Romans 8 Part 2 Holy Spirit: The Comforter, the Teacher, the Witness, and the Helper [Sermon Transcript]

Holy Spirit: The Comforter, the Teacher, the Witness, and the Helper

Preacher: Elder Jonathan Moseley

Date: September 14, 2025

📺 Watch the Full Sermon Here

---

Romans 8 is one of the most encouraging chapters in all of Scripture. It begins with the assurance that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and then unfolds the vital role of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers. In this message, Elder Jonathan Moseley explores how the Spirit dwells within us, teaches us, testifies of our adoption, strengthens us in weakness, and intercedes on our behalf—assuring us of both our present comfort and our future glory.

---

[Transcript]

Alright, so Romans chapter 8.

Remember this started with the statement, "...there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." And then from verse 2 all the way down to 27 is statements connected to the Spirit, both in the Spirit's role and in the effect in our lives.

All of these things knit together for your additional assurance that no condemnation applies to you.

So you're going to have, you know, really Romans 8 divided into two sections, alright? Your main statement there is there is no condemnation of them who walk after the Spirit, and then we're going to talk about the Spirit for most of it, and then at the end of the book, chapter 28 through 31, you're going to have a second assurance about there being no condemnation because of the grander purpose and plan of God.

Both of those link back to this statement, which is why when you get towards the end of the chapter in 34, it's going to say, who is he that condemneth? That question is asked, who could possibly condemn when, and you're going to lay out this whole wonderful, big picture of what God has done.

We won't get to the big picture today.

There's so much to talk about with the Holy Spirit.

I mean, there's 26 verses of it.

That's where we're going to be spending our time and energy this morning.

But remember, the purpose that we're looking at these is seeing what is the role of the Spirit, how is it this additional assurance that there's no condemnation, and what are the implications for us.

Because you're going to see there's going to be a truth.

Here's what God has done.

Here's how you know, because of the Holy Spirit.

And you're going to see, what do you do in response to that? Alright? That's going to be the pattern.

It's going to show up over and over again.

Alright, so I'm not going to rehash the first eight or nine verses.

We've already dealt with that last week.

So I'm going to start with verse 9, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

If so, be the Spirit of God dwell in you.

All right, so when we're talking about in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, all these things, what is the key element there is that the Holy Spirit must dwell within you.

Can you make that happen on your own? No, absolutely not.

All right, that's fundamental.

All right, it's not from your will or what you do.

All right, this is something, this is a miracle that happens from God.

His indwelling Holy Spirit comes into his children at some point in their life.

We call that new birth because something that was dead, dead in trespasses and sins, right? You had no spiritual life.

He then creates a creature within.

This is an eternal creature. who does not desire sin.

In fact, he desires to serve God, to worship God, to please God, to perform acts of righteousness.

That's what he was created for.

Well, the only reason that creature exists is because God puts His Holy Spirit within you.

Before that, you're just flesh.

You're just meat.

They that are in the flesh, verse 8, cannot please God.

It's not that they will not, it's that they lack the ability.

Knowing your limitations, just as a man in flesh, I cannot, I do not have the ability to please God.

Why? We'll go back to verse 7.

Because the carnal mind, that fleshly mind, the thing that was in your head from the moment of your conception and then birth, we come out of the womb speaking lies.

You don't have to teach a toddler to lie.

I didn't do it.

I didn't break it.

If you've got siblings, it's much harder to figure out who done it, because they're always pointing at each other, right? Who taught them to do that? That's your old sin nature, right? That's by default.

But the carnal mind is enmity against God.

That's hostility, hatred, enemies.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." So he's talking to you.

He's talking to children of God who have been born again.

He says, you're not in the flesh anymore.

That's not all you are.

The flesh does not govern you like it once did, but you're in the Spirit.

What's the kicker? If so, be the Spirit of God dwell in you.

Parentheses, now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his, right? There's other verses that talk about testing the spirits, right? Any spirit that confesses that not Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that he's not the Son of God, right? Those aren't sent from God.

Let that go.

Flee, all right? Spirit of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is going to be teaching you about Christ.

Jesus promised in John 14, you can go look it up, 14 and John 16, that he was going to go away, but he wasn't going to leave his disciples alone.

He was not going to leave them Comfortless, right? So he was going to send a comforter.

He was going to send the Holy Ghost, and that Holy Ghost was described as a spirit of truth, and he was going to teach them all things that they needed.

Well, he was going to teach them what Jesus had said.

He was going to remind them, because there's many times when he was talking to his apostles where he's teaching them, and they didn't get it.

They just didn't get it.

And so the Holy Spirit is going to be bringing it all back for them.

Here's what he said.

Here's how it applies.

He's a teacher.

But he's going to teach of Christ.

Not of anything else is going to teach of Christ.

Jesus has the name that is higher than every other name.

He's the focus.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin.

Will this body die? Yeah, absolutely.

It's like you're walking around with an expiration date.

We will die because there is sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

We have a life within us, an eternal life that's already started when you're born again, and it doesn't end because of righteousness.

Whose righteousness? Jesus is righteousness, right? And this goes all the way back to those chapters in 3, 4, 5 where it's establishing you can't do it on your own, your works aren't good enough, they never can be.

All that you do is when you put your efforts up to God's perfect standards, you see these are terrible, right? They fall so far short, and we needed a perfect righteousness, and that's what Jesus accomplished.

Because of His righteousness, He has given us the Holy Spirit, right? And we have life! Alright. but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you." All right, so are we talking about some kind of lesser tier spirit? This is the Holy Ghost, this is the Holy Spirit, this is the third person in the Trinity, the same one that here is attributed with raising up Jesus from the dead, that is what dwells within you.

Isn't that cool? I mean, that's kind of mind-blowing, all right? But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, So if that's true, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall do something else.

He shall also quicken your mortal bodies. by his spirit that dwelleth in you." So this is something the Holy Spirit will do.

He's already dwelling within you.

This is the same spirit that raised up Christ.

He is gonna wake up to cause these bodies, when they go to the grave and they go to the dust, right, to raise them up again the same way that Jesus was raised from the grave, right? Same spirit, right? Y'all excited? That's a good thing, right? He will quicken, that means to make alive something that was dead, right? So because of sin, these bodies will go to the grave, but that Holy Spirit, the same one that raised up Jesus, will quicken your bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

All right, so we're talking about the resurrection, the reality of the resurrection.

Now, because that's true, and we could go look at some other verses, and we still may, and look more about the resurrections, but because that's true, because of what Christ's done, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you, and this promise of what He will do, there's an implication for how do you then live, right? And that's kind of the pattern of it in Romans.

We're saying, what did God do? What does that mean? What's gonna come down the pipeline because of that? How do you respond now? And that's what it is in verse 12.

Therefore, brethren, all right, brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, we are debtors.

There's something owed.

There's an obligation.

We are owed not to the flesh to live after the flesh, right? When you were dead in trespasses and sins before you were born again, that was all you were, was living after the flesh.

Are you now Living in the flesh says no you're living in the spirit because the Holy Spirit dwells within you and because what Christ has done and what he's promised with a new spirit right you have an obligation to Live after the spirit right to live after the spirit rather than after the flesh What is the end result from one who just lives after the flesh all their life, what is the end result it's death right For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die.

But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of your body, ye shall live." Alright, so here's something else the Spirit is doing.

There's no condemnation, but now you're living, you are enabled, mortify means to put to death, taking the members of that sinful body, which you walk around with, and putting areas to death.

When Jesus talked about, if your right eye offends you, pluck it out.

He's not talking about literally maiming yourself.

What was the context? The context of that was a man, if you're looking on someone who's not your wife and you're lusting after, he's letting you know, Bubba Gump, you're committing adultery in your heart.

And that's just as vile and that's just as much of a sin.

And so you need to mortify that practice, make it serious of that.

I will make a covenant with my eyes that I am not going to look at someone who is not my spouse and lust after them.

What does this rule out? An entire multi-billion dollar industry, right? Pornography.

They make money because men in their hearts lust after things, and women too, but men primarily.

I think that's how we're wired, that we have a stronger urge with our visual receptions.

But, right, to make a covenant with your eyes of, I will not look upon a maid.

That's what Job said, right? To put that to death of, no, I'm not going to make a place for it.

I'm not going to have a little spot over here in my closet or under my mattress or whatever you want to think about of how I leave that in my life.

You're like, no! I know that's wrong, and because I am a debtor to the Spirit who is going to raise this body from the grave, I will live in a way that will bring Him glory.

Am I going to go to heaven because I'm trying to honor Him now? No, that's not why I'm going to heaven.

I'm going to heaven because of what Jesus did, His work, His righteousness.

But because of what He did and because He's given me a life, now I can know what He's done, and I can live in response to that. to mortify the deeds of the flesh.

That's kind of an active process.

This is not you just wipe it out once and then you have no sin again.

You go back to Romans 7 and you'll see that Paul was struggling with, in his mind, that new creature wanting to serve God, wanting to do what was righteous, wanting to do good, and yet the follow-through, how to actually do it consistently and repeatedly, He failed that, right? This is one that you'd think, well, Paul certainly, if you can figure out how to not sin, it'd be Paul, right? I mean, he devoted his whole life to teaching Jesus Christ and to allow his body to be beaten and stoned and shipwrecked, and yet he still struggled.

So what should you expect? That we're still going to struggle, but how are you able to mortify the deeds of the body? through the Spirit.

It is what strengthens you.

It's not in your own strength.

It's not in your own power.

This is why when you're struggling with a sin, go to the Lord in prayer.

Go to His Word.

Dwell with Him.

Abide closer to Him.

He will enable you.

He will give you that strength.

In every sin, it says that He gives you a door of escape.

There's a way out.

Sin is not your master anymore.

When you yield, you're yielding voluntarily.

Okay? And that's significant.

Because if you get defeated in your mind and think that, well, I just can't help it, then you'll act like you just can't help it.

But we can.

Does that mean you're going to have a perfect batting record? You know, 100%? Nope.

But you are enabled, right? So, if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live.

Are you living because you're doing those things? No.

You do those things because you're alive, because he has created you a new creature unto good works, unto his glory.

And those who are doing that, those who are struggling with it, they will live, right? It's a symptom of life. rather than a cause.

If I hear a baby crying, is that crying making that baby alive? No, but I sure know that baby's alive as long as he's crying.

New parents when that baby gets too quiet for a few weeks.

Pat, not awake, are you? Okay, that was a mistake, right? But you know that baby's alive because he's acting like a living creature, right? You're acting like a living creature of God, a new creature, a born again child of God, when you are struggling and grappling with and trying to mortify these tendencies that used to be just in control, okay? Does that make sense? All right.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, This is an implication.

To have the indwelling spirit, to be led by it means to be under its influence, to be directed by it.

If this is what's guiding you, your compass is different.

When you're dead in trespasses and sins, you've got a squirrelly, twisted, distorted compass, and it just points to whatever you want.

But when you're born again and the Holy Spirit dwells within, you now know distinctly what God wants and what's right.

Now, whether you follow it consistently is different, but you know, and so you're being led by it.

You're walking in the Spirit.

You're trying to mortify the deeds of the flesh.

You're trying to follow after Him.

You're acting like a living creature.

Well, what does that mean? Well, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, guess what? They are the sons of God.

What? Isn't that crazy? Wild? I mean, it's true.

It is a good thing.

But if you have the indwelling Holy Spirit dwelling within you, that means God has adopted you to be His child.

This is more than just a child by creation.

All people, all animals, all things are His creation.

He is the Creator.

But this is a special relationship that he has adopted you to be his son or his daughter, to be in his family, right? How do you know your family? He has already given you the Holy Spirit, right? And that Holy Spirit testifies to you that you are his children.

That's what it says down a little later.

The spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

To bear witness means to testify.

He's given something within you that says, yes, you are my child and I love you.

That's a comfort.

That's the purpose of the Holy Spirit.

And right after Jesus is coming in the role of a comforter.

Right? John 14, John 16.

You can see that.

The Spirit of truth.

Speaking of Jesus, coming to the comfort.

Comfort His people.

Okay.

Well, what does it mean if you're a son of God? Well, it's very different from when you're operating under, you're trying to establish it by your own righteousness.

Right? If you're trying to establish your works and your righteousness to be good enough to be worthy of God's love, That's terrifying, because are any of us good enough? No, all you see is the perfect standard, and you see how far short you are.

And by far short, I mean a single sin, one sin short of the perfect standard, is worthy of eternal judgment, is worthy of eternal death.

That's righteous, that is the righteous response.

It may feel harsh to us, but to a holy and perfect God, it's not.

It's holy and righteous.

And in that, you're in bondage.

You're consumed by this condemnation that there is a judgment hanging over your head because you cannot do it.

But brothers and sisters, you've been set free.

You've been liberated.

Come unto me, all you that are heavy laden, trying to establish your own righteousness.

Right? Take my yoke upon you.

This is Jesus' yoke.

This is a light burden.

This is He has carried the work.

He has done the accomplishment.

He has secured your salvation from hell and paid the price, and now you get to walk with Him in this life in comfort and assurance that His work is successful, victorious, cannot be undone, and all I have to worry about is how do I respond to that now? How do I bring Him glory now? How do I learn what pleases Him more now? It's a very light burden.

So before you had this spirit of bondage where the end result is fear.

You're fearing the condemnation.

You're fearing that there is no righteousness.

I can plead to God.

I'm going to be squished like a bug.

I'm going to be cast into hell.

That's before.

But ye have received the spirit of adoption.

That's what you, you've been adopted into God's family.

That means he particularly chose you. particularly looked at you and said, even though you're a sinner, even though you're an enemy, even though you have no right to claim my love, I am putting my love upon you and giving you to my son.

When in due time, he's going to come into this world, this sin-cursed and broken world, and he is going to redeem you from your sins, the ones that you rightfully should be cast into hell for.

He came and paid for every single one.

And he did, and he followed through.

He was obedient all the way into death.

And He put His love upon you.

The Son obeyed because of that love.

And He tells you about it.

He lets you know about this adoption by giving you that Holy Spirit, by creating you a new creature.

You get to know what great things God has done for you.

Remember that wild Gadarean who wanted to get in the ship after he had the demons cast out? He wanted to go with Jesus.

And Jesus said, Nope, you can't go.

Go back to your friends and your family and tell them what great things God has done for you.

This is the great thing that God has done for you and for every other child of God.

He has adopted you into a family whereby we cry out, Abba, Father.

Abba is a term that means father.

I think it's got a Chaldean root. but it's also associated with prayer, right? That you are calling out to a heavenly Father, but He is that, right? This is not, you know, oh, far off one who really doesn't care for me and knows about all my sins and probably doesn't really like me, but you are going and you're praying to the one who loves you and has brought you into His family so that you can go and cry out, my Father.

My God, that's not a spirit of fear of Him condemning you, right? There is therefore now no condemnation.

How do you know that? Because the Holy Spirit that dwells within you lets you know you're His child.

And by that you have the right to cry out to God, My Father! That spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, right? That new creature that's within us, it's testifying of the same thing.

You have a new spirit within you.

The Holy Spirit dwells there too.

They both testify to you. that you are a child of God, that we are children of God.

These are internal things.

I can't see the Holy Spirit dwelling within you.

I can't see the new spirit that's been created within you.

I can see the effects, like that child crying, that trying to mortify the flesh and trying to live under good words.

Yeah, I can see that, but I can't see what's going on on the inside, but you sure can experience it, right? This is the assurance and the comfort that the Father sends to you at the Son's request and sends Himself in the Holy Spirit.

Are you loved? You certainly are! Does He care about you? Absolutely! Not just back then, but He cares about you right now! Okay, so the Spirit bears witness.

It testifies with our spirit that we are children.

That's good.

Well, there's some implications.

If you're a child of God, guess what? That means you're also an heir.

An heir is one who is entitled to receive something, entitled to a possession.

Under the law, under natural heirship, you have to wait till your parent or whoever's leaving something is dead.

Is God ever gonna die? Now, He is the Eternal God, and so we're understanding this in that comparison.

Now, Jesus did lay down His life and made that will that all of His people would be with Him in glory.

He made that effective upon His death.

But we're not waiting for God to die again in order to inherit, but we have a portion that is ours by right by His adopting us into His family.

So there's something that we are entitled to by His Word.

Heirs of God.

Right? Something that God himself is giving.

And not only just heirs of God, we're joint heirs with Christ.

Right? I mean, thinking about my law school experience and learning about testimony law and it probably wouldn't be helpful so maybe not even go there but the idea that you know sometimes in a will there's different classes of people right you know if this one gets and if they're not alive and it goes down to class B and class C it's like fallbacks whatever y'all we're not like in this lower tier class We're in the same class as Christ.

Does that mean the same inheritance? I don't think so.

I think all things are Christ's, but we are there with him.

He is not ashamed.

This is the God of the universe.

Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call you brother or sister.

Whoa! You're like, I know me.

Yeah, he knows you too.

He paid for that.

All of it, and he's not a shamed God.

You have an inheritance with him.

This is a wonderful thing.

I was reading in my, you know, try to read a psalm a day in addition to my other reading.

I was reading about the wicked and about their portion.

And to me, it just really seems sad.

So I'm gonna try and find it real quick.

It's in psalm.

It's in Psalm 17.

All right, the wicked they oppress me.

So he's asking for help, keep me.

From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies who compass me about.

They are enclosed in their own fat.

With their mouth, they speak proudly." So they have way more in worldliness than they need.

Their mouths are very pride.

They've compassed us in our steps.

They've set their eyes bowing down to the earth like as a lion that's greedy of his play.

He's like, they have surrounded me like I'm in the midst of a pack of lions, and they're hunched over ready to spring.

That's your visual in the word picture.

Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down, deliver my soul from the wicked.

Which is thy sword? The Lord, you can deliver me from them.

Here it is. from men which are thy hand, O Lord, from the men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure.

They are full of children and leave the rest of their substance under their babes." It's like, they've got the best of this world.

Their bellies are full, they're leaving it under their children.

I mean, it's just, but they're the wicked, right? And their portion is of this world.

What's it say for 15? As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.

I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

When you awake, right, go to the grave and you awake in heaven, your spirit sees God, you get to see him in his presence.

You're gonna be satisfied, right? That's part of the inheritance is that you're there in his glory.

You don't need the bells and whistles of this world.

They're so inferior to what you have.

Your inheritance is of the Lord himself.

You'll be satisfied with him.

All right, go back to Romans 8.

So if we're heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together.

If so be, however much, right? He's promised there's gonna be some form of tribulation while we're here in this world, right? Fear not, for I've overcome the world.

But we're certainly not going to have the same magnitude among each other, right? There'll be different trials.

In particular, we're talking about trials that come because we're standing for Him.

Sometimes we just have hard things in life, and they're just hard things, but they're really not because we're trying to stand fast for God's Word, right? So if we are going to suffer with Him, that's where we are taking a stand, saying, God is true, God is holy, God is righteous, and He is my master, and I serve Him, and I'm going to stand on His Word no matter what.

Should you expect some blowback? Yeah, how did the world treat your master? Not too great.

Why should you expect better treatment? Right? So if we, however much we suffer with him, if so be that we suffer, that we may also be glorified together, right? There's a glory for his saints, right? And there's different aspects of the glory that God puts upon his saints, right? Just the fact that His Holy Spirit dwells within you, guess what? That's a glory! That's amazing! To take something that was dead and to make it alive, that is a glory.

That is something amazing, something wonderful that He's done.

But that's just the beginning.

That's described as the firstfruits, right? The firstfruits, right? You've got your whole harvest ahead.

And Brother Parrish goes out and he picks three ears of corn, and he's got 100,000 acres still out there.

Well, those are the firstfruits.

But there's more left. to come, right, to coming in.

All right, so it says, verse 18, for I reckon, and you know the Bible is Southern, I reckon, I'm deeming it, I'm inventorying it, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us, in us.

This is the glory that's going to be put upon the saints.

Remember we were talking about the Holy Spirit that raised up Jesus is going to be the same spirit that raised up your mortal life? We are talking about the glory of the resurrection, of resurrected bodies in us that we can see.

And so, will you have hard times here? Absolutely! Right? This is a sin-curse world.

You have a nature of sin that you will have to battle with.

Sometimes you'll get yourself into trouble.

Sometimes it'll be circumstances around you, right? Sometimes it'll be chasing you, right? There's a myriad of different reasons of why you can have suffering in this world.

But guess what? You take all your suffering up, and you put it in a measuring cup, and you set it over here on the scale.

Let's say you got one cup, right? Your whole life worth of suffering is one cup, right? You got your scale, right? Now you take Mount Everest, put it on the other side.

That's the measure of glory that will be revealed in us so that this isn't even worthy to be compared.

Right? It doesn't even register on the scale! Are we seeing the magnitude of the portion that's reserved for you by God, by Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit that dwells within you, all of them working together to let you know now what He's done so that you can, remember back to Romans 5, glory in tribulations.

I don't want to glory in tribulations.

I'd rather skip the tribulations.

But even as you have them, you can glory because you can see that as I go through it, the Lord can work patience in me. and experience, and grow my hope." My hope in what? Hope of the glory that is to come, right? Hope in Him.

Hope, that's not just a wish, right? This is a firm assurance and conviction that this is true and will come to be.

So I reckon, I figure, I deem that all the sufferings, all of it, the suffering of this present time, your whole life, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us, all right? Now, we're patiently, or less patiently, waiting for that.

Do you know that you're not the only thing that's waiting for that? So, in verse 19 through 22, you're going to get a description that all of creation The whole universe that God created is eagerly waiting for that day, too, when that resurrection becomes a reality, all right? For the earnest expectation of the creature, all right, so that's the created thing, all universe, waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Now, you're already sons of God.

The manifestation is the revealing. the disclosure, right? I can't see the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, but when you have a glorified body, boom! You can see the sons of God.

That's what the creation, it says that they're waiting, that earnest expectation, there's an anticipation, right? This is what they're looking forward to, right? Do you know that the sun and the moon and all stars, they sing the praises of God? But Scripture says, all of it is waiting for the manifestation, this is the culmination, this is the climax of creation.

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him that hath subjected the same in hope." All right, so that may be strange to read and parse out.

When God made everything in the beginning, it was good, and at the end he pronounced it very good, right? All of creation was good and very good, and then man did what? Sin, right? By Adam's disobedience, sin came into the world, and death by sin.

So death passed upon all men for all its sin." Right? That's talking about man.

Well, do you remember what God told Adam because of his sin? He says, I am cursing the world.

Right? Before then, how many thorns and briars just sprung up? None, right? That was a consequence of Adam's sin.

How many animals died? Do you know what lions ate in the beginning? Plants.

Yeah, they were vegetarians.

Meat wasn't on the menu.

Death hadn't entered into the world until there was sin, right? So, no death had existed.

You didn't have a corruption of a plant, or of an animal, or anything, right? Second law of thermodynamics, right? All of you physics majors, right? Entropy.

Disorder.

Things go to disorder, right? Before sin, it was stable.

There wasn't any death, there wasn't any decay.

But when man sins, that is when you have vanity, the transitoryness, it's temporary.

So why do trees age out and die? Because of Adam.

Because the world was cursed because of Adam.

Why do animals eat each other? Because of Adam.

These are features of this broken, sin-cursed world.

And so God cursed the world. because of sin, and you can go read that back in Genesis 3.

But you know the great thing that's talked about in Revelation? That there is no curse, right? That new heaven and that new earth, that curse is removed.

There's no death, right? That's why you have in Isaiah these pictures of a lion lying down with a lamb.

You're like, what is that talking about? because the death is not there anymore.

The things that are enmity and hostility here because of sin and because of the curse will be removed.

And so even the universe, all of it, is yearning for that day when there is a hope that they have, right? That all of it has of the manifestation of the sons of God, of the resurrection, of the perfecting of that which had started off good is now gonna be much more better, right? It was good and then it got bad.

It was corrupt. and it will be made better, right? Because the creature itself, the universe, all the things, right? It shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, right? The new heaven and the new earth won't have decay, won't have death, won't have any of those features that are so frustrating here.

It won't! It'll be delivered from the bondage of corruption, corruption means going to decay, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

But what's the glorious liberty? That's the freedom from death, right? Eternal life, right? And so the environment that we'll be in will also be perfect and holy and righteous.

That's pretty good news to me, right? And so here we're waiting Verse 22, for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

All right, so you've got all creation is described here as groaning, and that's in like agony.

Travailing is labor pains, right? Ladies, any of y'all want to hang out in labor pains for a long time? All right, you get past 18 hours, 24 hours, and you're like, whoa, 36 hours.

Since the Garden, the creation has been groaning and in travail, waiting for that great day, this great day, this climax, when it finally comes, when the Son of Man is revealed, and then that itself will be delivered from this bondage of corruption, right? The elements will melt with the fervent heat and you will have a new heaven and a new earth that is sustainable, right? Enduring is the better word, right? It groans and travails in pain together, right now, until now.

But not only they, right? Not only creation, but ourselves, all right? So we're going to focus back on us, right? Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruit to the Spirit.

So that's what I was alluding to earlier, right? We have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

That's a glory.

That's wonderful.

That's a small down payment.

That's a small earnest.

That's a little bit of what's to come.

We have that.

Even within ourselves, we've grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption which means, to wit, which means to say, the redemption of our body.

That's what we're waiting for.

Remember back at the end of 7, Paul is lamenting that he can't worship God, he can't please Him, he can't do the things that he'd want to do because he's hindered by this body.

Oh, who will deliver me of this body from death? Christ will.

That's what we're looking forward to.

This groaning with ourself, waiting for the adoption, which means the redemption of our body.

For, reason, for we are saved by hope.

But a hope that is seen is not hope.

For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that which we see not, then we do with patience wait for it.

What are we waiting for? We're waiting for that redemption of the body, right? We're saved, we're delivered from these trials and sufferings by that hope that we know there's something better, far better, that's been promised and that's been assured, right? We're not talking about being saved from hell right here, we're talking about being saved from these present afflictions, the ones that we have so much and in such a great trial, we can be delivered from them by knowing that hope that He's given us, right? That this is gonna be better.

Now, can you see your glorified body right now? No, right? If you saw it, you wouldn't be hoping for it, right? It's something that's not seen yet.

And so, as you're hoping, you're looking to the future, you're earnestly expecting it, but you're waiting patiently, right? You're cheerfully enduring some of the hard times here.

Did Jesus experience some really hard times? Yeah, and so if we're suffering with him, that's okay, right? But we know that like him, he will see that he will endure the cross.

He despised the shame, he said, it's us.

It's not worth stopping me, the shame that came with this, because he saw the product that would be the result of his work, right? That he would assure the victorious people.

He could sit down and his soul would be satisfied.

Do you think Jesus could be satisfied if just one of his children was lost? I certainly don't.

The father said all that he gives him, he would lose nothing.

And so he has done that work.

And now because you know that, and because you know what your spirit is groaning for, which is to be not dead, right? You're not wishing for death, you're wishing for real life, right? To have the life in your body that matches the life that is within your soul and heart right now.

We are saved by hope, but a hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth.

Why does he yet hope for it? We understand that.

If you already see it, you're not hoping for it, but it's something we can't see yet.

For if we hope that we see not, then we do with patience wait for it.

We can patiently wait for that day, waiting for the resurrection.

We can patiently wait because we know we have this hope.

How do we know? Because we have that Holy Spirit that dwells within us that testifies both itself and with our spirit that we are the children of God.

If you're a child of God, you're an heir, an adjoined heir with Christ, and He's going to raise up this body.

They're all linked together, but the common denominator in all this for you and I is the Holy Spirit and its presence there in our life.

Now, is this all the Holy Spirit does? No! There's more in verse 26.

Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth Our infirmities, right? So we're patiently waiting, but are we strong and perfect and got it all figured out? No! We're weak, and we're fragile, and we need help.

Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities.

How so? Well, For we know not what we should pray for as we ought.

You ever struggled to know how to pray, what to pray? You know, it just there's got to be a better way than what I know.

Yeah.

Scripture acknowledges you don't know.

Right.

We can grow in our prayer life.

But even in your prayers, you're not by yourself.

Right.

But the spirit itself maketh intercession for us. with groanings which cannot be uttered." Sometimes we talk about prayer, and, oh, Lord, I'm groaning, and you can understand it.

We're not talking about your groans.

This is the Holy Spirit who's praying on your behalf, and He prays perfectly, right? He prays the Father's will, and the Father knows His mind perfectly, because they're united in one, right? So you have someone aiding you in your prayers, even while you're praying. and it's someone who's uniquely qualified to it.

It's the Holy Spirit, right? You don't have to ask for any other, you know, outside party, right, to help you pray.

We're not talking about saints or Mary or any of these other things.

We're talking about you're praying to the Father, and the Holy Spirit that dwells within you is helping you pray.

And who are you praying in the name of? Jesus.

So you've got the whole Trinity there involved in the prayer, and Jesus is there at the right hand of the Father, and He's interceding on your behalf, too. this is one of mine for whom I've died and you see him through my righteousness these are good things right so if you ever feel weak in your prayers that's okay you're not alone right you ever feel really uncertain of a task, and then someone comes along who knows how to do that task, and they're kind of holding your hand through it.

You feel a lot better during that process, right? Someone who knows what they're doing.

That's how you should feel, because you're not alone.

Now, maybe you didn't realize that.

Maybe we haven't read that verse recently, but you're not alone as you're praying to the Father.

The Holy Spirit is praying with you. speaking with groanings which cannot be uttered." Alright, so, you know, we talk about the groans of the distress that we experience here.

He's groaning with his great desire to intercede on your behalf.

Jesus would be described as groaning during his earthly testimony and weeping right before Lazarus is going to be called back from the dead.

And so they know what it is that you're experiencing.

And so he's praying on your behalf, which can't even be uttered into words.

We can't even take all that he's praying for you and break it out into words as a prayer.

But it's more, and it's perfect.

And even though we can't do that, he that searcheth the hearts, who searches the hearts? God, right? He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, right? Those groanings that can't be uttered in words, God hears them and He knows them perfectly because the Spirit, He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Right? Whenever we're praying, we need to be praying that we would be submissive to the will of God and really submissive to the revealed will of God, right? Let me show, show me, Lord, where I can follow you better here in your word.

Let me learn more of you and let me follow you, Lord, but let me be submissive to you, right? As the master, as the one who's purchased you and bought you, he has the right.

His will is better and we get in trouble.

When we try to say, well, Lord, here's your will, let me just, it don't work that way.

He's not a genie.

We don't make demands.

This kind of name it and claim it thing is awful bold.

You can earnestly petition him for something, but ultimately it's a request.

And the end of that request means, but nevertheless, Lord, thy will be done, not mine, but thine.

You know better.

Whatever way he chooses to answer your petition, yes, no, not yet, Be content with that, because He knows best.

So these are some of the ways that you can walk now and experience in the reality that there's no condemnation over you.

It's not only that you don't have to fear that you're going to be cast into hell, right? I'm walking in the Spirit.

How can I walk in the Spirit? Because His Holy Spirit dwells within me.

Well, who does He give that to? He gives it to His children.

You know what His children have? an airship, right? That there are airs with Him, and they're promised a new body.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is going to raise my body from the dead, and I'm going to be with Him and have a glory with Him, and I'm going to behold His face.

This is wonderful news! Do I have to get burdened down and beat down and so discouraged because things stink right now? No, right? Because you can see the bigger picture of what he's accomplished and how he's using the Holy Spirit to comfort you, actively comfort you, remind you of truths, and even to pray for you.

This is the role that the Holy Spirit has been given by Jesus for his people's sake so that they do not feel, because they're not, alone here until he returns.

And you know the catalyst for when that resurrection comes? He returns, and that's the reality that we're waiting for.

It's gonna be great to have a glorified body, but the even greater thing is to behold our Lord's face, to see Him coming in the clouds.

That's what we're looking forward to.

When's it gonna happen? I don't know.

Anybody tell you the exact date? They're lying.

They don't know, but He's promised that He is coming.

And that's something that we can earnestly desire and look for the same way that our children look out the window because they know grandparents are coming, right? They're excited they're coming.

They don't know exactly when.

Time is a funny thing for kids, right? It could be next Friday, but they're looking right now on Monday.

We don't know, are they coming? That's kind of the excitement that you and I should have of now is the time where we get the chance to serve them.

Tomorrow's not promised.

And if tomorrow doesn't come, then we're better off, right? I'm not seeking death, I'm not seeking a way out, but I'm seeking life and life and immortality with my Lord.

That's the first half of Romans 8.

Tackle the next half next week.

This transcript was automatically generated by SermonAudio and has been edited using AI software to adjust only the formatting for readability. If there is any difference between the words spoken by the speaker and text, it is inadvertent.

Elder Jonathan Moseley is the Pastor of Fair Haven Primitive Baptist Church located in Tifton, GA.