No Condemnation – Part 2

Let’s read verses 1-4 and we’ll go back and look at them. Paul says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…,” that’s the key phrase of Romans 8, “in Christ Jesus.” “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 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:” why? “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

In John 8, there is one of my favorite stories. It’s a story of a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. Jesus was teaching in the temple, and some of the Pharisees brought a woman. I believe that she was laid into a trap, was grabbed and apprehended, and brought to Jesus to serve their own evil purposes. They caught her in the act of adultery. I believe that they purposely designed that to grab her and to be able to bring her to Jesus. Bear with me, I’m going to make a point that illustrates the text. In the story, they brought the woman and threw her down at the feet of Jesus. They said, “Jesus, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Moses, in the law, commands that she should be stoned. What do you say?” Now, what were they trying to do? They were trying to get Jesus to do one of two things. They were trying to get Jesus to say, “Yes. She broke the law. Stone her.” They realized that Jesus had been preaching God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s love, and God’s forgiveness and that the common people would turn away from Him. They were trying to trap Him in that situation. Or, they realized that if Jesus said, “No. Don’t stone her, let her go,” that He would be speaking against the law of Moses and the Jews again would also turn against Him in large numbers. According to them, they had Him trapped. No matter which way He answered, they had Him trapped. We know better than that, right? You can’t trap the Son of God.

Jesus, stooping down, with His finger began to write in the sand, and they continued to press Him. “What do you say?” He’s writing in the sand, and He stands up and says, “Let him that has no sin among you cast the first stone.” He stooped down and began to write in the sand again. One of the great mysteries is that we don’t know what He was writing in the sand. I think the best theory or guess is that He was writing down the ten commandments and through that they were seeing their sin and began to slither out. The Bible says beginning from the eldest to the least that they all began to walk away. It’s also possible that He was actually writing down their very names and the sins that they were guilty of. It’s possible that Rabbi Hillel in the group maybe looked over, or Rabbi Shimei looked over and saw his name and some of his sins and said, “You know, I have to get to the dentist right now. I just gotta get outta here,” and he just took off. “You know, I have an urgent dental appointment,” and he’s gone. So, Jesus then looking up at this woman standing there alone says these words, “Woman, where are thine accusers? hath no man…,” and here’s the tie-in, “…condemned thee?” Now, what did she say? She said, “No man, Lord.” And then what did Jesus say? “Neither do I condemn thee,” and this is the second point, “go, and sin no more.”

I could say a lot about that story, but let me point out two things that are pertinent to our text tonight. Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn thee.” He was doing that in anticipation of His future death on the cross, that He would die for her sins and that she could be forgiven; in the context of Romans, that she could be justified or declared righteous. Romans 8:1 opens with, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” “Neither do I condemn thee.” If you were to put those in categories, the condemnation spoken of in Romans 8:1 and the condemnation that Jesus said does not exist for this woman would be our justification. Jesus looks at us, and God looks at you and says, “Neither do I condemn you.” Jesus went to the cross to die for our sins and to pay our debt. Therefore, we have no condemnation, but the second point is more pertinent to our text tonight. What did Jesus go on to tell this woman? He said, “Go and sin no more.” That’s sanctification. That’s Romans 8, verses 2-4. As a matter of fact, it’s Romans 8, most of the chapter. It starts with no condemnation and then it goes to no separation, but in between it’s how we live in sanctification.

I’ve hit it many times over these last several weeks, so I’ll try not to dwell on it, but justification is the act of God where He declares the believing sinner righteous based on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That’s your initial salvation. It’s vitally linked or totally linked to how you live your life. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved unto good works. Righteous works cannot save us, but they are the evidence that we are saved. So, justification is your standing before God, no condemnation. Sanctification is you living out your Christian life. It’s your practice. One is your position, the other is your practice. A lot of Christians don’t understand the difference, and they get the two confused. They might think that if I stumble or fall, I’m no longer saved. They might think that if I’m not really a super saint then God doesn’t love me, or I’m not righteous before God or good enough to go to heaven. So, your position is perfect. Your standing is complete. There is no condemnation. It does not change.

Justification has no degrees. You can’t be super justified. Sanctification is progressional, and it has growth. It’s a life-long process. Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you,” Romans 8:1, “But go and sin no more,” Romans 8:2-4. This is why I emphasize this because a lot of Christians, all they think about, all they know about, all they dwell on, is no condemnation, no condemnation, no condemnation. That’s great, but why have we been justified before God? So that we could live out a sanctified life, so that we can live in true godliness and true holiness. Jesus died to save us from sin not continue in sin. He didn’t say, “Neither do I condemn thee, go and do some more.” He said, “Go and sin no more.” That doesn’t mean that we go on and live in perfection, but it does mean that we grow in sanctification. What an illustration, I believe, for Romans 8:1-4.

In the section we already looked at, we saw in verse 1 that there’s no condemnation. The second blessing we have because we are in Christ, God saves sinners in Christ, is that there is a new liberation. I want you to notice in verse 2 that little word “for.” Notice verse 2 starts with a “For,” and verse 3 starts with a “For,” and verse 4 starts with a “That.” You say, “What’s significant about that?” The reason it starts with “For, For, and That” is because it is a book of logic. Based on what he said in verse 1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” There cannot be because we are “in” Christ Jesus. He is giving a second reason that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. The second reason is in verse 2, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus…,” now that “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” I believe is a reference to the Holy Spirit. “…the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free…,” Paul uses the personal pronoun “me,” so it’s about his personal experience but one that we can have as well. It “…made me free from the law of sin and death.” So, why is there no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus? Because in verse 2, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free. There is no condemnation because we are in Christ, and because we’re in Christ we have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has given us freedom or a new liberty.

What is this law of sin and death mentioned in verse 2? “…the Spirit…hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” I believe that the word law here is better to be thought of as a principle. It’s kind of like gravity. We call it the law of gravity. It includes the 10 commandments. It includes God’s moral law. The idea in Romans here is that it is kind of a principle of God’s law that brings death because it condemns us because of the weakness of our flesh. The law here is God’s law and God’s principle of law. Go back with me to chapter 7, verse 7, and I’ll show you what we’re talking about. We had it a couple of weeks ago. In Romans 7:7 Paul says, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. 8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” The law stirs up sin. The law reveals our sin, and the law brings death. That’s the principle of the law bringing death. We are going to see that when we were born again and we got the Holy Spirit, that God gave us an ability to override or to supersede the law of sin and death.

I mentioned the law of gravity. Just to find out that there is a law of gravity, you throw an object and it comes back down to the earth. If you jump off a building, you come down to the earth because of the law of gravity. There is a way that you can override the law of gravity. It’s called aerodynamics. You’ll get this great big airplane that weighs so much, (I am amazed by these huge planes that we can put hundreds of people on with jet engines and the wings and so forth) and with the displacement of air and getting enough thrust, those things can take off of the ground and can cross the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean landing safely approximately 13, 18 or even 19 hours across the world! I’ve taken a lot of 13, 14, 15, 16-hour flights one jump over the globe or over the ocean. It’s amazing. I think of it just like getting a running start and Boom jumping over the Atlantic Ocean. What you do is you defy the law of gravity by this law of aerodynamics. So, how can we have victory over the law of sin and death that wants to pull us down? The answer is the Spirit. Remember the little poem I gave you last week?

Do this and live the law commands
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better word the gospel brings
It bids me fly and give me wings.

With Jesus I’ve got the Holy Spirit, and I have wings now and can override that law of sin and death. That’s what liberates us, verse 2, from the law of sin and death. It’s called in verse 2, “…the law of the Spirit of life.” That’s just a fancy way of saying that God gives us His Holy Spirit so that we can live in the life of the Spirit.

We’re being introduced tonight to the spiritual life. God not only saved you, but He gave you the Holy Spirit. Why? So that you can live a holy life. God not only saved you, and the Holy Spirit convicted and convinced you of your need of Him, then the Holy Spirit regenerates you. The Holy Spirit takes you out of Adam, where there’s condemnation, sin and death, and the translates you into Christ where there’s no condemnation. Now, the Holy Spirit fills you, empowers you, and allows you to fly! Have you experienced that in your Christian life? We have times when we do stumble and fall, but He gives us victory over that law of sin and death by the power of the Holy Spirit. When you are saved, that’s just the beginning of the Christian life. It’s the beginning of the Christian life that is a lifelong process of sanctification, of walking in the Spirit, and as we see not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. It’s the Holy Spirit that brings us new power, new life— the law of life in Christ Jesus.

How does the Holy Spirit set us free? The answer, verses 3-4. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh…,” we found that out in Romans 7. My flesh, your flesh, is weak, speaking of our sinful Adamic nature, so God did something for us. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh…,” and why did He do that? “That…,” a logical conclusion, “…the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who…,” do what? “…walk not after the flesh,” the carnal sinful nature, “…but walk after the Spirit.” What did God do for us to sanctify us? He not only justified us by the work of His Son on the cross, but He also sanctifies us by the work of His Spirit in our hearts.

The problem is not the law. The problem is me. I am weak, and I am sinful. If you’re taking notes, I want you to write these down. I’m going to draw these from the text. We are going to see these four things that God did for us. First, God sent His own Son, verse 3. It says, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh…,” that’s the problem. The problem is not the law, the problem is my sinful weak flesh. So, God did something for us. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh…,” Paul chooses his words very carefully here. He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, but the first point is that God took action and sent His Son. For God so loved the world that He did what? He gave. Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. All we do is respond in faith and receive what God has provided. God sent His own Son into the world, His great love in sending a Son.

Secondly, verse 3, He came, “…in the likeness of sinful flesh…,” I want you to notice, as I said, how Paul carefully picked his words. “Likeness of sinful flesh,” not sinful flesh, but likeness of sinful flesh. This is not new, that’s good because if it’s new it’s not true, right? If it’s true it’s not new. What Paul is saying, “in the likeness of sinful flesh” is two very important things. He is saying that Jesus Christ became a man, that Jesus Christ became a sinless man. Don’t you ever, ever let anyone try to convince you that Jesus Christ had sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was the Holy Son of God who came into the world through the womb of a virgin. He took on humanity, but it was sinless humanity. Other than Jesus Christ, there has never been a sinless human being walk on planet earth. That’s one of the many reasons Jesus Christ is absolutely unique. He’s the only one ever born of a virgin. He’s the only one that ever lived a sinless life. He’s the only one that ever died a substitutionary death. He’s the only one that ever rose from the dead. He’s the only one sitting by the right hand of the Father, and He’s the only one coming back to set up His kingdom in power and great glory—so my vote is for Jesus Christ, not Mohammad, not Buddha, not Krishna but Jesus. He is the pure, holy sinless Son of God. Now, in every way, He was human. He was thirsty. He was tired. He wept. He laughed. He ate. He drank. He had all of humanity but was without sin. He perfectly fulfilled and kept everything in the law, and then He went to the cross and died for your sins, so God is making provision for your justification and, in His humanity in the work of the Spirit, also for your sanctification.

Why did God send His Son in sinless flesh? Here’s number three, to be a sin offering. The King James version renders that “for sin.” It’s literally, concerning sin, verse 3. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,” He came and died for us. Jesus came to deal with our sin. He came, verse 3, to “condemn sin in the flesh.” So, we have the incarnation, and we have the atonement, but these verses are actually talking about the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the Holy Spirit’s power to help us live the Christian life. The power that comes to save us is the same power that comes to sanctify us, and you can’t have one without the other, they go together.

Here’s the fourth, and that is that God “…condemned sin in the flesh.” God condemned sin in the flesh. We’re not condemned even though the law condemns us, but it has been satisfied to the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus condemned and conquered sin so that we could have justification and sanctification. As you move to verse 4, Paul now makes the application for us. He says, “That…,” so he says, “For,” reason number one; reason number two, “For,” verse 3; and then the outworking is in verse 4. In order “…that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” I mean, if you really wanted to simplify Romans 8, you’d just write down the word Spirit or Holy Spirit. Romans 6, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?…that like as Christ was raised up from the dead…,” we rose with Him. We have to believe that, reckon that to be so, and then yield our members as instruments of righteousness. Romans 7, Paul says, “The things I want to do, I don’t do. The things I don’t want to do, I do. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of sin and death?” The answer is, the Holy Spirit. Amen?

The Christian life is impossible to live apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. If you think that you can live the Christian life by your own strength and your own ability, you’re greatly deceived. I remember growing up in church and looking at Christians thinking, “I can never do that. I could never be one of them. I’m not good. I’m not holy. I’m not nice. I don’t glow like they do. They’re just good people, I’m a bad people. They’re good people, I’m a sinner.” Then I came to realize when I repented and believed in Jesus Christ that He actually not only forgave my sins but gave me the power of the Holy Spirit in order that I could yield to the Holy Spirit and I wouldn’t have to fulfill the deeds or the lusts of the flesh but that I could walk in the Spirit and find victory.

Billy Graham, in his excellent book on the Holy Spirit, (by the way, I don’t often recommend books when I’m preaching, but I recommend this book. I’ve read a lot of books on the Holy Spirit, and I think for an entry level and easy read, it’s the most complete, thorough, great, wonderful, excellent…he dots all his I’s and crosses all his T’s from A to Z. Believe it or not, Billy Graham has written some great books, and this is a great book. It’s just called The Holy Spirit. Get the book by Billy Graham called The Holy Spirit. Read it from cover to cover, and it’ll blow you away.) says this, “Man has two great spiritual needs, one is for forgiveness and the other is for goodness. Conscientiously or unconscientiously, his inner being longs for both. There are times when man actually cries for them, even though in his restlessness, confusion, loneliness, fear and pressures, he may not even know what he is crying for.” Billy Graham says that man is looking for two things. He is looking for forgiveness and goodness. I would propose to you that that’s what God has provided for us in the cross of Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. He has provided both a goodness and a forgiveness.

A lot of Christians don’t experience that. They experience forgiveness. “Oh, God’s forgiven my life. Isn’t that wonderful?” But, God also wants to set you free. Another illustration from the book of John was when Lazarus was risen from the dead. Remember when Jesus said to Lazarus, “Come forth.” He that had been dead came out of the grave. Remember that? A dead dude. It rhymes, doesn’t it? The dead dude, Lazarus. “Lazarus, come forth.” Someone said if He hadn’t specified Lazarus, the whole graveyard would’ve emptied. I like that. “Lazarus, right now. We’ll get the rest of you later. Come on out, Lazarus.” And, he came out. When he came out, he was still wearing what? The grave clothes, and what did Jesus say? He said, “Loose him and let him free. Untie him.” How do you think it would’ve been for the next several months or years if Lazarus would’ve just cruised around with his grave clothes on, dirty old grave cloths. Take ‘em off, you’ve got life now. There are a lot of Christians that have come out of the grave and been saved, but they’re walking around with the grave clothes of their old life. They haven’t left the past behind. The Bible says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a…” what? A new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Not only is there no condemnation, there’s a new creation. God changes your heart, and we’re going to see that He writes His laws on the fleshly tablets of your heart. Forgiveness in Romans 8:1 through Calvary, God’s Son, leads us to goodness, Romans 8:2-4, because the Holy Spirit has come in His fulness on the day of Pentecost.

God not only wants to forgive your sin, He wants to set you free. Paul is speaking here of sanctification. Notice in verse 4 he says, “…the righteousness…,” or the righteous requirements, “…of the law…be fulfilled in us.” Whenever we take communion, this is one of the things that goes through my mind; under the law we’re condemned, but when Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood, that’s a symbol of the new covenant in Christ’s blood. In the new covenant, this is what God says, Ezekiel 36:26, “I will put my spirit in you.” In Jeremiah 31:33, the new covenant, God says, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” Isn’t that great? So, God’s laws are not written on stone that we look at, but God’s laws are now written on our very hearts by the work of His Holy Spirit. When God put His Spirit in our hearts, He writes His laws there. Holiness is not produced by my flesh. Holiness is not produced by trying to keep the law in the energy of the flesh. Paul wrote to the Galatians and said, “Having been justified by grace through faith, are you going to be made righteous by the works of the law?” The answer is no. So, how the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, verse 4, by walking after the Spirit—that is the key. You say, “Well, you should’ve just gone right there to begin with and we could all be leaving right now.” I believe that if you want to have a wonderful marriage, the key is being filled with the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars to go to a marriage counselor—just get a dose of the Ghost. Just surrender your life to the Holy Spirit’s power. This is why you should understand what it means to be indwelt with the Holy Spirit. You should understand what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You should understand what it means to walk in the Spirit, because if I walk in the Spirit, I’m not going to be fulfilling the deeds of the flesh, and if I walk in the flesh, it produces death. The key there is the Spirit-filled life. Walking after the Spirit means loving God and loving God’s Word.

Let me say a few things as we wrap this up about the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. I do not believe that you can be a Spirit-filled Christian and neglect the Word of God. When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he said, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing, building you up…,” and so forth. He went on to describe the results of the Word of Christ, the Word of God dwelling in us. In Ephesians he says, “Be filled with the Spirit.” Then, he goes on to describe the results of being Spirit filled. They are perfect parallels, Word-filled, Spirit-filled, same results. You cannot neglect your Bible and be a Spirit-filled Christian. You can’t say, “Well, I don’t read my Bible, but I’ve got the Holy Ghost. Praise God, I got the Holy Spirit. I don’t study the Bible, but I’ve got the Holy Spirit.” J. Vernon McGee said this, “The Holy Spirit has a track that it runs on like a train.” Picture a train. A train must run on a track. The track the Holy Spirit runs on is the Word of God, the Scriptures. The more the Scriptures are taken into my mind and into my life, the more I come under the influence of God’s Holy Spirit. That’s why we read and study the Bible, then we yield to God in prayer, surrender, and ask Him to fill us and empower us, and then we walk in the Spirit. We know we’ve been crucified with Christ. We believe that it is true, but now comes the yield, Romans 6, we yield to the Holy Spirit’s power.

I believe that being Spirit filled is simply being controlled by. I think we over mystify the Spirit-filled life. Do you know what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit? It means He’s controlling you. It means He controls your thoughts, your attitudes, your words and your actions. He animates you. If I had a glove, (I should’ve brought a glove tonight to illustrate this.) and I threw the glove down on the pulpit, it would just set there. It wouldn’t do anything. It couldn’t move. It couldn’t do any work. It couldn’t do anything. But, if I take the glove and slide my hand inside, I can do things with that glove. I can work with that glove. I can accomplish things with that glove because that glove is under the control of my hand. I don’t think it’s so much of getting more of the Spirit, I think it’s the Spirit getting more of you. I think it’s the Spirit filling your life by controlling your life. So, if you want to live a victorious Christian life, there’s at least two things you need to do. You need to meditate, feed on, and study the Bible, the Word of God. Then, you need to yield and surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit. Those are the dynamic duos of the Christian life—the Word of God and the Spirit of God. We used to say if you read only the Bible, you’ll dry up; if you get only the Holy Spirit, you’ll blow up; if you have both, you’ll grow up. We need both in our lives to mature us and to energize us.

I think of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit like wood, which is fuel for a fire. A fire cannot burn without fuel. The Holy Spirit wants to burn brightly in your life, so you need to fuel the Holy Spirit with the Word of God and then surrender and yield to Him. This is what it says in Ephesians 5:18, a verse every Christian should understand and study. “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess…,” that’s a command not to be drunk. The contrast, which involves a command, “…but be filled with the Spirit.” I believe that’s the Holy Spirit commanding you to be filled. In the Greek, Ephesians 5:18 is an imperative. God commands every Christian to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Not to be Spirit filled is an act of disobedience. That command is in what is called the present tense and should be rendered grammatically (it’s hard to render it this way, but this is what it says), be being filled or constantly continually be being filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s not just a one time experience. It’s a moment by moment surrendering and allowing the Holy Spirit to fill you throughout the day. If you yield in the morning, you have to yield a few hours later. If you yield in the afternoon, you have to yield that evening when you come home. When you wake up in the morning grumpy, you have to yield to the Holy Spirit. When you get irritated and frustrated, you need to set back a bit and just say, “Oh, Lord, fill me with Your Spirit.”

I remember when we had young kids and life was pretty hectic at our house. I’d come in the driveway, home from the office, and I’d stop the car and say, “Lord, I don’t know what I’m gonna find when I cross through that threshold. I don’t know what I’m going to find…what kind of day my wife had or what the condition of the house is gonna be in, or what the demands on me are gonna be.” I would just sit in the car and say, “Lord, fill me with Your Holy Spirit because I’m going in the house. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit because I’m going to have to be a husband. I might have to change a diaper, so, Lord, fill me.” It takes a real work of the Holy Spirit to change a diaper. My wife might ask me to clean up or to give one of the kids a bath, so “Fill me with Your Holy Spirit.” In Ephesians, after the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit, he tells wives to submit, husbands to love, children to obey, parents not to provoke your children to wrath, servants to obey their masters, and masters not to provoke their servants. The Holy Spirit was given not so that you could jump up high in a Holy Ghost meeting but so you could walk straight when you come through the door after work when you come home. It’s for Monday morning. It’s for the workplace. It’s for life. We need to surrender and be yielded to the Holy Spirit’s power.

Let me give you a wrap up, I believe Aaron has it for me on the screen, and I wanted you to see them. This is kind of a summary wrap up of verses 2-4 of Romans 8 in which we learn:

1.Holiness is justification’s goal. God has a reason and a purpose for saving you. That reason and goal in saving you is to make you holy. He didn’t just save you so you could continue in sin. Go and sin no more. I don’t condemn you, but go and sin no more.

2.Holiness consists in fulfilling the law’s just demands. God writes His laws on the fleshly tablets of our hearts, and we find that we delight to keep His Word and we’re able to keep His Word by the power of the Holy Spirit.

3.Holiness is the work of the Holy Spirit. You can’t do it without being filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

4.Holiness is mandatory. You got that? There’s a whole sermon contained in that statement. If you have been justified, it will result in sanctification. If you have been justified before God, it’s going to result in a life of holiness.

I realize it’s a question that becomes how holy, how quickly? Some progress in sanctification quite rapidly. Some go a lot farther than others. Have you ever met a Christian that just seemed like they were Jesus on earth? It’s like, “Do you ever sin? Do you ever lose your temper? Do you ever get mad? Man, you’re just so saintly.” Then you meet other Christians and it’s like, “Are you even saved? You sure you got born again?! You sure you got the Holy Ghost?” I realize that in the progressional stages of sanctification that we don’t all advance, but unless there is some evidence of the Spirit in your life, you have to ask yourself, “Have I truly been born again?” If there is no yearning for holiness, if there is no desire to be like Jesus, if there is no desire to say, “I want to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. I don’t want to lust like I used to. I don’t want to get drunk like I used to. I don’t want to live sexually promiscuously like I used to. I don’t want to steal anymore. I don’t want to lie anymore. I don’t want to use foul language anymore. I don’t want to do drugs anymore. God, I need Your help.” You get on your knees and say, “God, I ask You to not only forgive my sins but give me power to live a life of holiness.” Your heart longs not only to be forgiven, you long to live a good, godly and righteous life if you’re truly God’s child. Let’s pray.