All right, thank you, choir. Thank you, Eddie and ladies, for leading us in a good singing this morning. Good to be in the house of the Lord. Do you agree? Amen. Amen. It's good to see all of you here. Let me take you in here for just a minute. What a good-looking group this morning. A beautiful day to be out and worship the Lord. So let's take our Bibles together and turn please to Romans 8. We're going to find God's message for us today in Romans 8. So good to see you here. And great job, choir. Great job. The song you sang, Yahweh, I was looking at the expressions, and I often do, and in fact, I always do, that sometimes it just seems like you're singing from your toenails right up to the top of your head. And that's the way you were on Yahweh. It's a wonderful song, and you did it so very well. Thank you so much. Romans 8, and we're going to begin reading in verse number 1. Romans 8, verse 1. If you have not been with us here recently, we're making our way through the book of Romans, and we'll take a break every now and then, but we're coming back to it this morning. and looking again at this marvelous, grand, glorious 8th chapter of Romans. Now verse 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Now verse 8, "'So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And then verse 11 will be our last verse. Look at it carefully. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." There's so much rich truth here in this 8th chapter, and even in these first 11 verses. Let's thank God for what He's shown us. Would you bow with me? Lord, we do bow before You. We recognize You as the Sovereign God of heaven and earth. And also we recognize You, and gladly so, as our Heavenly Father. Through Christ we know You as Father. We know Christ as our Lord and Savior. And it's all because of Your Spirit and Your work in our hearts. Thank You so much. During this season we call Thanksgiving that we as Your people are most grateful because of what You've done for us that You have not done for everybody else. We look around us, we see so many that are just kind of going through life with no purpose, going through life with a heavy weight upon them, and yet we are saved out from among other people. Your grace has brought us out. Call us forth to be Your children. And here we are this morning, and we're so grateful, and we want to tell you that. We want to show that by the way we live, by the way we worship. So help us, Father, to be grateful and reflect Your grace in our lives, We pray that as we leave this building in just a few minutes from now, that our lives would reflect Your glory. That people will know we've spent time with You, and we've been in Your Word, and we've sung Your songs. And we're changed people, not just because of an hour on Sunday morning, or two or three hours on Sunday morning, however long we are here. But Lord, that we live with You and we walk with You and Your grace is flowing through our lives into this world. May we be known as Your children and truly bring You the honor You deserve. That is our deep desire today. We also want to pray for those that are not with us for whatever reason. We know some are sick. Some, like our youth group, are traveling. We pray for them and others on the road today. Pray, Father, for those who are afflicted in some other way besides sickness. Many have problems to attend to. Various things going on in people's lives. But Lord, we know You're the answer. You're the one that supplies us all in our needs. So we look to You for them and for ourselves in this hour of need again. And thank You for being ever so faithful. In Jesus' name we pray and everyone said, Amen. I want to speak to you this morning on the subject Salvation is life changing. Now that may sound like something you don't need to hear or something you already know. But I think it's something that we take for granted or maybe we don't emphasize as we should. But this book of Romans won't let us do that. because Paul now for several chapters has been mentioning the things that we have in salvation. Now he comes to the 8th chapter, and he's kind of wrapping a lot of things up, summarizing a lot of things, and showing us that because Christ has saved us from our sins, and now we're brought into the family of God, and he's going to tell us in this 8th chapter we're headed for heaven, and we're going to be glorified one day, He's all bringing it to a point here, showing us that because of Jesus Christ and the work of the Spirit of God within us, that life for you and me and for all of God's people can never ever and will never ever be the same. This thing we call salvation, very real, a very real thing, is not just a touch-up. It's a complete makeover. It is what the Bible says, being born again. Think of that. New birth, new life, new start, and everything is new. He's already told us in Romans that we are all sinners by nature, by choice. It's the world we live in, and we're a part of it. We're born in this sin-soaked, cursed, hell-bent world. We're a part of it, but we've been redeemed out of that. We've been set free from the chains of sin and brought into this new freedom in Christ. But it doesn't mean that we're not going to have any challenges and any struggles. He's told us very clearly in chapter 6, chapter 7, that it's never going to be easy. that we struggle not only with the world around us, but we have an enemy within us we call the flesh, the old sinful nature that is still ever present. But yet, the truth is, we are not totally defeated. It seems like it sounds that way in the last few verses of chapter 7, how that Paul is crying out, as we all do, who will rescue me from the body of this death? Oh, wretched man, he says, that I am. And we all feel that way. And we know in and of ourselves, there's got to be something better than this life. And yet we know we're not what we used to be. Like it's sometimes been said, I'm not what I ought to be, and I'm certainly not what I'm going to be, but by the grace of God, I'm not what I used to be. And that's our testimony. See, the wonderful thing about the gospel, which by the way, that word gospel means good news. It's good news, not only that God loves us as we are, He sees us as we are, and loves us as we are, but this is the better news, that He doesn't leave us as we are. He takes us as we are and changes us and makes us into the people that we ought to be. Here's the way the Bible describes it in one verse. In 2 Corinthians, the fifth chapter, in the 17th verse, it says it this way. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. A new creation, we would say. He goes on to say in that verse, old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And here in this eighth chapter, Paul is gonna tell us some of those new things that happen to us when we are children of God. Christians are not just nice people, though we ought to be nice people. Can I tell you what I heard a man say this morning? Really broke my heart. And maybe you've heard a similar testimony. We stopped and got a little bite of fast food on the way in, because man does not live by Bible alone. but buy biscuits and coffee and such thing. I was talking there to the manager at this place, and I don't see him every Sunday, but I saw him today, and we were just talking, somehow a conversation came up about Thanksgiving, and he said, you know, about this time of year from now into Christmas, it seemed like people come in, and a lot of them are in the foulest mood. That's what he said, the foulest mood. I said, really? Thanksgiving, Christmas, and we kind of talked a little bit why it might be like that. Maybe it's the long lines of the shopping or trying to get this done, that done. But then he said this. He said, on Sunday, and not just this time of year, but all around the year. And then he said this, I forgot to tell you this. He told me in this little conversation we had, he's been in fast food now since he was 16 years old. He's the manager, and he's probably in his mid-50s, I'm guessing. But all those years, he said, it's always been like this, that on Sunday, on Sunday, some of the people in the foulest mood, and I thought to myself, well, I hope I'm not coming across that way. And I don't think I was. But I thought, I wonder how many church people, people that have been in church, Worshipping. So-called worship. Singing God's praises. Hearing the Word of God. And then they go into these restaurants. Not just fast food, but restaurants everywhere. And I wonder if we're giving that impression that we're just not happy. That we're just kind of out of sorts. I wonder, I just had to walk away from that conversation kind of heavy hearted. But the truth of the matter is, he's telling us here in the Bible, and not just here but all through the Bible, we're not just nice people. We should be nice people. But we're more than nice people, we're new creatures. Everything is new in Jesus Christ. What are the new things that Paul is speaking of here? I want to point out a few if I could. God is my helper, I want to try to do that. Number one, in Jesus Christ we have a new position. A new position. I'm talking about our spiritual position in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. There's our new position in Christ Jesus. We're not born that way, but when we're born again, we're that way. We're born into this world, but we're not born physically into Christ. We have to be reborn. We have to be saved. And when we're saved, we're now in Christ. Go back to chapter 6 for just a minute. Turn back if you would. Look what he says back in this passage. We've dealt with this, but I just wanted to pick up this thought. Chapter 6, verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Now I know he used the word baptism, but he's not specifically speaking there about water baptism. Water baptism is an illustration and a picture of what he's talking about here. But here he's talking specifically about this spiritual baptism that takes place when the Holy Spirit takes you and me as believers and puts us into Jesus Christ. We become united to Him, identified with Him, and really one with Him. He is in us and we're in Him. That's what he's speaking of here. Goes on to say in verse 7, therefore, we are buried with Him. by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should also walk in newness of life." Notice the connection of being in Christ, baptized into Christ spiritually, and then living or walking in a new way of life, that it all starts by being in Christ Jesus. Once we're in Christ, we'll always be in Christ. There's no in and out, none of that. Sometimes it's pictured that way. To hear some people, you think you have to get saved a thousand times to really make it to heaven. No, you're saved once. Now, it may be difficult, granted, for some people to pinpoint their salvation, the exact moment, the exact time, the exact day, the exact hour. But make no mistake about it, there must be that time, and there is that time if you're saved, where you go from being outside Christ to in Christ. The world today, as we're gathering here as a church, we're in the building, we know that. But believers are even more than in a church building, we're in Christ. Everybody that's lost, not just people outside the church building, but if they're not saved, they're not in Christ. Those who are saved are in Christ, and that makes all the difference in the world. I heard a preacher, an evangelist in fact, many years ago preach a message. and hadn't thought about it for a long time. But he brought up in this message time and again, he asked the question, are you in a blessable position? Are you in a blessable position? And his point was along these lines that I'm preaching to you right now. That is, are you in Christ or not? Are you in or out? If you're in Christ, and of course, there's where the blessing is. And if you want to get all the blessings, you have to be in Christ Jesus, a spiritual position. One of the things he mentions here in the eighth chapter is, in Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation. Outside of Christ, that's all there is, is condemnation. We're condemned already, the Bible tells us in John chapter 3 verse 36. If you're not a saved person, not in Christ, condemnation rests upon you. People could go out on a beautiful day like today, look up in the beautiful blue sky and the sun and all, but little do they realize, lost people, little do they realize that they're on death row. Spiritually, they are condemned under the curse and on their way to eternal punishment. That's a reality presented by the Word of God. But the good news is, as Christians, we're no longer in that same pitiful condition. We're now in Christ and there's no condemnation. The Bible teaches a lot of things happen when you come in Christ. You have a new position. I could show you a verse for all of these things, I'm just going to read this list to you, and just think about it as I read it. This is what it means to be in Christ. In Christ we have a life that can never be forfeited. We have a righteousness that can never be tarnished. We have a pardon that can never be reversed. We have a justification that can never be canceled. We have an acceptance that can never be questioned. We have a peace that can never be broken. We have a rest that can never be disturbed. We have a hope that can never be disappointed. We have a glory that can never be clouded. We have a love that can never be quenched. A joy that can never be interrupted. A strength that can never be exhausted. A purity that can never be defiled. We have a beauty in Christ that can never be marred. We have a wisdom that can never be baffled. An inheritance that can never be lost. A supply that can never be depleted. And a future that can never be uncertain. We have that in Christ. And our position can never be changed, never be reversed. When you're in Christ, thank God, you're sealed in. You're in. So the question is, are you in or are you out? New position in Christ, but that's only the first thing you mentioned. Second thing is this, in Christ, we have a new walk of life. Now watch this, back in chapter eight now, the end of verse one, notice this phrase, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." He's talking about believers. That's the way he describes believers of all shapes and all sizes, male, female, young, old. That's who we are. We walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Now look down at verse 4, the last of verse 4. The same language is used, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. What's he getting at here? He's saying that this is the kind of change that comes about in a Christian's life. No longer do we walk after the flesh, but we walk after the Spirit. You know, God sees two classes of people in this world. There's not three, there's not four, there's not 12, there's not 20, 40. There's two classes of people and you'll find this from cover to cover. There's the lost and there's the saved. There's the people who've been born once, the people who've been born twice. The people who are headed for hell, the people who are headed for heaven. Those who've been forgiven and those who haven't. You've just got this divide. The way it's divided here is once you're saved, you're not walking like you used to walk after the flesh, you're walking after the Spirit. Two courses of life. Now the Bible says, There's a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. That's the way of the flesh. Now when it says the way of the flesh, or walking after the flesh, it's not talking about flesh like flesh and bones, not talking about your body. It's talking about flesh in terms of sinful human nature. That's what it means. Walking after the way that we think we ought to live. Just the way we're born, And you look around, you see the way people are living. They're walking after their own selfish ways, their own selfish thoughts, their own human ideas. They're just walking the way they look around and say, well, this is what this guy does. This is what this family does. I think we'll kind of keep up with them. We don't want to be too far out in the left, too far out in the right. We just kind of stay in, go with the flow, walking according to the ways that humans walk. But once you're saved, you don't walk that way. You don't walk like the world, talk like the world, live like the world, think like the world. We'll have more to say about that in a minute, about thinking like the world. You don't do that. You walk a different way. You walk by the Spirit of God. What he's talking about here is this process we call sanctification. He's mentioned justification. That gives us our standing before God. But being sanctified is a way of life, how to live a life like Christ, or how to live a holy life. Now these two things are different, but they're not divided. They're always together. Where you have a person who's justified, that is right in the sight of God, they'll begin to live like they're right in the sight of God. Though justification is not the same as sanctification, they're always together. They're not identical, but they are inseparable. Where a person is justified, they will begin to be sanctified. That is, they'll walk a different way, they'll live a different way, and they'll live the way the Holy Spirit is leading, and not the way the old flesh used to lead, the old desires, the old ways of life. One of the things we've seen here in this 8th chapter, and you'll see it more and more, is all these references to the Holy Spirit. It's a big difference in chapter 7. In chapter 7, you read those verses again sometime, and you'll find the dominant feature or the dominant person in that chapter, Paul's talking about himself. So it's all about Paul referring to himself. And of course, he represents all of us. And it's I, me, I, me. And you know where he comes out? Failure. dismal failure, almost depression, almost despair. He comes at the end of that chapter, who will deliver me, O wretched man that I am? And why is that? It's because it's all about I, I, me, me. And when you look at yourself, don't you kind of get down? I know I do. But then you come to chapter 8, the Holy Spirit comes on the scene in this passage, and almost 20 times He's mentioned. And He is now the one guiding us, leading us, showing us which way to live and how to walk and how to go. We sometimes sing that song, I'm Resolved. And that captures what Paul's saying here. You know how that song goes, I'm resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delights. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight. I'm not walking the way I used to walk, living the way I used to live. I'm going a different way by the grace of God. So the walk here, describes our way of life, day in and day out, just who we are, living a different way by the Spirit of God. Then he comes to another blessing and another life-changing experience, and that is we have a new freedom. He describes it in verse 2, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, hath made me free from the law of sin and death. That's not only true of Paul, it's true of every child of God. Once we were bound by this principle or this law of sin and death, think of it like the law of gravity. You can't escape it. It's just a part of life on earth. And as a lost person, it's like the downward pull. The only way to overcome that downward pull, that spiritual downward trend and tendency in our life is to be saved, and then you are redeemed or set free or liberated to walk with new power, new freedom. It's kind of like this. If I were to take a baseball in my hand, and I were to throw that baseball up kind of like that, you know what would happen. That ball would go up so far, but then it would come down. But now think for a minute, if I've got a bird in my hand, and I were to throw that bird, kind of do that, release that bird, it'd be different, wouldn't it? That bird wouldn't fall back down like a rock, or like that ball, that bird would take off. And what's the difference? Because the bird has life within it. That's like you and me. That picture illustrates what you and I are like in Christ. Before, we're like the ball. We're always down. It's down, down. We're just defeated and down in the pull. But now we have the Spirit within us to energize us, and we have a freedom over this constant downward draw or pull against us called the law of sin and death. And so we have this newfound freedom. We also have new power. He mentions that in verses 3 and 4. It's along the same line, but I think yet it's still a little bit different. He says in verse 3, look at it please, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. He's talking here about God's moral law. We call it the Ten Commandments. We know we can't keep that level of morality or obey all of those in our own strength. because we don't have the strength. And so in the flesh, we were not able to keep that. So what did God do? It tells us verse three and then on into verse four, God's sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. That's Christ coming to be a man, to live among us, walk among us, and then die on the cross. It says for sin and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. That talks about his death on the cross that he took our penalty upon himself. But what was the outcome of all that? Why did he do that? Verse 4 tells us, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. That is the law that we could not keep as lost people trying to do it in our own strength. Now as saved people, we now have the energy, we now have the strength from on high, this power from on high. made possible through the Holy Spirit enabling us to do the law of God. It doesn't mean we always keep the law perfectly. We don't. We sin and we fail miserably, but not like we used to. Now we have a power within. There's a story I heard years ago that illustrates this, and you can picture this in your mind. This man was walking out in the countryside, beautiful country, and kind of opened up, just rolling hills. And he noticed off in the distance on a hill, as he was walking that direction, looked to be a man, he thought. It was pumping a well. And so he saw what he thought was a well, the handle, and a figure of a man, and just going to town on that, just pumping, pumping, pumping. He was so far off, he couldn't tell, but he was walking in that direction. And as he got closer, he realized that what he thought was a man pumping a well wasn't that at all. Because you see, it wasn't a man really, it was a wooden figure cut out like a man. And it wasn't a whale, it was actually an artesian whale. And so what he thought was a man pumping a whale was in fact an artesian whale pumping a man. Because the power was coming from within in that artesian well, the pressure coming up from that artesian well. That's a perfect illustration of what happens in the Christian life. It's not us just trying harder, trying harder, oh, I need to do this, I need to be that. It's God working in us and through us to make us what we ought to be. Now that doesn't mean we just sit back and we're passive and idle and we take the idea that God's just gonna zap us no matter what we do. Of course not, that's far into the Bible. I want to give you these verses that set the balance to this whole thing. These are verses you ought to know in your Christian life. Write this down if you would, please. Philippians 2. And verses 12 and 13, here's how it puts it. And it's exactly what Paul is saying here in Romans 8. It says this in Philippians 2.12, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now be careful, it doesn't say work for your salvation, it says work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That means in respect and reverence for God, knowing that he's the one that's put that salvation in you. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. The next verse says, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Do you see that? You work it out because it's God working it in and through you. That's what Paul's saying right here. It is the power of God that enables us to fulfill the righteousness of the law. So we have a new power. Now let's come to verse five and let me show you something else in this life-changing salvation. And it's this. In Christ, we have a new mindset. A new mindset. Let's look again at verse five. Notice the references here to the thinking or the mind. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, But they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. It's not stated, but it's implied there. They that are after the Spirit, mind the things of the Spirit. You see that, the parallel to the first part of that verse? Now verse 6, for to be carnally minded, we might say fleshly minded. That's the same train of thought he's going in. To be carnally or fleshly minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the kernel, the fleshly mind, is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You see, here again the two categories, those who are fleshly minded and those who are spiritually minded, those who think about, who ponder, who dwell upon, who reason in a human, sinful, selfish way, and those who think upon, who dwell upon, who meditate upon, who ponder, who long after thoughts that are godly and spiritual and Christian, two classes of people. So what's he saying? Before you got saved, you thought about life this way. You thought like the world thinks. You know why the world does what the world does? Because the world thinks like the world thinks. You want to know why people come into fast food restaurants bad-mouthing this and bad-mouthing that, even at Thanksgiving? Because that's the way they think on the inside. And what's down in the well will come up in the bucket. Our thoughts are pretty well known by what we say. But that's lost people. Saved people think different. Again, I was thinking about a message I heard. It's amazing what you have down, if you just blow the dust off of some of these things in your mind, it's down in there. I thought about a message I heard many, many years ago where a fella referred to the old way of thinking as STPs. You know what that stood for? Stinking thinking patterns. That's what we have as lost people. Stinking thinking. But as saved people, that changes. We think God's thoughts. Not always, but that's the tone and the direction of our life. We begin to think God's ways and not our own ways. You see, the carnal mind, the mind that thinks worldly, thinks selfishly, that leads to death. but spiritual mindedness, it leads to life and peace. Notice this, verse 7, this is serious business, folks, because this really maps it out, verse 7, I want to emphasize this, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. This old way of thinking is hostility toward God. God considers it enemy thinking, hostile thinking, thinking that is opposed to God. So it's not a matter of, well, that's just weakness. No, it's not weakness, it's wickedness. Do you remember King Saul? King Saul in the Old Testament. Many of us are familiar with that story. In fact, most of us probably are. You think back to King Saul. If King Saul would walk through one of these doors and come into our congregation, and everybody's seated, and we see this upstanding, debonair, impressive-looking person, he would be head and shoulders probably above anybody in the building today. It's the way the Bible describes him. Oh, an impressive kind of looking guy. And he was their king. But you know the problem with Saul? He was lost. He didn't know God. And it showed up. Because on occasion, God told him to do something and laid it out very clear, very plain. But instead of doing it God's way, he did it his way. Well, as God would have it, he sent Samuel, the prophet, to confront him. And here's what we find in that confrontation. Listen to what he said. 1 Samuel 15, verse 23. Samuel's words to Saul on behalf of God. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. You know, the problem with the fleshly mind is that it's not subjected to God. It wants its way instead of God's way. That's precisely what Saul's problem was. Look, if you will, in verse 8. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Enmity against God. Enmity, not subject, it says in verse 7, to the law of God. Cannot please God. This is a picture of a lost person. And so people today, thinking as they think, doing as they do, they're not pleasing to God in no way. Even their thoughts are abomination and hostile toward God because they're thinking their way when they should be thinking God's way. no conscious thought or regard or any kind of respect to what God says in His Word. Don't even care what the Bible says. They want to do it their way. And they say, well, that's not all that bad because I'm not a murderer, I'm not a this, I'm not a that. Listen, if you take God's thoughts and you reject those and you prefer your own thoughts instead of God's thoughts, God says, you're hostile to me. You're in hostility, you're in open rebellion towards me. And I just read you the verse, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, stubbornness as iniquity, and idolatry. It's very, very serious business. So it is not a matter of weakness, it is a matter of wickedness. On the contrary, how do Christians live? We think spiritual thoughts because we think godly thoughts. We take this Bible as a roadmap to guide us. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. We don't take this lightly, we take it seriously. And we take it not just as an option, we take it as God's guidance, God's authority for our lives. And we try to live by it. Don't always do that, but that's our aim anyway. That's where we get our thinking from. And he's going to tell us later in Romans chapter 12, he's going to remind us of this very principle when he says this, don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is a constant process. Getting in the Word of God, what does God say? Not what I think, not what does my family think, not what does my peers think, not what does my boss think. But what does God say? And that's what I want to set my life after and set in that direction. So we have a new mindset. And then one last thing and we're done. But this is so very important. We come down now to verse nine. Verse nine says, we have a new resident. We have a new person living inside us. Who is that person? None other than the third person of the Holy Trinity. God Himself living in us. I'm going to begin reading in chapter 8 and verse 9, and I'm going to read again down through verse 11. And I want you to notice three times it says, three times in these three short verses, it reminds us that the Spirit of God is living or dwelling in us. See if you can see them as I read it. Beginning down in verse 9, but you're not in the flesh. but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." That's the first time right there. See it? Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Now verse 11, but if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, that's second time, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Three times he says, the Spirit dwells in you, dwells in you. The Spirit of God dwells in you. This word dwell is a word that's beautiful in its meaning. It has the idea of residing. And maybe the best way we can remember this, it means to take up and make something your home. to be at home somewhere, to reside somewhere. It's not just a thing living in a place, it's a person living in a home. The Holy Spirit making his home in your heart, in your soul. Now think of that, just let that soak in. This is what happens when a person becomes a Christian. The third person, you have the Father, you have the Son, and you have the Holy Spirit. The third member of the Holy Trinity comes to live inside you and make His home in you. That's phenomenal. You talk about life changing. Would it be possible, I ask you, for someone to come to your house and start living in your house? and you not know it? Not likely, is it? Some of us may live in bigger homes than others. I dare say nobody lives in a home as big as Biltmore or something like that. I mean, you can see from one end to the other, probably. You may have multi-levels, but within reason, it's not that big. But even if you have one of the bigger homes of all the people in this congregation, It's still impossible to think that somebody could come in your house and start living there day in and day out and you not know it. How much more impossible would it be to think that the third person of the Trinity could come and live inside our heart and soul and us not know it? It's impossible, isn't it? The presence of God in you dwelling in you. You think that might make some kind of difference? It would make all the difference in the world, wouldn't it? You would see, suppose somebody does come and live in your home. You see evidence of that. You say, well, I didn't get that out of the cupboard. I didn't leave that on the shelf. That wasn't there. There's somebody been here. I see signs. Thou didn't put that there. That was different. This is different. Of course, somebody living, there's gonna be some evidence. And obviously the Holy Spirit living in us, there's gonna be all kinds of evidence. And so as to not make any mistake about it, he tells us at the end of verse number nine, if any man doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he's also called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, that's who he's talking about. If any man had not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. If the Holy Spirit doesn't live in you, that simply means you're not saved. But if you are saved, He does live in you. Three times over it says, He dwells in you, dwells in you, dwells in you, comes to make His home in you. What a marvelous thought. A new resident, the person of God Himself. This is one of the blessings of the new covenant. I've been reading using the Bible guide that we give out the first of the year, and I've really enjoyed that. I encourage you to do that. In fact, mark that down as a goal for the coming year. You may not be doing it this year. Mark it down right now. Don't wait until December. Right now, make up your mind. By God's help, I'll read my Bible through next year. We'll have Bible guides waiting on you out there. This is one of the passages recently, this past week, we came across. Promises of the new covenant that is people who are saved brought into this new covenant in Christ in Ezekiel 36 27 and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in in my statutes." That's a promise of God, saying this is what He's going to do. Christ echoed that. He said the same thing, basically, in John 14, 16, and I will pray the Father, He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive. Notice that. The world cannot receive Him, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him. But you know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Did you hear that? I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And then 1 Corinthians 6 says it this way, in verse 19, what? Know ye not your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you? which you have of God, and you're not your own, for you're bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." So there it tells us that because the Holy Spirit lives within us, that transforms who we are. We're now considered temples, sanctuaries, because of the holy presence of the Lord within us. The purchase was made at Calvary. But just like a home, we're talking about your house, my house, any house. You know, when you make a purchase on a home, you don't just buy it to be buying it, you buy it because you're gonna live in it. Right? You buy a home so it can be lived in, resided in. It's a residence. And so, when God marked us out, and sent Christ to die for us and paid an infinite price to redeem us. As it says, we're bought with a price. And that price, we're told in 1 Peter, is we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. It wasn't just that God says, I want that as my property. I want this believer and this believer and this believer, my property. But it was so that he intended to live in us and dwell in us. That's life-changing. So how could we dare be the same old people and live like the rest of the old world? We can't. Salvation is life-changing. It's not just an upgrade. It's a total makeover. Now religion, that's kind of like an upgrade. That's kind of like man's attempt to improve himself. But we know religion can't change a person. It may change on the outside. Today, people come to churches and they'll want to look like this and act like that, and they know the right words to say at church, and that's religion. It can't change you on the inside. Only salvation can change you on the inside. Religion can make you act right, but salvation makes you be right. Religion is based on what we can do. Salvation is based on what God does. Religion, we know this. We all know it here sitting today. Religion is a burden that will wear you out because you're trying to do it in your own strength. But salvation is a blessing that you enjoy. I don't know who said it, but it's so true. He said it would be a great day in this world when millions of people stop enduring religion and start enjoying salvation. All the difference in the world. Let me ask you that question simple. Are you enduring religion? Or are you truly enjoying salvation? Has salvation changed your life from the inside out? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for these words in our Bible. But Lord, we pray today that You would write these words upon our heart, Lord, that You would seal these truths to our hearts and our minds, that we'll ponder and we'll think and we'll dwell upon what You've taught us here, because salvation is truly life-changing. You paid much too high a price for us just to pay lip service or tip our hat to the things we sometimes say that are important to us, and then it never really makes a difference in our life. Lord, we know that You intended something entirely different. Something that's earth-shaking, life-changing. Something that not only changes where we go when we leave this world, but it changes right here and right now. So Lord, continue to work in our hearts. And for those today who are lost, Please show them their need to be in Christ and to receive Christ by faith. We pray they'll do it today. Without delay, they'll come to Christ by faith, being willing to turn from themselves and turn from their way of thinking and their way of living and say, I want to live Your way, Lord. I want You to take control of my life and save me and forgive me. Please work in our hearts to make that happen today. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen. I pray there's a sense