Who is the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit do in the world, and what does He do in the lives of believers? Those are the questions that our text answers today by showing us 3 things He does in the world, and 3 things He does in believers. May God help us to embrace the Holy Spirit.

So first, what does the Holy Spirit do in the world? And when speaking of the world, the Bible means unbelievers. As John 14:17 says about the Holy Spirit, “the world cannot accept Him.” So what does the Holy Spirit do with unbelievers? Vs. 8 says that He convicts the world of guilt, that is, He exposes the guilt of the world. The word “convicts” means “to bring in guilty; to put to shame by proving one to be wrong; to convict with a view to condemnation and judgment.”

This is the very reason why the gospel is such good news to believers, because we were at one time convicted, judged and condemned by our sin. And the gospel brought us the news that Jesus was convicted of our sin instead, that Jesus paid for our sin and therefore we can go free. Imagine a man locked up in a maximum security prison. He’s there because of his crimes, there’s no way out and he is hopeless. And then the word comes to him that his crime has been charged to another person, and that other person has assumed his guilt, so he can go free. This is what the gospel does for believers, shows us that Jesus took our sin and our guilt and died in our place and released us from payment. Because of Jesus no believer will ever be judged as guilty or condemned to death.

Jesus now brings out 3 indictments or accusations against the world. In other words, He shows them 3 reasons why they are guilty:

1: Vs. 9 says they are guilty of sin because they do not believe in Jesus. See what would remove the condemnation of the world? For them to believe. But see unbelief is a problem of our hearts. John 3:19 says: “^19…men love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil.” The world’s problem is a heart problem. So the world is guilty because they do not believe in Jesus. 

2: The second indictment is that the world is guilty vs. 10 “¹⁰ in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer.” The world crucified Jesus declaring Him to be unrighteous, but the Father vindicated Jesus by receiving Him back from the dead. The fact that the Father exalted Him to His right hand proves that He was completely innocent of all charges and completely righteous, even though the world condemned Him as guilty.

3: The third indictment is in vs. 11 “¹¹ and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” Satan and the world falsely condemned a perfectly righteous and innocent man to death, therefore the world and Satan stand truly condemned before God’s judgment throne.

So the world is condemned because they do not believe in Jesus, because they declared Christ to be unrighteous, and because they condemned an innocent and righteous man to death.

Well the Spirit condemns the world, but what does the Spirit do in the lives of believers?  That’s in vs. 13-15 where the subject switches from the world, to “you”, meaning the believers Jesus was speaking to. The Spirit convicts the world in 3 things, now let’s notice the 3 things the Spirit does for believers.

¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. ¹⁵ All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. John 16:13-15 (NIV)

The Spirit of God does these 3 things for believers: He guides us into all truth, He tells us what is to come, and He glorifies Christ by making Him known to us.

First, He guides us into all truth. 1 Corinthians 2 says “¹² We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. ¹⁴ The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The Spirit guides us into all truth.

Isn’t it wonderful that we have a Spirit-Guide? So many people today are looking for spirit-guides, mediums, channelers. Perhaps you have heard of a book called Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. That book was written with the “wisdom” he gained by consulting with spirit-guides which the Bible simply calls “demons.” He would go down into his basement where he would consult with these spirits, and out would come Think and Grow Rich.

And then there is Carl Jung. Listen to what the Minnesota State University says about Carl Jung: “no one had a bigger impact on modern psychology and psychiatry than did Carl Jung.” And do you know where he got his teaching? He got it from an entity whom he called Philemon. These are his own words, “Philemon was as real to me as a person.  We walked up and down the garden arm in arm and he taught me my major theories.”  And Carl Jung then passed those theories along to the psychological and psychiatric communities. And many in the church embrace his theories because they contain some truth. And why would we be surprised at this? Listen to 1 Timothy 4:1: “¹ The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”

And the reason they listen to things taught by demons is because they don’t have the Holy Spirit, who guides believers into all truth. He takes God’s Word and dispels the lies of the devil, and the wisdom of the world, and He leads us into all truth.

So how do we know if we are listening and learning from the Spirit of truth, or the spirit of lies? Listen to 1 Peter 1:11: the prophets were “¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.” The Spirit points to the gospel; the cross and resurrection of Jesus. That’s His message. “⁷ But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. ⁸ The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing.” See how the Holy Spirit is guiding us into all truth? He takes God’s Word and teaches us from it. He shows how the Old Testament points to the gospel, that the way to the Most Holy Place is now open, the way into God’s presence is open because Jesus died to forgive us and remove our sins. This is the message of the Holy Spirit, the gospel.

And did you know that believers can recognize the Spirit of truth or the spirit of lies in someone? It is not boasting or pride to say that.  Listen to 1 John 4:6: “⁶ We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.” As long as the believer’s message in the gospel, the whole counsel of God’s Word, those who listen and learn and obey are of God; those who refuse to hear, who stop up their ears, who turn away are not from God. Like Paul says to the Thessalonians “⁶ …you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit leads us into all truth and those who are from God repent of sin and welcome the message.

Secondly according to vs. 13 He tells us what is to come. We do not need fortune tellers or horoscopes or palm readers, or Ouija boards or mediums. We have the Spirit who opens God’s Word and tells us of what is to come. He is the Spirit of Prophecy.

And finally, according to vs. 14 God’s Spirit glorifies God’s Son, and He does that by taking the things of Jesus and making them known to us. In other words, the Spirit of God reveals the glory of the Son of God by displaying before us all the perfections of Jesus, all the beauties of Jesus, all the majesty of King Jesus, thereby drawing us to Him and His beauty.

You know in the days of the Old Testament a man would often send a servant out to get a wife for his son, and the way the servant would get the wife would be to display all the wealth of the son so as to attract the woman to him. And in essence this is the role of the Holy Spirit, to show us the beauty and the majesty and the perfection of Jesus Christ so as to attract us to Him that we might be His bride.

Now you know that any teaching in the New Testament is always illustrated with a story in the Old Testament, so that we can get a mental picture in our minds of the truth. So that we can visualize the truth by seeing it in a story. John 16 is no different. The illustration is in Genesis 24, let’s turn there together. Here we see John 16 in story form, and after we read this we will never wonder what the Spirit does because we’ll have this story to remind us.

It’s interesting to note that Genesis 24 follows Genesis 22 and 23. Genesis 22 is a beautiful picture of the cross, Genesis 23 records the death of Sarah and then chapter 24 records the journey of some unnamed servant, who was sent to get a bride for Abraham’s son. So we have the gospel foreshadowed in chapter 22 and then we have the work of the Spirit foreshadowed in 24.

“¹ Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. ² He said to the chief servant in his household,”…now stop there and understand that this servant is not named. We know his name from Gen 15 that his name is Eliezer, but in this passage he is the unnamed servant. Just as we know that the Holy Spirit has no name, He does not come to draw attention to Himself, but rather to the Son. And that’s what this unnamed servant is going to do.

Now in vss. 2-3 Abraham is sending him on a journey to get a bride for his son. And in vs. 5 ⁵ The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to come back with me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the country you came from?” ⁶ “Make sure that you do not take my son back there,” Abraham said. ⁷ “The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father’s household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’–he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. ⁸ If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.”

This is the Old Testament version of the teaching to not be unequally yoked. You remember 2 Corinthians 6 that says ¹⁴ Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” ¹⁷ “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-17

Any single person should take this passage to heart. God does not want His people marrying unbelievers, for if they do they will have nothing in common, they will have no fellowship, no harmony, and no agreement. It is a sin against God for a Christian to marry a Muslim, or a Christian to marry a Hindu, or a Christian to marry anyone but a Christian. God says to come out from the unbelievers and marry a believer, and then God will receive you. Abraham was clear, do not go get a wife for my son from those heathen people.

And the rest of the passage describes how God led this servant to exactly the right girl, and notice what this servant does when he finds her. He is very eager to share his mission, why he came. Notice vs. 22:

“I will not eat until I have told you what I have to say.” “Then tell us,” [Laban] said. ³⁴ So he said, “I am Abraham’s servant. ³⁵ The LORD has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, and camels and donkeys. ³⁶ My master’s wife Sarah has borne him a son in her old age, and he has given him everything he owns.”

Notice the servant is eager to speak about the son, he is bringing glory to the son by showing the wealth that he has inherited. Hebrews 1:2 says that Jesus is “heir of all things” and the Spirit’s message is about Jesus.

Then the servant explains why he came, to get a wife for the son, and when he makes that known Laban answers in vs. 51:

^“51 Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master’s son, as the LORD has directed.” ⁵² When Abraham’s servant heard what they said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD. ⁵³ Then the servant brought out gold and silver jewelry and articles of clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.”

Notice what the servant is doing. He is showing the wealth of the son, he is giving gifts to the people. The Spirit takes the things of the Son and makes them known to us, and He gives gifts to the church. He is doing what Jesus says the Spirit will do in John 16:14: “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” That’s what we see the servant doing, he’s showing the earrings and bracelets, the gold and jewelry and articles of clothing to the bride to be.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit shows us the riches of Christ; that is, the riches of His mercy, the diamonds of His grace, the precious jewels of His love, and the clothing, the robe of His righteousness. The Spirit literally wraps the righteousness of Christ around the believer, He shows us the glories of the gospel.

⁵⁸ So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?” Rebekah had to decide whether or not she would go. And think about it, if she said “yes”, if she answered the marriage proposal she would give up her family, her friends, all that she knew, indeed her entire past life. And I wonder today, do we really understand that Christians are to part with our entire past life? Even if that means family and friends, if need be. Anything that hinders us from following Christ must be left behind. ³⁷ “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; ³⁸ and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Matthew 10:37-38

God is asking us today, “will you go with this man?” Will you leave behind greed, lust, drinking and smoking, lying, gambling, porn viewing and immorality? Will you leave behind the wisdom of the world? Will you leave behind even family or friends if they would prevent you from following Jesus?

In vs. 57 Rebekah says “I will go.” She had counted the cost and made her decision, she wanted to go be with the son, the heir, even if it meant leaving her entire past life behind. So the servant took her and guided her back to the son, telling her of things to come; even as the Spirit guides us into all truth, and speaks to us of things to come.

So this is what the Spirit of God does. And I want to close right now by asking you to look up 3 passages of Scripture about the Spirit of God, and to pray and ask God to help us to do these:

#1: ^“44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. ⁴⁵ The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” Acts 10:44-46. The results of the Spirit of God being poured out is that praise and worship wells up within them like a bubbling brook. By this definition, has the Spirit come to you?  

#2: “¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” How do we know if we’re filled with the Spirit? Vs. 19 tells us the result of being filled with the Spirit: “¹⁹ Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Spirit filled people speak spiritually, they sing joyfully, and they live thankfully.  Ephesians 5:15-20 By this definition has the Spirit come to you?

#3 ⁴ Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶ We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. ⁷ If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸ if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Romans 12:4-8

The Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost in a sound to awaken them, in a wind to move them, in fire to warm them, in tongues to make them speak. Out of this grows this query: Are we awake today? Are we on the move for Christ? Are we enlightened and on fire for God? Are we using our tongues for Him?

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This is a test to see the size of the text, as I’ve been told that the text size is too small, so I’m making it bigger.

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Since God alone is righteous we can see that there is a blessing for those who hunger and thirst after God. Do you? Can you honestly say you are hungry and thirsty for God? If not, it could be that we are filling ourselves with other things.

David said, ¹³¹ I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands. Psalm 119:131 And again… ^“1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” Psalm 42:1

God says, “¹⁰ I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10

May God enable us to open our mouths wide for Him, being eager to receive what He has for us. May He indeed satisfy our hunger in Jesus’ broken body, and quench our thirst in the blood He shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

May this be the day that you pant after God, opening wide your mouth to be filled by Him. Then be blessed and filled by what He gives you to eat.

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Former WCW and WWE pro-wreslter, Lex Luger, has addressed sever topics in a video questions and answers segment sponsored by Promolastevents.com .

Elizabeth

“Obviously, the tragedy with Liz and the drug overdose was a real low point. Things got rough with drugs and alcohol.”

Forgiveness

“The high point of my life now is that by God’s grace and mercy only, I survived that. God forgave me.

The gospel of Jesus Christ was set forth clearly in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, which was written 700 years before Christ (confirmed by the Dead Sea Scrolls). Here is what it says:

Isaiah 53:4-8 (NIV)

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

And so we picture this “suffering servant” (Isaiah 52:13-15) carrying our sicknesses and sorrows up Golgotha’s hill (verse 4), and there they laid Him down on a tree, where He was “pierced” in His hands and feet and side, “for our transgressions”, for our wrongs. God the Father laid our sins on Him and then He was “crushed for our iniquities” (verse 5). As He hung there on the cross He took our punishment upon Himself, so that we might be healed of our sins by His wounds. (verse 5).

This is the gospel, that Jesus took our place, carried our sins, received our punishment, and through His death He removed our guilt and shame, and gave us eternal life.

And if you are reading this today and have never believed this gospel, today is the day. Now is the time. If you will put up the white flag of surrender, and throw down your arms of rebellion, if you will right now believe in your heart, and confess Christ with your mouth you will be saved.

¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Romans 10:10

Oh that you might believe this message right now, that your sins are forgiven through Christ’s death, that your guilt died on a tree 2,000 years ago, and that you are right with God because of what Jesus did. Why not believe it, rather than get all upset and “feel condemned” and leave upset?

Good morning. I knew that our other men were going to preach in their testimonies, and that we would be blessed and challenged through them. So I just have two short points from Romans chapter 6, today. As a reminder of our study on Friday night, the first half of Romans 6 speaks of the believer’s unity with Jesus Christ; that when He died on the cross we died to sin. ² We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” “⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” ⁵ If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.” This section is all about our unity with Christ. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin– Romans 6:6

He died for us, our old self died in Him. He was buried, our old self was buried with Him; He rose from the dead and we rose with Him to a new life. “⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” The old smoking, drinking, porn viewing, overeating, angry, bitter, pill taking, back-biting, slandering greedy man is literally dead in Christ. Even if people cling to the lie that “I was born that way” then the understanding of Romans 6 is that I died that way, and am now raised with Christ and can no longer live that way.

Anyone who is a Christian knows the power of this new life. Whereas before we found pleasure in sin, now we find pleasure in Jesus and in holy living. We are like those in Psalm 87:7 “⁷ As they make music they will sing, “All my fountains are in you.” All my source of delight, all my refreshment, all my fountains of enjoyment and pleasure are in our God and in His Son. This is what it means to be a Christian. Our ignorance is removed, our understanding is enlightened, our will is subdued, our hearts are changed, our desires are changed, our life is changed — in fact, we are as one newborn, to whom all things have become new.

So the first part of Romans 6 is about being united with Christ And as we come to the second part of Romans 6 I only want us to notice two points and then we’re done:

#1–Offering Ourselves to Sin Leads to Slavery, #2–the Gospel Leads to Freedom

Offering ourselves to sin leads to slavery. We see our first point in vs. 16: ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6:16

Whoever we offer ourselves to we become the slaves of. Old Pastor Johnson said, “What think you of the fetters of bad habits? What think you of the chains of indulged lust? The drunkard who cannot resist the craving for the alcohol — know you a more thorough captive? The covetous man who toils night and day for wealth — what is he but a slave? The sensual man, the ambitious man, the worldly man, those who, in spite of conscience, cannot break away from enthralment— what are they, if not the subjects of a master who is extremely stern, and very degrading?”

Watch as someone surfs the internet and clicks on illicit links and offers themselves to sin, and you have met a slave; one who has no freedom to resist the power of temptation in the future. Watch as someone turns to food for comfort, or to smoking for stress relief, or to alcohol for escape, or to self injury because they feel they deserve to be punished, or to prescription drugs to level out their mood swings, and you’ve met slaves who no longer have freedom.

On the other hand, watch as someone, in the quietness of the morning rises and presents himself to God as a living sacrifice, opens His Word to receive from God, and begins to pour out His heart in prayer, asks God to give him the will and the power to obey Him that day, and you’ve met a slave of obedience.

Offering ourselves to sin leads to slavery but…

#2—the Gospel leads to freedom

¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:17-18

So these Romans had obeyed from their hearts the form of teaching that they had received. They didn’t just acknowledge it to be true, accept it, agree with it, no their hearts were involved. What was the “form of teaching” that they had received? Listen to Paul’s answer in Romans chapter 1: ¹⁶ I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. ¹⁷ For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17

So the Romans had wholeheartedly obeyed the gospel which led to their freedom. So what is the gospel and how do we obey it?

The gospel is that God is holy and righteous and that He cannot stand to even look on sin. But God is also loving and gracious, and so He put our sins on His Son, and Jesus suffered the penalty for our sins by dying in our place, and so through His death all who believe are forgiven of all their sins, absolved of all their guilt, acquitted of all their crimes; the gospel is that Jesus Christ was stripped of everything on the cross, that we might be covered and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Himself and made acceptable to God through the removal of their sin.

²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 ¹⁸ For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. 1 Peter 3:18 ¹¹ When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. ¹² He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:11-12

That’s the gospel; by His blood He obtained eternal redemption; that is, He shed His blood to buy us back from sin, to redeem us out of the marketplace of sin, to take us to be His own people, who are holy and righteous.

But how did the Romans obey this gospel? They believed it with their whole heart. They repented of their sins, they submitted to the authority of Jesus Christ, and they received Him as Lord, and Savior and King. They had their eyes opened, and with their whole hearts they turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, and they received forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus.’ Acts 26:18 They did not “merely listen to the word,” and so deceive themselves. With their whole heart, they did what it says. James 1:22

And what was the result? Vs. 18 tells us ¹⁸ they had been set free from sin and had become slaves to righteousness. Freedom! But also praise! Sin slaves have no praise in them, for how can we sing the songs of zion from a foreign land?

You know what the gospel does to those who obey it with all their hearts? It frees them by making them slaves to righteousness. It frees them by making them captives of Jesus Christ. As vs. 22 says ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. Romans 6:22

Slaves to God, slaves to Jesus, slaves to prayer and to God’s Word, and slaves to ministry are free indeed. In the early part of the Iraq invasion they discovered an underground prison which was really more like a tomb. Saddam Hussein had put people down their for rebelling against his authority, and they lived for years with absolutely no light. I watched on CNN as they brought those people out of the prison, and though they were shielding their eyes from the light some of them were weeping with joy, others were singing songs. Some of us here today remember the prisons we were released from, the darkness we came out of, and our freedom has resulted in our weeping with joy and singing praise to Jesus.

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:31-32 and ¹⁰ The ransomed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing; and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy has overtaken them, and sorrow and sighing has fled away. Isaiah 35:10

This is the introduction to my sermon this coming Sunday:

2 Corinthians 3. I want to tell you about a friend of mine. He grew up on a farm in Iowa, came from a religious family, went to church every Sunday, but this young man got trapped in sin, and so his parents took him to “professionals” who got him trapped on drugs. He continued to live in bondage to suicidal thoughts and night terrors, anger and rage and impurity. He lived for 20 years of his life trapped like this. One day he was going through an online Bible study, and he describes the experience like this:

“After turning to religion, then worldly counseling, then anti depressants, God opened my eyes to see that my problems were not chemical in nature but rather spiritual, and the Solution was to be found in the Great Physician; Jesus Christ. Before coming to the end of myself I got angry at those who tried to help me and would often blame THEM for my anger and sin issues. But then God through the Holy Spirit drew me to Himself. As I began studying the Word He opened my eyes, turned my heart to Jesus and I have found new life in Him. Everything is different. I’ve left the immoral sin and drugs far behind, something I didn’t think I could ever do. This is a work of God’s Holy Spirit and not my own strength. He changed my heart, my desires, and now I live for Him, because He died for me.”

This young farmer is now the director of an international ministry, he preaches all around the world, just got back from the Netherlands and Germany where many lives were changed.

What took this man from his barren and dry, desert, sinful life of addiction to prescription drugs, to being a vibrant, fruitful, useful, productive Christian? In His own words, “this is a work of the Holy Spirit.”

Look at 2 Corinthians 3:17:

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed (metamorphosed, changed, altered, transformed) into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

The Spirit transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ. And in our passage in John today, Jesus talks about the work of the Holy Spirit, and we’re going to spend a few weeks there. Today we just want to look at an overview of Who the Holy Spirit is, what He does in a heart and life, and we’ll close with how we get the Spirit. The title of my sermon today is “the Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 6. Glad to be with you! We’ve prayed for God to do a work in our hearts this weekend, so I hope you have come prepared for the Spirit of God to work in your heart, I sure have and am very eager for Him to come to us this weekend.

Well tonight we will look at the first part of Romans 6 called “Dying to Live” and then Sunday morning at Ohio Valley Church we will look at the second part called “Freedom from Slavery”, which is the practical application, the “how to be free.” I hope you can make it. Let’s open our Bibles to Romans chapter 6 if you have them.

In 1982 27 year old Joann Larson woke up as usual, put the coffee pot on, let the dog out and picked up her local newspaper. She sat down at her desk with a cup of coffee and began to read the paper. She was quite tired that morning and had a hard time keeping her eyes open as she skimmed over the usual advertisements, local events, and news. But all of a sudden her eyes opened wide and she nearly jumped out of her chair, because right there in front of her, in the obituary section, was her name and her picture. She stared in disbelief as she read that two days ago, she apparently suffered a stroke and by the time she was taken to the hospital she was pronounced dead on arrival. She didn’t know what to do, she ran to the mirror and thought she looked pretty normal, she pinched herself and felt pain, so she immediately went to the phone and called the newspaper company. When the lady answered she said, “Your paper says that I am dead, I’m wondering if you can you hear me or not?” “Well yes I can hear you, what are you talking about? What is your name?” “Joann Larson.” “Well let me look here, OK, I see we have a Joann Larson who has advertised her baking store with us. Is that you?” And so it turns out that the newspaper had mistakenly switched the names and pictures of two people. Later that day Joann talked with her mom and said, “seeing my name in the obituaries has been the worst day of my life.” We could imagine that’s true, couldn’t we? How would you like to wake up one morning only to discover that you were dead?

Well I want to break the news to you gently this evening, but the truth is that everyone here who is a Christian, has indeed died. You see it turns out that you apparently suffered death by crucifixion at the hands of Roman soldiers 2000 years ago. Your name is in the obituary section. You can see in Romans 6 vs. 2 that you died, and vs. 4 that you were buried. But I want to tell you this evening that, unlike Joann Larson’s story, this is the best news we could ever hear. We ought to celebrate with all our hearts that we died with Christ, and that we were buried with Him.

Now what in the world? This just sounds strange doesn’t it? That we died and were buried, and we’re celebrating it? You see this good news is only good news if we understand the bad news first. So come with me back in time 6000 years, you and I are in a Garden called the Garden of Eden. It’s a beautiful garden filled with lush fruit trees and all kinds of plants and shrubs, it has 4 rivers running through it, and beautiful animals are there. And God our Creator has told us that we can eat from any of these trees, except one, because if we ate of that one tree we would die. And that one is right in the middle of the garden, we have to go around it to get anywhere, it’s always there. We’re always seeing it.

And one day we’re walking around it and we hear a voice coming from that tree, and we look up into the tree and it’s a snake, a beautiful snake with wings, and he’s like “come here I want to talk to you” and the voice is so beautiful, it sounds like music when he talks. And he tells us that our Creator God was lying when He said we would die if we ate of the fruit of that tree; that instead we would have our eyes opened, and become like God and live forever. Well, you and I put up a few arguments which he quickly addresses, and as we begin to look at the fruit of that tree it is beautiful to our eyes, it’s like eye-candy, and the more we look at it it seems that we would gain wisdom by eating it, our eyes would be opened. And so we reach out our hand and partake of that tree, and eat the fruit, and immediately our eyes are opened, yes, but they’re opened to our nakedness and shame. What a horrible aftertaste from that fruit. And now we’re desperate for clothing, we feel we cannot see God and live while we’re naked, so we run and hide and try to cover ourselves. But then we hear the worst sound in the world; we hear God walking toward us. He knows, and He said we’re going to die, He’s coming to kill us.

And we’re here tonight going “no way, that wasn’t us, that was Adam and Eve” why are you connecting us with them? Answer: because we were in Adam when he sinned. We were in his body, so to speak, we were there in that garden, in our representative, Adam. What he did in partaking of that tree he did for us and we did in him. That’s exactly what Romans 5 vs. 12 says ¹² Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” All sinned in Adam. You and I are counted as being in our father, Adam. The whole human race was there in that garden, partaking of the tree.

And notice what the results of eating from that tree was: we can see it in the middle of vs. 16:  “¹⁶ …judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation…” So here is how you and I were brought into this world: judged as guilty, condemned to death, and awaiting execution at the end of time.

It’s no wonder that we then do what our father Adam did, we have his nature. Our father’s blood runs in our veins. And so we look at that which is forbidden, and see how pleasing it is to the eyes. We’re involved in pornography and alcohol and smoking and overeating and homosexuality and drugs and gambling, because the nature that we’re born with sees beauty in it and we lust after it. We like it, pure and simple. A few weeks ago I was preaching at Grace Church down the road, and one of the members our church was there and the person she was next to reeked of smoke, so she said, “why don’t you ask for prayer, and you can be free.” To which the person replied, “I don’t want to be free.” And she was just telling the truth wasn’t she. She enjoyed the forbidden fruit because her nature was that of her father, Adam.

So here’s the truth of Romans 5: when Adam reached out his hand, and partook of that tree, we reached out our hands and partook of that tree also, and have been reaching out our hands and partaking of it ever since. And the results are judgment, condemnation and death. That’s how we’re born into this world, with that kind of a nature, and with those kinds of consequences.

And so now let’s fast forward a few thousand years from that garden, and imagine that we are in another garden. John 19:41 says, “⁴¹ At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden…” And we’re in this garden, having just sinned and been judged as guilty and condemned to death. And here come the Roman soldiers, and they lay us down on a tree, and they stretch out our arms and nail them into the wood, then our feet, then they lift us up and hang us on that tree, where we endure the punishment for our sin, and where we receive the full wrath of God upon us, and a few hours later we’re dead.

And we’re here tonight going “no way, that wasn’t us, that was Jesus Christ.” Answer: we were in Jesus when He died. Look at Romans chapter 6 vs. 2: “we died to sin.” Vs. 6 says, “⁶our old self was crucified with him…” When Jesus died we were in his body, so to speak. We were in that garden, in our representative, Jesus Christ, the last Adam. What he did in partaking of that tree he did for us and we did in him. That’s exactly what Romans 6:6 says “⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him.” My old self died. That person that loved pornography self-gratification, and drunkenness and overeating food, he died, may he rest in pieces. The world wants to teach you and I how to “manage our addiction”, but God’s way is to crucify the addict. Paul says “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live”. And so we see that all sinned in Adam, all died in Jesus. In Adam we were alive to sin but dead to God. In Jesus we are alive to God and dead to sin.

And look at the benefits of our timely demise: Vs. 6 says so that we might be “done with the body of sin.” A person’s body before salvation is totally possessed by his sinful nature, he is controlled and dominated and overpowered by sin. After a person is saved, the body of sin has been done away with, just as Jesus’ body was put to death. Believers are no longer under the control of sin. The cross ended the triumph of sin, it destroys sin’s domination and power and reign, in the life of the believer.

How does it do that? Well here’s the picture: we’re hanging on a tree, nails in our hands and feet and we’re dead. And someone offers us a cigarette, can we smoke it? No, we’re dead. Someone offers us pornography, can we view it? No, we’re dead. The devil tempts us with our favorite sin, can we do it? Not if we’re dead. According to vs. 7 “anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” That’s why our death, in Christ is such good news, it frees us from sin’s domination.

But still that’s not all, because we died in Christ we are no longer mastered by sin. Vs. 6 says, ^“6 that we should no longer be slaves to sin.” We’ll talk about this more on Sunday when we talk about how to be free from slavery to sin. But here’s the reality: at the cross, our old nature, our old Adam died, our body of sin was done away with, and we are no longer mastered by sin. “¹⁷if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self.” This is what a Christian is–one whose old nature has died and been taken off. The conclusion, then is in vs. 2: “how then can we live in sin if our sin nature is dead?” This is why we should celebrate our death in Jesus.

But this isn’t the end of the story, Romans 6 doesn’t end in death. And so imagine, once again, we are in another garden, where Mary thought the risen Jesus was the “gardener.” We’re now in a tomb having been put to death for crimes against Deity, and the tomb is dark and sealed tight and filled with darkness and sin. It’s a tomb of death, and we’ve been in it 3 days, dead as can be. When all of a sudden the tomb is filled with light, and our bodies are filled with power, and the spirit of life comes rushing into us, and we’re raised to our feet, and we bust out of the tomb, and everything is filled with light; and we hear angels singing “alleluia” (Ok maybe not). But we turn around and look inside the tomb and there is our old self, lying there lifeless. There is our old nature, filled with sin and lies and cursing, and hatred, and evil desires and greed and lust and rage. There lies all our sin and all our guilt and all our shame. And we turn back around and see Jesus. And we never want to see anything else but Jesus. And now it’s our greatest joy to fix our eyes on Jesus, to set the Lord always before us, to see Him face to face, the Lover and the loved.

Look at vs. 5: ⁵ If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. Look at vs. 8: “⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” All believers were united with Jesus in His death as He died to pay for our sin, and we were united with Him in His resurrection as He rose for our justification.

And what kind of a life do we live now? Look at the end of vs. 4: “^4…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” The resurrection of Christ provides the believer with power to live differently. Christianity is not about doing better, trying harder, it is about becoming new (changed, altered, transformed). Listen to Isaiah 57:10: “¹⁰ You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found new life for your strength, and so you did not faint.” Remember when the Israelites were slaves in Babylon, and God released them, listen to what Ezra says and see if this doesn’t match your story exactly: “⁹ Though we were slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins…” Ezra 9:9 The disciples in the New Testament were commanded by God in Acts 5:20: ²⁰ “Go, stand in the temple courts,” “and tell the people the full message of this new life.” Acts 5:20

And this is a new life where we cannot be mastered by sin again, it’s a new life. In fact, we cannot be mastered by sin again anymore than Jesus could be mastered by death again. Look at vs. 9: “⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.”

See what Paul is doing? He is comparing us and sin to Christ and death. Read these verses like this: vs. 9: “For we know that since we were raised from the dead in Christ, we cannot live in sin again, sin no longer has mastery over us.” Jesus can no longer be mastered by death, He broke the chains of death; the believer can no more be mastered by sin for our chains were broken.

So here’s the big question of the weekend. If as a believer, I have no sinful nature, if my body of sin has died, if I am no longer a slave of sin; if I’ve been raised with Christ and am alive to God, and can no longer be mastered by sin anymore than Jesus could mastered by death again; why do I still sin? I mean most Christians today cannot feel in their hearts or honestly be able to say “I have been crucified with Christ.” They could believe it positionally, but they don’t experience it practically. Whereas Paul said the believer has crucified the flesh, most Christians gratify the flesh. Why is this? And what will it take for that experience of dying with Christ and living with Christ to be a reality in my life. Well one answer is that maybe I’m not really a believer, maybe I’m deceived. 1 Corinthians 6 says, “⁹ Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” There is a possibility of being deceived here, thinking I am a believer when in reality I’m mastered by sin.

Or the situation might be that we really are believers, but that we do not understand or do the three following things. And these three things are so important that they would entirely free us from habitual sin if we did them. If we did these three things we would experience the crucifixion of Christ and be united with Him in His resurrection. Here they are:

#1: Vs. 11: “¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” In the same way that Jesus died to sin on the cross, count yourself dead to sin in your life. Believe it to be true, recon it as a fact. Because look how that would play out in our lives: we’re hit with a powerful temptation to view pornography, and we instantly remember that we are dead to sin and alive to God so we immediately go to God and have a talk with Him, and all that temptation did was serve to make us more intimate with our Father. We’re hit with the urge to smoke but dead people can’t smoke. We’re hit with a temptation to eat everything on the menu at Bob Evans, but we believe that we are nailed to a cross and buried in a tomb and therefore cannot sin by overeating. This is how to experience the reality of the cross.

#2: Vs. 12: ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” You have a choice. Unbelievers don’t have a choice, Christians have a choice and we’re commanded not to let sin reign over us, because we died to it. You know what I was like as an unbeliever? Pornography was a king sitting on a high throne, and when he demanded that I bow down and worship I obeyed those evil desires. When he commanded me to gratify my flesh I submitted and obeyed. And I had another king called Food, Philippians 3:19 describes me when it says “¹⁹ Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things”, and when this god demanded that I eat an entire pizza and follow it up with a Dairy Queen Blizzard I obeyed with my whole heart. But when I became a believer I got a new master, a new God a new King. Now we are not to let sin reign because Jesus is reigning. We’re not to let sin master us because Jesus is our Master.

#3: “¹³ Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.”

You know, Christianity begins with offering ourselves to God, presenting ourselves to Him as a sacrifice. And the Christian life continues as we offer ourselves to God as a sacrifice:                   ¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.” Romans 12:1

See I’m ashamed to tell you that even as a professing Christian, I held on to certain things and would not let go of them. I held on to pornography and sexual immorality, I held on to food as a comfort god, and I held on drinking as a way to try to drown out my problems.

I’ve found this truth right here to be the culprit in keeping many professing Christians in bondage to sin. We’re holding on to something. Well as we close this evening, I wonder if there is anything you’re holding on to. Maybe you came tonight clutching a cigarette as stress relief, or food as your comfort god, or pornography as your idol, or maybe prescription drugs as a way to control anger and mood swings, or maybe you’re holding on to something else. As long as you hold on to that thing you will not experience freedom. You won’t be able to say “I’ve been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.” So why not open up your hands and offer them and what’s in them to God.

When Jesus went to the cross He offered Himself entirely to God for us. He offered His back to be beaten, He offered His head to be crowned with thorns, He offered His beard to those who would pluck it out, He offered His hands and His feet to be pierced, and He offered His heart to be broken and pierced and poured out for us. He offered the parts of His body as instruments of righteousness. He held on to nothing.

God tells us to offer everything up to Him; maybe tonight is the first time you’ve seen that you are to relinquish control and make a whole offering to God, your entire self. I’m going to invite you right now, that if you’ve been holding on to something but you want to make a whole offering to God, to just stand up and confess to God what you are offering to Him and we’re going to pray for you to be free. Now before you do, I want to remind us of James 5:16 which says “¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” The Bible tell us to confess our sins to each other and pray for each other. So here’s an opportunity to do as I just did and confess what we’ve been holding on to and what we’re now offering to God, and we’ll pray. Who’s first?

The gospel of Jesus Christ instructs us in the way of freedom! In the next 3 posts I am going to point out what we learn from the gospel as to how to be free from sin.

The first point comes from Isaiah chapter 53. This “Old Testament gospel,” written 700 years B.C., is a clear portrayal of the sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.

Isaiah 53:4-8 (NIV)

4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

And so imagine this “suffering servant” (Isaiah 52:13-15) carrying our sicknesses and sorrows up Golgotha’s hill (verse 4), and there they laid Him down on a tree, where they “pierced” His hands and feet, “for our transgressions”. Then God the Father laid our sins on Him and He was “crushed for our iniquities” (verse 5). And then they lifted that cross up and dropped in into its socket, and Jesus hung there on the cross taking our punishment upon Himself, so that we might be healed of our sins by His wounds (verse 5). This is the gospel, that Jesus took our place, carried our sins, received our punishment, removed our guilt and our shame, and gave us abundant and eternal life. And if you have never believed this gospel, maybe today is the day. Maybe now is the appointed time for you  to put up the white flag of surrender, and call out to Jesus to save you. If you will right now believe in your heart, and confess Christ with your mouth you will be saved.

Well, we see Him there on the cross, and as this passage culminates toward Jesus’ death in our place, one particular phrase becomes important for our first point on how to be free from sin. Verse 8 tells us that Jesus Christ was “cut off from the land of the living.” So look at the extreme manner in which God dealt with sin. God placed our sin on His Son and then God “cut Him off”, His own Son. Like a surgeon dealing with a gangrened limb, God radically amputated His Son and “cut Him off” from the land of the living. For you, and for me.

And you know what? The same manner in which God dealt with sin at the cross is how He commands us to deal with sin in our lives. In Matthew chapter 5 we see that this same radical terminology is used when we come to dealing with sin in the New Testament.

Matthew 5:29-30:

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Again, we have placed before us a radical manner of dealing with sin. Quite the opposite of the “cut back” method, Scripture teaches the “cut off” method, teaching us to deal with sin as radically as God did. The first biblical principle to finding freedom is radical amputation.

Now we know that Jesus Christ was not talking in a literal, physical sense in this passage. He’s not teaching us to dismember our bodies. What Jesus is saying is that, if we find we are in bondage to habitual sin, we need to completely remove access to it, so that we can’t “see” it (the eye), and we can’t get to it (the hand). Isn’t it interesting that Jesus used the analogy of the eye and the hand, the very things that people use in pornography and self-gratification, or in gambling and drinking, etc. We see it, we want it, and we go get it.

When I first came to understand this principle I began taking the TV out of my hotel room when I went on layovers, because that is where I was accessing pornography. I can still remember the first time I unhooked and unplugged the TV and walked out the door of my hotel room with it. As I was walking down the hall, a housekeeper walked by me on the other side of the hallway, and stared at me with a very quizzical look on her face (as did my co-pilot when I knocked on his door and asked him to keep the TV in his room for the night). These experiences were embarrassing. But my pastor told me that, if I were not willing to be embarrassed, I would never be free. Other people have given away their computers or cell phones, destroyed their video club memberships, cut the cable on their TV, etc.

Now it is about this time that we get objections that goes like this: “Wait a minute, this all sounds so radical and extreme. I thought that, as Christians, we are to be “moderate;” that is, that we are to live life in a reasonable way.” To which I respond with this question: “isn’t it reasonable to be radical in destroying that which will destroy you?” Jesus was clear that we are to do “whatever it takes” to remove all access to that which is causing us to fall.

Now, we are not talking about tearing ourselves away from society and going to live in caves. We don’t believe that all technology is bad, TV is sinful, and the Internet is the Beast of Revelation 17. No. What Jesus is saying is if we are in bondage to sin, and we are getting access to areas that tempt us, then those areas must be cut off.

To illustrate this truth, John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist church was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December of 2005. He wrote this at the end of December: “Before going with my wife, Noël, to consult in person with the doctor about treatment options, we prayed about it with our staff. Noël and I believe that I should pursue the treatment called radical prostatectomy, which means the surgical removal of the prostate. We would ask you to pray that the surgery would remove all cancer and that I would be free from side effects.”

Imagine John Piper talking with the doctor and saying, “Yes, doctor, we have examined our treatment options and have elected for the surgery. However, we don’t really want the “radical” prostatectomy, we just want to remove some of the prostate for now. We want to have a “reasonable prostatectomy.” The doctor would say, “John, if you leave any cancer in you, it will kill you.”

Our first biblical principle to finding freedom is radical amputation. Do you have anything in your life right now that needs to be cut off?

We’re talking about gospel freedom, and in our last blog we talked about radical amputation. This post is called Radical Appropriation taken from John, chapter 6. Let us review verses 50 to 57:

John 6:54-57 (NIV) 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.

Now at first glance this sounds just as strange as cutting off your hand or plucking out your eye. I mean, are we really supposed to take a bite out of Jesus’ arm or gnaw on His flesh somehow? His body is not even here, how do we do that? Again, we have to know that Jesus was not speaking literally, He was speaking spiritually, inviting us to be nourished at the cross.

Maybe you remember the account of the Passover. The Israelites were to sacrifice a lamb, put the blood on their doors, and when the destroying angel saw the blood he would Passover their homes, and they would be saved, and delivered from slavery. But they were also told to eat that Passover lamb. So that lamb was not only their salvation but also their satisfaction. We, too, are saved from slavery by the Lamb of God, in order to be satisfied in our Savior, to feast upon Him.

I want to give you a short list of how we can feed on Jesus’ body and blood. The first way is to meditate on the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the benefits that we get from it. For instance, meditate on the reality that we are forgiven of all sin, we are reconciled to God, we are redeemed, rescued, and delivered from slavery, we are set free from deception and bondage through the cross, we’re free from sin’s guilt and punishment through the cross, our shame is removed, and we have escaped God’s wrath at the cross. As we meditate on these things our souls are nourished in the truth, our hearts are healed, and we’re filled up and satisfied in Jesus.

We learn to feed on Christ not only through meditation on the cross but through in-depth Bible study, going to church, listening to sermons on the radio, podcasts on the Internet, through singing and fellowship. This is taking in large quantities of Christ, just like God tells us to do in Psalm 81 when He says “Open wide your mouth and I will it.”  The picture is of baby birds in a nest when momma bird comes along with a worm, and they all open wide their mouths, because they are eager to receive what momma bird has for them. David says in Psalm 119 “I open my mouth and pant, longing for your word.” Job who says in Job 23:12 “I treasure the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.” That’s radical appropriation.

When we consider this truth, we can understand why it is so important to our freedom. We have just cut off and totally removed all access to that with which we previously spent an inordinate amount of time and thought and energy. Nature abhors a vacuum, and we are now open and susceptible to other addictions, or to returning to previous sin patterns. And so we must replace and refill the void with Jesus and His Word.

There is a very scary reminder of the dangers of not radically appropriating Jesus Christ. The story is found in Luke chapter 11, verses 24:27:

Luke 11:24-27 (NIV) 24 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” 27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.”

We find here that the man in the passage had cleaned out his house, taken all the trash out and washed his floors, he got “clean” yet he was “empty.” And because of this “empty” condition, he was open to all kinds of evil, and his condition in the end was worse than the beginning. There is an easy way to remember this passage by thinking of it mathematically. Here is the mathematical equation: subtraction without addition equals multiplication. You subtract habitual sin from your life, but don’t add Jesus and His Word, your life will be multiplied with numerous problems.

The first biblical principle to finding freedom is radical amputation.  The second is radical appropriation. Next blog post will be radical accountability.