two elements.

Here are the two elements. One, to make sorrowful. That's how I think of grieving. I go to a funeral, I grieve. I'm expressing, feeling sorrow.

So don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Don't make the Holy Spirit sorrowful. That is one element. The second element is this, to offend. This Greek word is not just to make sorrowful, that is part of the range of meaning, but the other element that fills out the range of meaning is to offend.

When I hate, when I speak evil, the Spirit is made sorrowful. He does grieve in that sense, but He is also offended. The Holy Spirit is what? Holy. He is this perfectly good and righteous person.

And Hate, anger, unrighteous anger, evil speaking is an offense to him. He grieves over our sin, but he's offended by our sin too. Ephesians 4.30, Do not grieve the Spirit of God. Now, I consider this next verse. Also, these are all Paul.

Romans 8 is Paul, Ephesians 4 is Paul, and now 1st Thessalonians 5 is Paul. 5 words, do not quench the spirit. That's a good one to memorize by the way, it's only five words. First Thessalonians 5.19, do not Quench the spirit. Quench, the Greek word is indicating exactly what we think of when we think of quench, to put the fire out.

Extinguish, suppress, stifle. The Greek means exactly what the English means. It's an easy word to translate. All the translations use the same word. It's an obvious choice.

To extinguish, to suppress, to stifle. Don't extinguish the Spirit. Don't suppress the Spirit. Don't stifle the Spirit. I have questions for you.

Isn't the Holy Spirit God? A nod, give me some response. Yes, the Holy Spirit is God. And isn't God Almighty? More nodding.

Yes, God is Almighty. Then how can I suppress the Spirit? Suppress the Spirit. How could little old me or little old you possibly extinguish, suppress, stifle the Spirit? There's willing and there's able.

Is the Holy Spirit able? Always! He is God, He is almighty, He is always able. Is he willing? Sometimes not when you offend him.

Now God is good. I'm not willing to say he's never willing when I offend him. Because I know I've offended him so often when I think of the contents of my thoughts, the contents of my words, the contents of my actions. I know I've offended him so often that if he withheld his help to only when he wasn't offended. He'd never help and I know that's not true.

So I know that the goodness of God sometimes acts contrary to this principle, but sometimes Because I have offended the Spirit, He's as able as He is throughout all eternity, but He becomes unwilling to comfort me and help me. Just think about that. Do you accept that? Sometimes because of stubbornness, because of persisting in sin, clinging to sin, you have so offended this present member of the Trinity who indwells you, that He's unwilling to comfort you, to give you a sense of His presence, to help you. So He withdraws His influence.

He doesn't withdraw. He's still indwelling you. But he withdraws his influence. Have you ever thought this? I feel so cold.

I feel so dry. God feels so distant from me. Now this, I'm not saying that you can always and only diagnose it to having offended the Holy Spirit, because I don't believe that's true. I think there can be multiple reasons for feeling dry, for feeling cold, for feeling distant from God, but this is one of them. This is one of them.

That you have offended God by clinging to sin, by insisting on having something that dishonors God, and you won't cut it off, and you won't starve it. You must have it. And so he's offended, and he withdraws your sense of his presence and so you're feeling distant from God. Yeah, there's a reason for that and a good reason for that and I want to argue that it is the mercy of God. How could that be the mercy of God?

Because if He gave you the same old comforts, the same old encouragements that you've become so used to and become so comfortable with and have become to presume upon it'll always be there no matter what I think what I say what I do it'll always be there and So he pulls it back so that you feel the lack of it. In the life of a Christian, when you feel cold, when you feel distant, when you feel hard towards God, God Where is your presence? It so often leads you to repent and turn loose of the thing that you would not turn loose of. God uses this, like pulling back your sense of His presence. Not pulling back His presence, He's still indwelling for the believer, but pulling back your sense of His presence.

This is merciful of God to do this. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Don't make Him sorrowful and Don't offend Him by the things that you're nurturing, cultivating in your life, and do not quench the Spirit. You are utterly unable to make Him unable. You'll Always be able.

Will he be willing? Sometimes not if you offend him. And it's his mercy to withdraw your sense of his presence. So you'll say, oh I need it, I want it, I feel so terrible without it. Nothing's right until that will be right again.

Have you ever felt that way as a believer? Nothing will be right until this is right again. Now turn to Luke 11. Luke 11. So that is the ebb, the tide going out of the spirit.

Not an ever constant influence, but when we grieve the Spirit, when we quench the Spirit, there is an ebb in the influence of the Spirit in your life. No doubt about it. The tide going out. Alright, now the flow. The tide coming in.

You ever been sitting in the chair on the beach and you didn't expect it? It's a washout. I want you to picture this. You were sitting there thinking you were minding your own business and here came the tide faster and sooner than you thought it would and you're wet. In a good way.

Luke 11 verses 9 through 13. I want you to see this. It's a little longer of a passage. Luke 11, 9-13. Jesus says this, So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you.

Seek, and you will find. Knock, it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? So this has to be talking about the children of God. It explicitly is talking about the children of God. People who aren't children of God had no claim on this, but anyone who is a child of God does have a claim to this.

So Jesus gives us an analogy. You think you're a good father, but In God's eyes you're an evil father compared to him, that's fair. But when your son comes to you and says, can I have some bread? Do you ever say, have a stone? He says, can I have a fish?

Have a snake. Can I have an egg? Have a scorpion. Well, if us who are so much less of a father in every way. I mean it's embarrassing even to just say it in that gentle of terms.

God's terms are better. If you fathers being evil have a predisposition to give a bread when you're asked for bread, to give an egg when you're asked for an egg. What was the third thing? It doesn't matter. To give what's asked for.

If you have a predisposition towards that, how much more does God, who is better in every way than you in his fatherhood have a predisposition, a bias, an inclination to give good to those to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So clearly it's a rhetorical question. The answer is so obvious that it doesn't even need to be blurted out, but let me blurt it out. God is so much more inclined than any human father to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, His children who ask Him. Are you tired of ebbing influence of the Holy Spirit in your life?

Well stop grieving Him, stop quenching Him. You want the flow, you want the tide to come in faster and sooner than you anticipated, so you're just washed out by the tide. When was the last time you asked for more of the Holy Spirit? Now it's hard to ask for the Holy Spirit when you're grieving the Holy Spirit and quenching the Holy Spirit. Is it not?

Have you ever been stubbornly clinging to sin so that You're too humiliated to ask because you know you're not ready to let go of it yet. You know you dare not ask because He knows your thoughts. Been in that spot before. That's a hard spot. It's a bad place to be.

But God invites us to ask for more of the Holy Spirit and tells us He has a predisposition, an inclination, a bias to say yes to it. Give you more of the Holy Spirit. Is it possible that we don't have more of the Holy Spirit because we have not asked God for it. It is not only possible, this is the thing that has been the most convicting thing to me, how little I've been satisfied with. How little I've been satisfied with.

I want you to know today, you don't have to be satisfied with so little. God would not have you be satisfied with so little of the Holy Spirit. Stop quenching His Spirit, stop grieving His Spirit, but ask for more of it and God says the tide will come in. There will not be an ebb of the Spirit, there will be a flow to the Spirit. Applications, I give you three.

I have 30 seconds if I'm going to get under an hour. I can't do it that fast. I'm going over an hour. Number one, believer. Keep these things in view.

What an encouragement. Is it an encouragement to look at these ten things that God says are true of the Holy Spirit's activity in the life of a believer? I've been so encouraged just Working verse by verse. Here's what Paul says about the Holy Spirit. So there's number one.

There's number two. There's number three. All the way through to number ten. It's such an encouragement. Keep these things in view.

Do you have too much encouragement in your life? Not me. Number two. Unbeliever. This can be yours too, but you must repent and believe.

None of these things apply to the unbeliever. I think This is an unbelievably wonderful list. None of it is for you until you repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's my question for you, unbeliever. Why would you go through life without peace with God and the presence of the Holy Spirit?

Why? What's so dear to you? What's so precious to you? That you are willing to go through life day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, without peace with God and without the presence of the Holy Spirit, these things that are described in Romans chapter 8. Those of us who have been believers for a while say this, you're insane.

You're insane. You don't have the good part, you have the bad part. We have the good part. Come over here. Come over here.

Repent and believe. Number three. Believer. Shake off being satisfied with little. This is what I'm getting ready to say is so ironic.

God is so good that we're tempted to be satisfied with a little. Just to be out from under the weight of condemnation and to have a little encouragement here, a little there. God is so good, sometimes, that's fine. Because it does cost you something to not grieve the Spirit, not quench the Spirit. It does cost you something to seek the Lord for more of the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes the goodness of God is so good, it's like, I don't want to pay any price. I think if we knew what we were forfeiting, we wouldn't think of it that way. I Think if we could get a little taste of more, we would think, I was a fool for not going for more sooner. You can have more! God invites you to more.

God makes more available to you for the asking. God, let us not be content with so little. It is humbling, it's humiliating to think that we can have as much as we want. How little we've been content with. Help us to aspire to more, to ask for more.

Pray in Jesus name, amen. Then over to you to round out the teaching.