What Does the Holy Spirit Do for Me? Third Person – p.4 Romans 8

What Does the Holy Spirit

Do for Me?

Third Person – p.4

Romans 8

• God is not seeking to improve us, but to transform us-to show us who he really created us to be.

• Heart-work is hard work indeed.

Romans 7:15-25 (NLT)

I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good.


So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.


But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart.


But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?


Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

• Our human nature has a moral quality.

• We are not morally neutral – we have a “bent to sinning”.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

The greatest fight we have is not around us – it is in

us.Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.


us.For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.


us.And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)


us.• Christ’s desire is to work so

deeply in our lives that the power of sin is broken and the reign of godliness is assured.

• Theologically we refer to this work of the Spirit as sanctification – the Holy Spirit is working in our lives to set us apart as holy unto God.

Be sure your mind is controlled

by the Holy SpiritThose who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.


by the Holy SpiritThe mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. (Romans 8:5-7)


by the Holy Spirit• Set your minds on things above,

not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:2)

• we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor. 10:5)


by the Holy Spirit• Do not conform any longer to the

pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)

• be made new in the attitude of your minds; (Ephesians 4:23)


by the Holy Spirit• Rather, clothe yourselves with

the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Romans 13:14)

• Be sure the Spirit stays in control of the mind.

Kill and destroy every destructive element

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (vv.13-14)


• If something is dead it no longer exists.

Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.



The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.



This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:7-10)


• Two dangers:

• The church becomes legalistic by defining the misdeeds by the standard of the group.

• The church becomes casual as the behavior patterns of the majority become the norm by which everyone judges their own spirituality.


• The process of sanctification – being made holy is a “customized” process authored by the Holy Spirit.

Follow the plan for dealing with sin

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. (v.26)

Bottom Line:

• The Holy Spirit frees me from the grip of sin.

Stop practicing sin!

• Do not imagine how evil will satisfy your thirsts or your ambitions.

Deal with your sin immediately!

• Do not minimize your sin.

• Do not maximize your sin.

• Seek the help of the Holy Spirit for your weakness!

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What Does the Holy Spirit Do for Me? Third Person – p.4 Romans 8