Good morning again, what a great hope that is. When we've been there 10,000 years, we'll have no less time to sing than when we begun. Some of you may not have been here last week, but we mentioned last week that we are having our Bible conference, our third Bible conference, I would say annually, but we seem to skip a few years in between each one. Maybe soon here we'll get to where we do this every year. But we're having our Bible conference and it'll be November 1st, November 2nd. It's the first Saturday and Sunday of the month of November. And Smedley Yates, a fellow student from the Master's Seminary who pastors up in the Phoenix area, he will be our speaker. And he's speaking on heaven and hell. I talked to Smedley, I think it was last week, went to school with Smedley, worked together with Smedley in the guard shack at the Masters University, and it's the first time I talked to Smedley in probably 25 years. So anyways, talking to him about heaven, he made a point when we were talking about heaven, he says, you know, Dale, it'll be no time at all when we're in heaven when we have lived so much longer than we've already lived here on this earth. Our time on this earth is such a blip, such a blip contained eternity, and yet all of our focus, all of our attention is on the temporal, is on this life. If only by the grace of God we could have a faith that really gives substance to the eternal hope of heaven and all that that is going to be like. Paul gives us an opportunity to take time and to focus on the eternal this morning in our study of Romans chapter 8. So I want to encourage you to take your Bibles and open them up to Romans chapter 8. And I'm going to begin my reading in verse 5 and then read through verse 13. But our focus this morning is going to be on verse 11. So if you find the book of Romans in your Bibles, turn to chapter eight, and follow along with me as I read verses five through 13, and then in our message, we're gonna circle back to verse number 11. Romans 5, verse 8, For those who according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the Spirit is life and peace. Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The title of this morning's message is The Bodily Resurrection Unto Life, The Believer's Great Motivating Hope. The Bodily Resurrection Unto Life, The Believer's Great Motivating Hope. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Great God Almighty, we praise you that you're an omnipotent God, that you're an omniscient God, that you're an omnipresent God. We praise you that you're an eternal God. We praise you, Father, that you begin to reveal to our minds somewhat of the greatness and the grandeur of who you are. We recognize, Father, that finite minds can never fully understand and can never fully comprehend the eternal. You are eternal in all of your ways, all of your attributes, all of your attributes in and of themselves are really incomprehensible to us finite yet sinful human beings. In the eternality of all these attributes, certainly, Lord, We will never exhaust an understanding of the eternality of all who you are in this life. In all reality, Father, in all eternity, we will never completely exhaust our understanding of who you are. Lord, what an encouraging thing it is to know that eternal life is to know you. and that you begin to reveal yourself to us in the here and now so that we can begin to experience the quality aspect, the qualitative aspect of eternal life. Lord, every time a child of yours comes to a greater understanding of yours, it is a thrill that is indescribable. We will spend all eternity constantly going from one thrill to another of an understanding of who you are, constantly experiencing one great, eternal, incomprehensible, indescribable joy after another. This is our future. For those of us who have trusted Jesus Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection is the only means for the forgiveness of our sins. And we've trusted in the righteousness of Jesus Christ to be made right with you. For us, Lord, this is our hope. This is our reality. This is our future. And everything, Lord, outside of it in this world is temporal. One day this world will be changed. One day this temporal world will be changed, this temporal world that is under the curse of sin will be changed. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. A new heavens and a new earth, somewhat like this, but so much greater. Lord, for all of those who are your children, we will live in that new heavens and we will live in that new earth with glorified bodies forever and ever. This is our hope, Lord. It is a living hope. We praise you, Father, that there is nothing that can diminish this hope. We praise you, Father, that you are reserving this great hope for us. And we praise you, Father, that you are protecting us until the day that we will receive this hope. We understand that you are protecting us through our faith. You are using our faith to protect us unto the day when our hope becomes a reality in our lives. And we realize, Father, that we must go through suffering and difficulties on this life in order for that faith to be protected, in order for that faith, Lord, to be what it needs to be to keep us, Lord, to keep us unto eternal salvation. So Father, we come before you and we know in our hearts of hearts to praise you and to thank you for all things. Give thanks in all things for this is God's will for us who are in Christ Jesus. We pray, Father, that this morning's message, we pray, Lord, that every message on every Sunday morning would be food for the spirit to use to continue to cause our faith to grow strong. Oh God, this morning we pray that you would help our faith grow strong, that we might live victoriously in this sin-cursed world until our faith becomes sight. Oh, what a day we long for, Almighty God. In Christ's holy name, amen. If you look at the title, you listen to the title, A Bodily Resurrection Unto Life, The Believer's Great Motivating Hope, you might think that we're departing from what we have been studying about in Romans chapter eight. Because in Romans chapter eight, we have been looking at the different assurances that those who are justified by faith have that will help them become conquerors who overwhelmingly conquer. And every one of our title messages through this section, through this section of Romans, Romans chapter eight has begun with assurance, number one. The Christian will never be condemned. And we're currently looking at search number two. Christians will live Holy Spirit produced righteousness. Christians will live Holy Spirit produced righteousness. And so here we are right in the middle of that assurance, right in the middle of that study, and I decide to change the title of our message. If you remember last week as we are looking at how it is that we can be motivated to live Holy Spirit produced lives of righteousness, we looked at three thoughts to meditate upon. Last week we looked at the first two. First of all, we need to meditate on our changed past. We need to meditate on the reality that we have gone from being in the flesh to being in the Spirit. Meditate on your changed past. You've gone from being in the flesh to being in the spirit. We also looked at the second thought to meditate upon, which was our established present. We are given a spirit unto life. Literally, Paul says, we are given a spirit of life. And later on in the message, we're gonna review a little bit about what that means. But for now, just realize that you're to meditate on your changed past. You've gone from being in the flesh to being in the spirit, and you're to meditate on your established present. Your spirit has life. And then the third thought that we are to meditate was on the assurance of our future. And the assurance of our future is a resurrected, glorified body. That's what we're seeing here in verse 11. Let me read verse 11 again for you. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Understanding the assured certainty of receiving a resurrected body is an inseparable part of Paul's motivation to live out Holy Spirit-produced righteousness. John tells us in Revelation 19, 7-8, that the day is coming when our resurrected bodies will be clothed with fine linen, bright and clean, because such clothing is a metaphorical reminder of the righteous deeds that we have lived as saints. The promise of a future resurrected body is strongly connected to the believer's motivation to live the Holy Spirit-produced righteousness. The undeniable reality of our bodies being resurrected from the grave and transformed into a glorious resurrected body of life is such an amazing and astounding reality for the believer that I thought it was worthy to have a title all of its own. And so that's why our title today has moved away from talking about the assurances we had, and our title is focusing primarily on the reality, the assurance of us receiving a bodily resurrection. And it is a bodily resurrection unto life. As I looked back over the message this morning, I broke it up into at least two parts, and it may be broken up into three parts. And so we're gonna be focusing on the bodily resurrection for at least three messages. But this morning I want us to begin by considering the scriptural teaching on the bodily resurrection. I want to introduce Paul's thought here in Romans chapter 8 verse 11 by looking at just a sampling of what the Bible teaches about the bodily resurrection. The Bible has so much to teach about the bodily resurrection. And we believe that all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching and for correction and for training in righteousness and for reproof, that we might be adequately equipped for every good work, and yet we don't spend enough time studying, contemplating, meditating on the eternal life, on the bodily resurrection. Isaiah speaks of the bodily resurrection in Isaiah 26, verse 19. Your dead will live. Their corpses will rise. God says your dead will live. God says their corpses will rise. You will lie in the dust and awake and shout for joy. For your due is as the due of the dawn and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits. The earth is going to give birth to resurrected, glorified bodies. As we will see this morning, for the believer, it is a resurrected, glorified body unto life. Go back with me to Job, Job chapter 19. Turn back in your Bibles to the book of Job. The book of Job, chapter 19, verse 7. Job writes, behold, I cry, violence, but I get no answer. I shout for help, but there is no justice. He's walled up my way so that I cannot pass. He has put darkness on my paths. He has stripped my honor from me and removed the crown from my head. He breaks me down on every side and I am gone. He has uprooted my hope like a tree. He also has kindled His anger against me and considered me as an enemy. His troops come together and build up their way against me and camp around my tent. He has removed my brothers far from me, and my acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have failed, and my ultimate friends, my intimate friends have forgotten me. Those who live in my house and my maids consider me a stranger. I'm a foreigner in their sight. I call to my servant, but he does not answer. I've implored him with my mouth. My breath is offensive to my wife, and I am loathsome to my own brothers. Even young children despise me and rise up. They speak against me. All my associates abhor me, and those I love have turned against me. My bone clings to my skin and my flesh, and I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. Pity me, pity me, O my friends, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh? What misery! What suffering, unspeakable misery and suffering Job went through. We know that very few live on this earth with such suffering. But look at where he turns his eyes to even in the midst of his suffering. Verse 23, Oh that my words were written, oh that they were inscribed in a book, that with an iron stylus and lead they are engraved in the rock forever. This is what He wants to be known for. This is what He wants etched in stone. This is what He wants people to remember of Him. As for me, I know my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I will see God, whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see, and not another. My heart faints within me. Even after my flesh is destroyed, even after my body is laid in the grave and deteriorated and decayed and there's nothing there, yet he knows that from his flesh he will see God. Why does he know that? Because he, even Job, believed in a bodily resurrection. Even Job knew that after he laid in the grave and he turned to dust, yet with his eyes, He would look upon God. You see how the reality of the resurrection is what took him through the temporalness of all the suffering that he went through. The hope of the body resurrection is a motivation against sexual immorality. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. Verse 14. Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Oh, don't look quickly past that last phrase. He's going to raise us up through His power. Do you believe in the Word of God this morning? Sometime in the message I was going to mention, and I mentioned it in our opening thoughts this morning, but we need to think about Hebrews 11 verse 1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. We've talked about this before, but that word assurance means substance. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. The reality of the hope of the bodily resurrection, our faith will make that substance, will give substance to it. Like this pulpit, like the chair, like the things you see, like the things you taste, like the things you touch, your faith can give substance to the hope of the reality of a bodily resurrection. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And when we're talking about the conviction of things not seen, we're not talking about, okay, I don't see my wife now, she's over in the nursery, therefore I have conviction she's over there. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about something we've never ever seen. I have a conviction that it is there. My faith gives a conviction. And what does that word conviction really mean? Evidence. I have evidence for things I've never seen. My faith gives me evidence that I believe in the reality of the bodily resurrection. The reality of the bodily resurrection unto life is just as much a reality as all of us sitting here this morning. It will happen. Again, verse 14, now God has not only raised the Lord, do you believe that Jesus Christ is raised? Do you believe that He's raised in bodily form? And that as Jesus Christ is eternal now, there's always one place where he's manifesting himself in his bodily resurrected form. He lives. Our Savior lives. He is alive. And it is because he is alive that we have the hope that one day we too will be resurrected with a body not unlike his body. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For he says, the two shall become one flesh. but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee immorality, every other sin that the man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. Paul understands that this body is going to go to the grave, turn into dust if the rapture doesn't happen first. He understands that it's going to become nothing, but then it's going to be glorified. Yet that doesn't give him license to continue to use this body in a way that dishonors God. No, the reality that this body is going to be resurrected in the holy and spirit mind of the apostle Paul motivates him to continue to live in sexual purity. not in sexual immorality. The reality that one day this body is going to be raised up new, a resurrected body into life, should move us and motivate us to live sexual pure lives, to live Holy Spirit produced righteousness. It should motivate that, not cause us to think we can live however we want, because one day this body will be gone. The bodily resurrection motivates perseverance in trials. Look with me in 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 13. But having the same spirit of faith, According to what is written, I believe, therefore I spoke. We also believe, therefore we also speak. Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and present us with you, for all things are for your sake, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart, but though the outer man is decaying, yet the inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us eternal weight of glory far beyond all comprehension. For we look not at things which are seen, but things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul has a faith that calls him to speak. Verse 13 again. We also believe, therefore we speak. He has a strong faith, therefore he speaks. Paul had a faith in the resurrection, so he spoke of the resurrection. Verse 14. Knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. He believed in the resurrection, therefore he preached the resurrection. Paul did so, he preached the resurrection in part for the benefit of those who listen so that they would have an abounding thanksgiving that would bring glory to God. Look at verse 15. For all things are for your sakes, we preach for your sake, so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people, so that the grace that comes through the preaching of the word of God that is spreading to more and more people might cause you to give thanks that abounds to the glory of God. He's preaching a resurrection so that they would give thanks that abounds to the glory of God. Paul spoke of the future resurrection so that there would be an attitude of gratitude during tribulation that would abound to the glory of God. Are you going through tribulation today? Are you suffering? Whatever type of suffering, physical suffering, emotional suffering, suffering at work, suffering, whatever kind of suffering you're going through, it should motivate you to give thanks to God, to the glory of God, because you know one day you're going to receive a resurrected body unto life. Now let's look at verses 16 through 18 again. Therefore, do not lose heart. Though it continues to come again and again and again, and it doesn't seem to ever go away. It just gets worse and worse and worse. Don't lose heart. Keep your eyes fixed on the ultimate. Glory of a resurrected, glorified body unto life. Don't lose heart. Even though your outer man is decaying, yet your inner man is being renewed day by day. God is using the struggle mixed with the hope of an eternal resurrection to renew you inside. He's working on your inside. He's concerned about the suffering that you're going through, but his main concern is your inside. For momentary light affliction, when you begin to focus on a resurrected, glorified body unto life in a glorified new heavens and new earth forever and ever and ever and ever, no matter how bad it is, Paul says it is momentary. It's just a blip. You can go through it for a year, for two years, for all your life on this earth. It is still just a blip. It is light compared to the glory that you're going to receive. A light affliction is producing force on eternal weight of glory far beyond all comprehension. God is using your struggles to renew your inner man and he wants to use in part of all the truths we have in scripture, part that he wants to use is the truth of the resurrected glorified body unto life. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. In this context, what's Paul talking about? What is the unseen that I'm looking at? my resurrected glorified body unto life. I fix my eye on that. And that's what gets me through the trials and the struggles of life. The bodily resurrection is meant to bring comfort. Look with me in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13. By the way, Kathy and I leave right after the service today to go to Michigan. We're gonna be gone for the next three weeks. Stephen's gonna be preaching next week, and in his message, he's gonna make reference to this chapter and these verses. So you're gonna hear this again a little bit next week as he talks about an impending crisis that's coming upon all mankind from the book of Jude. But let's look at these verses right now. We're gonna look at them now. We'll probably look at them when we come back from Michigan again. We're gonna study. the rapture, we're gonna study the resurrection, we're gonna study the glorified resurrected body unto life. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. But if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, do you believe that? Do you believe that Jesus died and rose again? Do you realize that you cannot be saved if you don't believe that Jesus died and rose again? Do you understand that that is an essential component to the gospel? You must believe that Jesus died and you must believe that God raised Him from the dead if you want to be saved of your sins. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. He's talking about our beloved ones that are in heaven right now. There's coming a day when God's going to bring them with Him. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain into the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. He's bringing the dead in Christ. He's bringing them with him. They right now are in their spirit form. They have some form of a body. We're not real clear what that body looks like, but it is not the resurrected, glorified body unto life. There's coming a day when Jesus is bringing them with Him and their bodies will raise up out of the grave first and their spirit form, whatever it is now, will be joined together with a resurrected glorified body unto life. They will be raised first and then we go on verse 17, then we who are alive and remain will be caught up with them together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we shall always be with the Lord Therefore, comfort one another with these words." We're not going to take the time. I think Stevens might do it next week. Look in 1 Corinthians 15 to say how in the twinkling of an eye, those who are living when this coming happens will be changed in a twinkling of an eye, changed into a resurrected, glorified body. There's coming a day. when the dead in Christ in the graves will have a resurrection unto life. And when that day happens, there are going to be some Christians living on this earth that did not die. That doesn't mean they miss out on the resurrected glorified bodies. Their bodies will be instantly changed. In the weeks to come, maybe even a little bit next week, when I come back, we're going to talk about the imminency of this event. There is no prophetic event that can or will precede this event. This is the next thing to happen. And this can happen at any moment. At any moment. And for those who are truly saved, for those who are true children of God, that does not strike fear in them. That does not cause them to have trepidation. For those of us who are truly children of God, because we have our eyes fixed on this day, this is comfort. This is comfort food. Look at there again in verse 18. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. And yet we don't even talk about them. When our friends are going through, I'm convicted right here, right on the spot. When I'm trying to help someone who's going through a spiritual problem, I've never gone to this and used it to comfort them. These are comforting words. We are to comfort one another when we're going through hard times. We are to comfort one another with the absolute assurance of a resurrected, glorified body unto life. This bodily resurrection is meant to instill the hope of salvation. Listen to me in John 6, verse 39. John chapter 6 verse 39, Jesus says this, this is the will of Him who sent me. Jesus Christ was all about doing the will of His Father, was He not? The will of His Father called upon Him to go to the cross and bear the sins and endure the wrath of many. And that brought such stress upon the Lord Jesus Christ that it caused Him to sweat drops of blood. And three times He asked His Father, is there another way? But He knew this was the only way. He followed the will of the Father all the way to the cross. If Jesus was willing to follow the will of the Father all the way to the cross, He will always follow the will of the Father. This is the will of Him who sent me, that all that He has given me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise Him up on the last day. This will happen. Why will this happen? Because this is the will of the Father, the unchangeable will of the eternal, faithful Father who does not change. God the Father who is truth. He says it will happen, it will happen. It is coming and Jesus Christ is going to be assured that everyone that the Father has given to Him, not only do they come to Him, but Jesus Christ Himself will raise them up on the last day. The resurrected glorified body unto life is the sole reason for life. the sole reason for life. I remember taking a course in Philippians in seminary and the professor kept talking about the eschatological mindset of the Apostle Paul and how we all had to have the eschatological mindset of the Apostle Paul. I don't know of any living human being fathered by a human father ever had more of an eschatological mindset than the Apostle Paul. Let's look at his eschatological mindset here in Philippians. Turn there with me in Philippians chapter 3. These first few verses we have read many times to emphasize that we are not made righteous by our own deeds, but by faith in Christ alone. But we've never gone on to see Paul's real, true, eschatological mind set. Philippians 3, verse 7, Paul says, But whatever things were gained in me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ. so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, and that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. He wants to understand the power of the resurrection. He wants to have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, poieneia, with the sufferings of Christ. He wants to be conformed into the death of Jesus Christ. What is the ultimate understanding of the death of Jesus Christ is being obedient to God the Father to the point of death. What is the power of the resurrection? The power of the resurrection, we see it in Hebrews chapter 12, where we see Jesus Christ, how he endured the cross. He endured the cross and he went through all the pain and the suffering, because he had his eyes fixed on the resurrection that is beyond it. That's what Paul means here when he says, I want to know Him and the power of the resurrection. The resurrection has a power to fix your eyes on the resurrection and not the trials you are going through. He wants to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. He wants to have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. He wants to suffer like Christ suffered so that through that suffering, he may more and more understand the power of the resurrection. that he may more and more understand the reality of the hope of a resurrected, glorified body unto life. We don't think that way. We don't long for suffering that we might understand the power of the resurrected body unto life. We just don't think that way. But that's how the Apostle Paul thought. That's how he lived his life. Verse 12, not that I've already obtained it or have already become perfect. but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which I was also laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind, reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call and Jesus Christ. He presses on to the upward call in Jesus Christ. What is this upward call in Jesus Christ? What is the ultimate in salvation? We see the ultimate in salvation when we come down to verse 20, and he says, for our citizenship is in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are eagerly waiting for Jesus Christ to come. Why? Who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. That is the ultimate goal. is that day when Jesus Christ is going to conform this body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory. When I come back in July, we're going to spend some time going through the Gospels, the resurrection portion of the Gospels. And I encourage you to do it until we get there. Read what John has to say about the Jesus Christ with his apostles and disciples. Read what Luke has to say about Jesus Christ talking with the two on the road to Emmaus. Get a picture in your mind of Jesus Christ. Read about what John has to say about the breakfast of fish that Jesus had with some of his apostles. Read about these things and see this man. who was crucified and butchered beyond recognition and laid in a grave and raised again. Our bodies won't be completely exactly like His, but they're going to be an awful lot like His. This is a picture of what our bodies are going to be like. This bodily resurrection unto life, it is a motivation to righteous living. It is a motivation for us to live Holy Spirit produced righteous lives. Let's go back now to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 verse 11. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Does the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwell in you. If He doesn't, then you're not a child of God. If He doesn't, then you're not right with God. If He doesn't, as we will look at next week, you too will receive a resurrected body, but it will not be a resurrected body unto life. It will be a resurrected body unto judgment. Does the Spirit of God dwell in you? Do you have the Holy Spirit within you? If you have the Holy Spirit within you, you can be guaranteed that He is going to raise up your mortal body. He will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells within you. We don't have much more time this morning, but let me just at least look at the necessity of the bodily resurrection. We are now on the third thought that we are to meditate upon. If we want to live Holy Spirit-produced righteous lives, we must meditate on this thought. Just look what Paul says next there in verse 12. So then, brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you're putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The necessity of the bodily resurrection All of humanity is born spiritually dead. Every single person fathered by man is dead in their sins and transgressions. This spiritual death affects the entirety of man, everything about man. Both his material and immaterial components have been affected by this death to the point where there is no spiritual life within any aspect of man. In such a state, no human being can properly understand the thoughts of God so as to make a proper response to them. The natural man does not understand the things of God. The natural man cannot possess even one thought that is pleasing to God. The natural man cannot perform one action, no matter how small, that would be pleasing to God. Paul begins this verse by referencing the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. This is a reference to the miraculous, supernatural, regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins His supernatural work of regeneration in the spiritually dead when He caused the spirit of the spiritually dead to be life. When we are born, we are completely dead. All of us, parts of us, all components are completely dead. But in this passage, we are seeing where the Holy Spirit has begun His supernatural work of regeneration. And He begins that supernatural work of generation in our human spirit by giving our human spirit life. This is an odd way to say that the Spirit is giving life, but it is meant to emphasize the Holy Spirit is the source of all spiritual life in the one who is spiritually dead. Remember when we looked at verse 10 before, we recognize that if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is life. Literally, that's what it says, the Spirit is life. Why does Paul say it like that? Because he wants us to understand that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, which is what we learned in verses 9 and 10, that the Holy Spirit indwells within us. With Him in us, He becomes a source of life. He has begun the supernatural work of regeneration. Now our spirits are not dead. They're more than alive. They have the Holy Spirit as a source of life, a life that will continue to grow and to grow and to grow as we continue to feed the Holy Spirit, the Word of God. Don't feed the Holy Spirit the Word of God and you're not going to experience the ultimate life that the Holy Spirit has for you. You must feed the Holy Spirit the Word of God to experience the ultimate life. Robert Haldane has said, without the presence of the Holy Spirit, we have no interest in Christ. If we don't have the Holy Spirit, we have no interest in Christ. But this miraculous supernatural regeneration is only the beginning of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the rest of the believer's earthly life, the believer will continue to experience a spiritual regeneration of enabling the believer to become more and more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. This is what I mean, that when you feed the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the Holy Spirit will take that and continue to conform you more and more into the image of Jesus Christ. He will take your spirit and continue to work out that supernatural work of regeneration. You will more and more become like Christ as you allow the Holy Spirit to feed on the Word of God that you give Him. But beyond this ongoing regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, there is yet an entirely different working out of the supernatural regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. The supernatural regenerating work of the Holy Spirit whereby He gives life to the body of the believer. We must be regenerated, we must be made new entirely. not just our spirit, but also our bodies. And there's coming the day when we receive that bodily resurrection unto life where the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that regenerated your spirit unto life is going to regenerate your body unto life. Do you find it amazing that you believe in God? Do you find it amazing that you can begin to understand God? Are you experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit within your life? I trust you are. I trust you're experiencing the work of the Spirit in your life, and if so, it should encourage you. It is an absolute guarantee that as He has done that, so He's going to raise up your body. Well, we need to understand that it is just as much a miraculous work to change our spirits as it is to raise up our bodies out of the grave. I think sometimes we fail to understand what a miracle it is that any of us believe in Jesus Christ unto salvation. We were spiritually dead, but the Holy Spirit changed us. A supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that is no less a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit than when He transforms our bodies into the likeness of Jesus Christ. With that, we're going to stop. Next week, or several weeks from today, we'll begin to look at the agents of resurrection. Let's pray. O great God in heaven, this truth grips, grips, grips my soul so much, Lord, here. I pray, Father, that your Spirit would continue to be gracious to us. Lord, it is a humiliating thing for the believer who has been shown so much grace to come to you and ask for more grace. Yet here we are, Lord, still living in this sinful body, still needing more grace. And so we pray, Father, that you'll continue to give us the grace to truly understand the absolute reality of one day receiving a resurrected body unto life. I pray, Father, that we would understand what it means to trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. In his name, amen.