Video Transcript: The Spirit of Freedom

It's always good when reading the Bible to study what the great minds and commentators  have to say about it. And J. I. Packer, a great Christian and a great thinker said, a powerful  explanation of why Romans eight was written. Romans eight was written, He said, Because  Paul had just written Romans seven. Thank you for that helpful information. But if you  remember Romans seven, it is about this tremendous struggle with his own flesh and with  wanting to do what's right and being unable to do it. And just getting more and more  discouraged in all of that. And to understand what's going on there. Maybe it would help to  just start with a story from the Chinese Christian Watchman Nee, Watchman Nee told of a  time when he and some friends were out together and one of them got into deep water and  couldn't swim, and he was floundering around and getting more and more desperate and  calling for help. And with him there was an expert swimmer, and so Watchman Nee expected  him to race over to the man and rescue him. But he didn't. And the drowning man just  floundered more and more and was waving and splashing and calling for help, and nobody did anything and, and Watchman Nee got so upset with his friend, he said don't you care about  this, aren't you going to do anything about it? Aren't you going to help him? And just when  the man was finally going down, and was hardly thrashing around anymore, the man swam  right over to him, grabbed him, and pulled him in to safety. And Watchman Nee said, How  could you be so cruel to leave that man till the very last moment. And the swimmer said, Well, you really can't rescue a drowning man until he gives up and stops trying to rescue himself,  otherwise he might drag you under. Now, you see something of that, in that experience of  Romans seven where you have this person drowning in his struggle against his inner flesh,  and wanting something different, but unable to overcome it, finally cries out wretched man  that I am Who will deliver me from this body of death. He can't overcome on his own, he just  can't swim his way out of it. Now God is in no great danger of being pulled under by our  weakness and our sin. But one principle does hold true. It is very hard to rescue a drowning  sinner until he gives up on himself and cries out for somebody else to help Him and relies on  somebody else to help him wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of  death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so that I myself served the law of God  with my mind, but with my flesh, I served the law of sin. And then he moves from Romans  seven in that great struggle to Romans eight and the great deliverance and confidence that  he has in Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own Son in the  likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous  requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walked not according to the flesh, but  according to the Spirit. This ends the reading of God's word, and God always blesses His Word to those who listen. Romans eight is thought by a great number of people to be the greatest  chapter in the whole Bible. That's, of course, saying quite a bit because the whole Bible is the  Word of God. But this chapter is just a towering chapter of some of the greatest realities of  the faith, and of God's work and God's present work in our lives through His Holy Spirit. And  when you look at Romans eight as a whole, it is a tremendous revelation, it begins with no  condemnation, it ends with no separation. God is not going to condemn those who are in  Christ and nobody can separate them from God's love. Those are kind of the bookends of the  chapter, and the safety of people in the Lord Jesus Christ. And throughout it speaks of God's  present work in the life of people. If you just look at the first four verses of Romans eight, it's  like a whole theology book is put in four verses, some of the central doctrines of the faith.  Some of the key doctrines are expressed here. And when I say key doctrine, a key doctrine is  an important doctrine of course, but key is also used. In another sense of key opens  something. And these are the great truths, the great doctrines or teachings that open the  door, that open the way to freedom and salvation and the knowledge of God and eternal life  and knowing God, let's just look at some of the truth, the realities that are expressed in these  verses, and then see what Paul's message is in applying the truth to us. The first thing that I  want to highlight from these verses is simply the reality of the Trinity. He speaks of God,  sending his own Son, and he speaks a couple of times of the Holy Spirit will continue to speak  of the Holy Spirit throughout the chapter, Romans eight speaking of him as the Spirit of Christ,

and the Spirit of God kind of interchangeably. And right there you have God, his son, the  Spirit, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons, always working in harmony, in  concert in the great work of salvation, and in all of the works of God. So when right away, if  one of your great questions is, who is God, this segment this little segment of Scripture  already contains the answer God, is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Jesus said, to baptize people  in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. The Bible reveals the oneness of  God and yet a threeness within that oneness, an eternal oneness of love, among Father, Son,  and Holy Spirit, a oneness of being a oneness of action in all that God does. Another great  doctrine is incarnation, it's a word that means becoming flesh. And John one, verse 14, has  maybe the classic statement of that the word, the second person of the Trinity, the Son, the  Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The apostle Paul speaks of that same  thing, the Incarnation, and to use a slightly different language, he says, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He doesn't say he sent him in sinful flesh, because Jesus was not sinful, and his flesh was not sinful. And he doesn't just say he sent Him in the likeness of  humanity because he wasn't sent to be just like humanity, he was fully human. He came in  the likeness of sinful flesh, He didn't come in, in the flesh in terms of having a body just like  ours, and having a full humanity just like ours. But he was like us in every way, says the book  of Hebrews, except one way, sin he wasn't like us in that. And so he came in the likeness of all of us, fallen sinners. He was human just like us, but not sinful, just like us. And that's, that  answers basically the question Who is Jesus? Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Well, he is the one sent of, God's only Son into the world who existed from all of eternity. And he's also one who  came to be human, just like us. He's fully divine, and fully human, all at the same time. So  you see again, the answer, who is God? You see the answer to well, who is Jesus? Exactly?  What human nature divine nature does Jesus have another great doctrine of the Scripture is  the atonement, he was sent. Why was he sent in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin? gia tin  amartia. It's a technical phrase that's used in the Greek versions of the Old Testament to  mean, a sin offering and some translations correctly translated, that we literally just says, for  sin, but it's a technical phrase, that often means as a sin offering. So that's atonement,  atonement is a word that means Jesus took the punishment, the penalty of sin, so that we  would not have to take the penalty of sin, God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,  why? For sin, as a sin offering, to take the punishment that people deserve, so that God could  be just, and at the same time declare just those who belong to Him. So again, there's that  great doctrine of the Atonement of the blood payment for sin of the sacrifice that covers all  sin. There is the doctrine of the New Covenant and the new creation in Christ. Elsewhere. Paul says, If anyone is in Christ, new creation, he's entered into the new creation. He speaks of this new and better covenant in other passages. And you say, well, where's that in this passage?  Well, it's in one word, now. There was then and now there's now and there is this great change between from one era to another from one sphere or world to another. He says, A New Era or  age has begun In the coming of Christ, now, things are different. The Old Testament had  promised that a new covenant was coming in which God would give people new hearts and  put a new spirit in them. And Paul says, Now, it has happened. And now the condemnation  has been taken away, because another promise of the New Covenant was, I will remember  their sins no more. So there was the promise of the Spirit and of no condemnation, but the  taking away of sins. And Paul says, All of that has happened. Now, with the coming of Christ,  and with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, we're in a whole new situation. And that is one of  the glorious doctrines that runs all the way through the New Testament. Here, it's just hinted  at or expressed in that one word, and now we're living in that new situation. And there is the  great teaching of grace. It's elsewhere, of course, developed by Paul very fully. Here, it  appears basically, in two words, in the original is really just one word. He says, what the sinful nature or what the Fallen flesh couldn't do. God! He didn't even say did actually in the  original, he just says, you know, there was us. And then there was God. You read in other  passages like Ephesians 2, where the apostle writes, we were dead in our transgressions and  sins. But God, again, you need to be great theologians. I kind of joke about that. But Martyn  Lloyd Jones has a tremendous sermon on just two words, but God, he says, that's the whole  gospel, really, it's certainly the gospel of grace. There, there's us in our pickle, in our dreadful 

situation, but God, and grace means God did what the law couldn't do. And basically, the limit of the law is not so much its problem. It's our problem. It's what we couldn't do. We couldn't  fulfill the law. And because we couldn't fulfill the law, then the law couldn't save people who  required us to fulfill it. But what we couldn't do, God did, that's grace by grace, you've been  saved through faith. And so God did what we couldn't, and that all those doctrines lead into  this great doctrine of justification. Paul's been talking about it earlier in the book of Romans,  and now it's just expressed in the words no condemnation. It's very, very strongly stated in  Romans eight verse one, if you were to read it in the original, it stated even more strongly,  the very first word in the original Romans eight verse one is not a thing, or nothing. Nothing  condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus, condemnation means that there's a verdict  of guilty. You're guilty if you're being condemned. So the judge issues the verdict. And with  the verdict comes the sentence, you're guilty, and here's your punishment. And if there is no  condemnation, that means you're declared not guilty. That means also not only that the  verdict is not guilty, but that the sentence is there for no punishment. So no condemnation  means not guilty, and not going to get punished, ever. Nothing, no condemnation. And that is  the great doctrine of justification that it's just as if I never sinned, that all of Jesus perfection is credited to me. And that's why there's no condemnation, if I'm in Christ Jesus. And then the  doctrine of sanctification appears here, sanctification is God's work of gradually making this  more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts, and in our behavior. And where does  that appear? It appears in that statement, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in  us who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, sanctification is walking  by the Spirit and fulfilling God's righteous requirement. And Paul has expanded on that  already earlier in this book, and he'll say more about it. But it's all right here in the first four  verses, the doctrine of sanctification, and that occurs through another wonderful doctrine, not just a doctrine, none of these are just, I mean, a doctrine is something you take to be an  abstract theory, maybe you need to think of it instead of just as realities, which have words  associated with them. But these are great realities. And another reality. And these are just  eight of the greatest doctrines of the faith. There's probably more in these verses, and they're certainly more in the rest of Romans eight, but the doctrine of indwelling, that you are in  Christ, that you are abiding in Christ, as Jesus phrased it, and also that he's in you the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and you're walking according to the Spirit. God sends His Spirit to live in us in keeping with the promise through Ezekiel and Jeremiah, that he would give us a new heart  and make his spirit live in us and take out the hard of stone. and put us put in us a living  beating heart by His Holy Spirit and move us to live in his ways. And, and that's really what  the rest of Romans eight is going to talk about a great deal is what's it like to live now with  God indwelling in your life with you being in Christ, and with Christ's holy Spirit living inside of you, and doing His work inside of you. And in this message, and few more after a total of five,  I'm going to look at the Holy Spirit because that's who is the focus, the main focus in Romans  eight His present work in our lives. That's one reason why this is such an important and  crucial chapter of the Bible for us, because it's about now. It's about how to live as a Christian. Now, it is important to know the completed work of Christ on the cross. It's important to know  many other great truths of the faith, but how do you live from day to day? And what is it like  to relate to God now? And what is it like to have His Holy Spirit operating in your life now,  that's what Romans eight is all about. And I'm going to highlight five things about the Holy  Spirit. They're not the only things that can be said about him. But there are five major things  that are said about him in Romans eight. And that's what we're preaching on. I'm not trying to preach on the whole Bible. But on Romans eight in these next messages with some insights  from other parts of the Bible, Jesus, for instance, speaks of him as the spirit of holiness or the  Holy Spirit, emphasizing that He's holy. And Jesus speaks who has the spirit of truth,  emphasizing that he brings the truth and, and testifies to Jesus in the truth that is in Jesus.  But when we're looking at Romans, chapter eight, there are five things I want to highlight.  First, he is the spirit of freedom. And that's what we're going to focus on, especially today.  He's the spirit of life. And these aren't just little self contained parcels, he's already called the  Spirit of life in the verses we're looking at. We'll see more about that in the next message.  He's the spirit of adoption, he teaches us that we're the children of God, and testifies with our 

own spirit and moves us to call God, our Abba our father, he's the spirit of expectation. He's a  downpayment, on what's coming on the fullness of joy. And so we're expecting glory, and  wonderful things. And we have a taste of it now, through that spirit of expectation. And he's  the spirit of prayer, who helps us when we don't know how we ought to pray, he helps us in  our weakness, and in our prayer life. So those are five things that we're going to be learning  as we proceed through Romans chapter eight, you can see that I'm not rushing through the  chapter because you can't rush to this chapter. You just can't. And because if you get this one, this is the really the key to living life in the Holy Spirit right now. So this is a very, very  important portion of God's word that the Holy Spirit reveals Himself to us. Let's go back now  to that great statement. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus Christ, of  course, his Messiah, another doctrine, I guess that I could have emphasized he's the Promised Messiah of Israel. That's what the word Christ means. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, one of the shining examples of that came right while Jesus was hanging on the cross. And the criminal, crucified beside him said, Lord Jesus, remember me when you  come in your kingdom. And you remember what Jesus said in response. Today, you'll be with  me in paradise. There is no condemnation a man who had lived a wicked life, he hadn't done  anything to earn Jesus favor. All he had was a criminal record for which he was being  executed. And one prayer to Jesus and being included, by faith in Jesus meant that he would  be in paradise that day. No condemnation for that whole past life of wickedness. The apostle  Paul had a similar experience, though he was not on the cross next to Jesus, but he could  write I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. He knew that  He too, had lived a wicked life and had killed Christians. And he had blasphemed the name of  Jesus. And all of that was forgiven, completely, no condemnation for being a killer of  Christians, because now he was in Christ Jesus. Paul had dealt with a man who had just  finished abusing him and his fellow missionary Silas, and supervising a beating and locking  them in the worst dungeon in the jail. And then when Paul and Silas appear to have gotten  away, the man was going to kill himself. So he was the first a cruel man and then a suicidal  man. And he said to Paul, what must I do to be saved and Paul said Believe in the Lord Jesus  and you'll be saved, you and your household. So this homicidal and suicidal man is suddenly  saved. And all that he's done in the past is washed away by Jesus blood, there's no  condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And this is true, not just of the sins that led  up to the time of your becoming a Christian. It's true also of your failings after becoming a  Christian. Some of those are spoken of in Romans seven of that struggle against various  addictions, various slavery's various things that have their grip on you, and you want to be  free of them. And sometimes the more guilty you feel about them, the more tug they still  have, the more their grip increases. It's a weird thing. But sometimes the things we feel most  guilty about are the ones we are most likely to repeat, we feel bad about it, we do it anyway.  And there's no condemnation for those either, when we're in Christ Jesus, and when his spirit  is setting us free from those one of the ways to be free of those various bondages and  addictions is to be free of the guilt of it. You might not, that may sound weird, because I know  many people think the way to get people to change their behavior is to really browbeat them,  and tell them how bad you've been, and you better shape up or you're going to get it. But  very often, the thing that makes the biggest change is, you're not going to get punished. You  are loved, you are included in Christ. And there is freedom and some say. you mean, I'm not  going to get punished for that? Well, I don't think I want to keep doing it either. And so there's  actually a lot of freedom from addiction comes when you're not bound by the guilt over it  anymore. And and we are all going to need that no condemnation that comes after, we'd  become Christians. The apostle John wrote by the Holy Spirit, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. the apostle Peter and Barnabas, we have a very  clear example. In the Bible. It's told of in Galatians chapter two, where they all of a sudden  stopped eating with Gentile Christians. And they were in danger of betraying the gospel of  Jesus Christ, until Paul got up and got right in their faces in public. But that did that mean that Barnabas and Peter were lost forever. Because after they had come to know Jesus, they had  failed. You know, Peter also denied Jesus three times, even after he had come to know and  love and walk with the Lord. But the Lord Jesus did not put him he did not put Barnabas under 

condemnation for things they had done after they had become Christians. There's no  condemnation for those who belong to Christ, who are in Messiah, Jesus, and this is what you  have. That's what Romans has all been leading up to till this point, we have peace with God  through our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have to live up to the works of the law, because God  paid for it all through his blood. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everybody  who believes. Now a righteousness from God apart from law has been revealed that Paul  keeps saying these things to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the  wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. I could just keep multiplying those statements,  but it after a while, just just let this one sink in no condemnation. If you don't remember any  other words, or some of the longer sentences, just remember those two, no condemnation, no condemnation, and keep on listening to the Word of God to your soul, because the devil, one  of his roles, even one of his titles, is simply the accuser. And the way you fight off his  accusations, is not to say I never do anything wrong. You do. The way to fight off his  accusations is to say no condemnation because I'm in Christ Jesus. So there's no  condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set you  free from the law of sin and death, there's, there's two different kinds of laws going on here.  They're almost like laws of nature, or forces of nature. And there is a force or a principle at  work of sin and death that grabs and destroys. And how do you get free from that, by a  different law, by a different power or principle at work in your life? Um Donald Gray  Barnhouse compares it to what happened at the Red Sea. Moses and the Israelites were  trapped between the hosts and chariots of Pharaoh and the Red Sea. And there was no way  they could escape because the sea had them trapped. And the sea was there with all its  water obeying the law of gravity, and it just sat there between them and freedom and the law of gravity. kept that water there. And then came another law, God sent a great east wind, and  that great east wind drove through the waters. And it was another law, not the law of gravity,  but the law of God's wind power. And it piled up the water on both sides of a path that it  created. And then that mighty wind dried up the path that led right between the waters. And  so the law of gravity was overpowered by the law of the mighty wind, and brought a path for  the Israelites to find freedom from Pharaoh and his host. And, when Pharaoh and his hosts  tried to go through that water, suddenly, that great wind from God stopped, and the laws of  gravity kicked back in, and the water closed over the wicked armies. But you see what's going on, there is a law of gravity. And the way it works is you're not going anywhere here. But  when the law of the wind and by the way, the word Spirit does is the same word as wind. But  anyway, there's a mighty wind is mighty wind power is stronger when God sends it than the  laws of gravity or the laws of water or anything else. Or think of it another way, if you want to  fly, how do you go about doing that? Well, here's a patent, I believe from the year 1889, of  somebody who came up with a design for people to fly. So one theory of flying is get some  wings, and then flap really hard, you know, work at it, see if you can, you know, I imagine I'll  do a few workouts to get the proper shoulder and our muscles to really get those wings going. But this is one way that humans could fly. And this is basically the law of sin and death. You  want to if you think that your arms and your homemade wings are going to defeat, the law of  gravity and enable you to fly, you are going to forever be defeated and Earthbound, because  you do not have what it takes to defeat this law of gravity. And in the same way, your own  flesh and your own abilities don't have what it takes to defeat the law of sin and death. It just  pulls you down and keeps you grounded. But there are other laws. And humans do fly. But not because we managed to flap hard enough on our own power, we flew by other power that  came along. And interestingly, it's the power of air once again, the power of wind, the power  of gravity pulls on the weight of the airplane, but the wings are shaped in such a way that  they as they move faster and faster have lift. And so the laws of aerodynamics are fighting  against the law of gravity. And if you get enough speed passing over those wings, you're  going to have lift, and you're also going to have thrust from the law of combustion, you have  an engine going and it's running. And it's burning fuel. And as it does that it's blasting air  either through by using a propeller or jet engines. And Jay Dorn will have to forgive all the  things I don't know about aerodynamics and airplanes, maybe I can I know how much he 

loves to preach. So I can let you up here. But if you have any corrections, you can tell people  afterwards. Jay knows all about airplanes. But the point here is, if you want to defeat the law  of gravity, you're not going to do it on your own power. But there are powers that can the  power of air through aerodynamics, the power of combustion, the power of fire, actually,  again, you know, the Bible did not have airplanes in mind, but the Holy Spirit is often  compared to wind and fire. So just think about that, that great power that comes from wind  and from fire. And those laws of wind and fire have the power to overcome the law of gravity,  the power of the Spirit of Life is stronger than the power of sin and death. So what you need is a new law to kick in. There are new laws that overcome the laws of gravity, that overcome the laws of sin and death. And that's what you need to understand about this power of the Holy  Spirit. If you want freedom from the power of gravity, freedom from being grounded on earth  forever, then a different power's got to be at work within you than just you and your well  designed wings that you thought you were going to escape in. that's what it's like trying to  live up to God's law on your own power. It's like trying to fly on your own power. You need  other laws at work. And then the apostle speaks of the law weakened by the flesh. We we just couldn't do it. We couldn't save ourselves. Again, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones, one preacher whom I like very much says that doesn't mean there was anything wrong with the law itself. The law  couldn't do it because of the weakness of the flesh of fallen humanity, and he compares it to  a spade. And that steel blade of the spade is very strong. And there's nothing wrong with it at  all. And you're trying to dig up something very hard, and the handle snaps. Now, does that  mean that that was a no good, useless blade, the blade is pretty useless. Now, you got no  leverage, you're not gonna be able to get anything done with it. But it's not because the blade was bad, the handle was bad, it was weakened, it's snapped. And in the whole project of self  salvation. There's nothing wrong with God's law. It's good. If you kept it perfectly, you'd be  saved. Yeah, but the handle snaps, the blades good the handles not. And so the law is  weakened by the flesh. And therefore we need God's grace God does, what the law weakened by, the flesh couldn't do. When we think about the flesh, there's basically three options. If  you're living in a struggle, Romans Seven, where you want to be better, and you can't be  better, where you're trying harder to improve, and live up to God's good law. But you can't  seem to do it. How do you resolve that terrible conflict that's tearing at you. One way, is  through self indulgence, which basically is saying, Get rid of that inner conflict by just  surrendering to the flesh. Just go with it. Do what your urges tell you to do. And try to enjoy it  just be lawless, and immoral, and forget about that law of God. And that'll make your sinning  a lot more fun. Another is to say, Well, I just don't want to go that route. So I'm going to fight  the flesh. And I'm going to try harder to keep God's law and be moral. So instead of self  indulgence, you work really hard on self improvement. And you try harder and harder. But as  as it describes in Romans seven that you just feel so defeated after a while because you can't  do it. Your best self can't seem to shine through your worst self seems to be your flesh seems  to keep dragging you down. You'll notice however, what both of those options begin with self.  You're either indulging yourself or you're trying to improve yourself. And the way to escape  that is to say, oh, wretched man that I am who's going to deliver me. And so you trust God's  grace in Christ to forgive you. And you depend on the Holy Spirit's power to defeat your fallen  flesh. So there is a dependence on God's forgiveness, and on God's Spirit and His power, this  Spirit indwelling that enables you to become more and more the person God wants you to be.  That doesn't mean the flesh will all vanish in a moment. But it does mean that you will  increasingly have more victories and less defeats as the Spirit works in your life. And so we're  speaking of the spirit of freedom, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  Because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sent me free from the law of sin and death,  For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature of God did  by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so we condemn sin  and sinful man, that the righteous requirements of the law might be met in us who live not  according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, this spirit of freedom, the apostle  elsewhere, right now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is  freedom. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed  into the same likeness from one degree of glory to another. This is freedom, not just to do 

whatever anybody feels like doing. But it is the freedom to be who we were always meant to  be. In Galatians, chapter five, the apostle Paul says, You my brothers were called to be free,  but don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love, the entire  law can be summed up in a single command, love your neighbor as yourself. So the Apostle  says that the law is actually being kept. Once you stop trying to save yourself by the law.  Once the spirit's at work in you, you're actually free to love. And when you find yourself a  loving all of a sudden, I think I'm keeping that law after all, because the great commands are  love God and love your neighbor. And so you have this spirit of freedom of feeling that you  always have to measure up. And as you stop trying to measure up and you realize that in  Christ you already measure up, then you're free from all those compulsions that keep  threatening to destroy you. And you notice what he said, You're being transformed from glory  to glory. And all this comes from the Lord who is the spirit. It's so important friends, to know  the Holy Spirit and to understand at least something of his work in your life and not just  understand it, but have him doing these things in you. It's important that you don't relegate  Christianity to the past and to the future. Or that you understand God only as the Father, and  the Son. We it is wonderful what Christ has done for us in the past. It is wonderful, what future he has purchased for us. But what about now. It is wonderful that the Father created us and  the Son redeemed us. But what about now? And we need the provision that God has given us  now. And the provision that he has given us now is the Lord who is the spirit. The spirit is,  through the reality, the Trinity, the spirit is Christ coming into our lives now working in our  hearts, now, giving us power now, to have a different law, the power of flight, not just the  power of gravity, always pulling us down. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, the law, the Spirit of Life has set us free from the law of sin and death, and there is no  condemnation. We pray Father that we will experience your spirit more and more at work in  our lives. We know Lord, that for all who believe it's possible only because the Spirit already  convicted us of sin. And the Spirit already moved our hearts to trust and to love you. And so  we thank you for the Spirit who already lives in us and we pray that we'll become more and  more aware of your presence, Holy Spirit of your working, and that we will be changed more  and more into the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ as you reveal more and more of Christ to  us. Help us Father, to live in the freedom of the Spirit, to know that we're not condemned that  we're not held captive by fear and guilt, that we're not held captive by the grip of the flesh  and addiction and slavery to sin, but that you Lord Jesus, have come that we might be free  and if the Son sets us free, we are free indeed. So help us know freedom in Christ, know  freedom of the Holy Spirit, freedom to serve you to rejoice in you to live in the glorious  freedom of the children of God. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.