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The River ChurchSermons

The Spirit

Where the Spirit Lives

Keaton Washburn · Sunday, 10 August 2025 · Romans 8:9-11 · 31:47 · 4,601 words

Romans S16 · 8:9-11 Goodrich

Listen to this message

The sermon examines Romans 8:5‑11, teaching that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer as the sign that they belong to Christ. It explains the Spirit’s convicting, comforting, leading, and fruit‑producing work—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self‑control. The speaker urges listeners to ask whether they have the Spirit, trust Christ for salvation, and walk in obedience, noting that the same Spirit who raised Jesus will give life to their bodies. The message closes with an invitation to receive Christ and be baptized.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

spirit 111 holy 77 dwell 21 radio 8 within 17 belong 15 moody 5 home 14 result 9 teeter 3 totter 3 resurrection 8

Topics

The Holy Spirit 30 Righteousness 4 The Flesh 4 Sin 3 Obedience 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Death & Resurrection 1 Condemnation 1

Scripture referenced 31

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 8 2:31 Romans 8:5 2:36 Romans 8:9 2:36 Romans 8:8 2:43 Romans 8:5 2:59 Romans 8 3:42 Romans 8:8 4:05 Romans 8:9 4:59 Romans 8:8 5:03 Romans 8:9 5:53 1 Thessalonians 5 8:27 Ephesians 4 8:36 Galatians 5 8:56 Romans 8:9 12:33 Romans 8:9 15:16 Romans 8:10 15:59 Romans 8:10 16:08 Romans 3 16:36 Romans 3:19 16:36 Romans 8 17:58 Romans 3:1 17:58 Romans 3:10 20:42 Romans 8 20:48 Romans 8:11 20:53 Romans 8:11 21:22 Ephesians 2 23:46 Ephesians 2 24:41 Ephesians 2:4 24:41 Genesis 2:7 26:20 2 Corinthians 6 29:26 Romans 10:9 30:37

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:40. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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Thanks again for joining us and we hope you're blessed by today's message.

So one thing about my wife, Haley, and I is that we are homebodies.

We love to be home.

When our son was born back in January, you'd think two weeks of paternity leave.

Some people, I know, are going crazy.

They can't wait to get out of the house.

We could have done another three or four weeks of paternity.

We just love to be home.

The thing about us, too, is that...

At the end of a week, Friday night, some people want to go out.

We want to be nowhere other than at...

Yeah, maybe some of you can relate to me in that sense.

For us, being at home is where we can rest, where we can recharge after a long week ahead.

Some of you are the complete opposite, though, and you're like,

I don't want to be home.

I don't like sitting around.

That's my brother.

My younger brother, his name is Carson.

And even from the time he was very young, he has always hated...

He's sitting around.

He would rather go work on something, or he'll just get in his truck and just drive for a couple hours.

I don't know where he goes.

He just drives to not be home.

And so, you know, either way, no matter where you're at, I think we can all admit that there's something special about home.

A place where we belong in a place that belongs to us, where we feel safe.

And so this morning, we're going to look at this idea of being home.

We're going to see what God's Word has to say about it, but not so much our home.

It's like our physical homes, but rather who is at home within us if you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

And so ultimately, who's at home in us, as we're going to see this morning, is the Holy Spirit.

If you've been saved by the blood of Christ, if you've repented of your sins and turned to Him, you have the Holy Spirit within you.

So let's go to Romans chapter 8.

We're going to get a little bit of a running start.

Before we get into verse 9, we'll start in Romans chapter 8, verse 5.

And then we'll read it down through.

Verse 8, I'll give you a second.

Just as you're turning there, we're picking up really in the middle of the chapter here off of last week,

where you heard either Josh Morris or Aaron Snyder as they preached the first couple of verses.

So I'm not going to read the whole thing, but let's pick it up.

Romans chapter 8, verse 5.

Paul says,

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.

But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life.

And peace.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

Indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

So I kind of want to just summarize the first eight verses of the chapter here,

because we're picking this up in the middle of Paul's letter, in the middle of his argument.

I want to put this in context.

And so to summarize the beginning of chapter 8, we just got a glimpse of it here.

Paul's named four characteristics of sinful humanity.

He said that people in their natural state are hostile towards God.

They're insubordinate to his law.

They've failed to please him.

And ultimately, everybody is going to die.

This is what we see here.

But he says specifically in verse 8,

Those that are in the flesh cannot please God,

because the mind that's set on the flesh is hostile to God.

I think the NIV puts it just a little different that I think helps us understand this.

Instead of saying the mind that is set in the flesh, it says,

the mind that is in the realm of the flesh.

As we think, what is being controlled?

What is controlling us?

Those who are in the realm of the flesh are being controlled by it.

The flesh is their master.

Those people are unable to please God.

Not that nothing they ever do will please him,

but in their state, what they do is they cannot meet up to God's standard.

They can't measure up to his standards here,

because they do what they want to do.

They do what feels good, what everyone else is doing.

But Paul contrasts it here in verse 9.

Let's read verse 8 down to 9.

It says,

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,

if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

So there's a bit of a shift in Paul's language here.

He goes from speaking in the third person to now speaking in the second person,

to originally the Christians in Rome.

We could also say us as the listeners,

in some capacity it goes from saying they and them and those to you, however.

It says you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact.

So we tend to hear the word if,

and we think it's like a might happen, it might not,

or if this is true, then this is true.

And it's not necessarily that.

It's more here this if here in verse 9 is kind of in a understood, a positive sense.

It's like me saying,

And if you are here today, if you hear my voice today,

it's only those that hear my voice that are hearing this ultimately.

So it says the same thing here.

It's not really this type of if that's like a teeter-totter.

That could go one way or another.

But he says,

You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,

if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Okay, so if you are in Christ,

if you're in the Spirit, as Paul says,

That happens if you have the Holy Spirit.

The one is true because of the other here.

He says the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God dwells in you.

This idea of dwelling, the Holy Spirit indwelling believers,

this is an idea of home that we were talking about,

that I began with.

And as I think, where do you dwell?

Where is home for you?

My wife and I, it's our safe place to rest and recharge.

And so if you were in the Spirit,

or you are in the Spirit,

if you are in Christ, pardon me,

if you have the Holy Spirit in you.

The thing about the Holy Spirit dwelling within believers, though,

is that the Holy Spirit isn't like an occasional believer.

Leon Morris, one of the commentators, says here,

but he says the Holy Spirit takes up residence within God's people.

So if you are in Christ, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ,

you have the Holy Spirit that takes up residence within you.

What does that look like?

What does that mean?

Well, it's the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

In the midst of grief, heartbreak, loss,

it might be the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

When there's sin in your life, the Holy Spirit convicts that,

and you respond to it.

It might be the leading of the Holy Spirit

as you're seeking direction on something

that the Bible isn't ultimately clear on here.

But the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of the believers

can also look like, as 1 Thessalonians 5 tells us,

So the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us

can also be quenched.

Ephesians chapter 4 tells us,

So the Holy Spirit can also be grieved,

though the Holy Spirit indwells believers.

But the ultimate result of having the Holy Spirit inside of you,

Paul's really clear in Galatians chapter 5.

We talked about it last week.

But there's a direct connection here

between having the Holy Spirit

and having the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Having the fruits of the Holy Spirit within your life.

Now, the fruit of the Spirit's not coconut, right?

If you've been in kids' church, you know that silly song.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

This is the direct result of having the Holy Spirit at home,

within you, dwelling within you.

It's the fruit of the Spirit.

It's the result of it.

We would all agree that an apple tree

isn't going to bear an orange.

An orange tree's not going to bear an apple,

but it's going to bear the fruit of its kind.

And so is true the Holy Spirit.

Because of this, or not because of this,

but there's a connection here.

We know that the Holy Spirit isn't gullible.

You can't, like, trick the Holy Spirit

to dwelling within you.

The Holy Spirit only dwells within those

whom, Lord, they are.

Those who have submitted themselves to God the Father,

God the Son, and ultimately, as well, here,

God the Holy Spirit.

So the first thing we see here about the Holy Spirit

is that the Holy Spirit is the sign of belonging to Christ.

If you have the Holy Spirit, you belong to Jesus.

Having the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life

shows that you aren't just near Christ, but that you're His.

My first job that I ever had was at a Chick-fil-A in Chicago.

The second job I ever had was for a Christian radio station.

I was at Moody Bible Institute in downtown,

and I worked for their radio station called Moody Radio.

We don't necessarily have it in this area here,

but it's all across the U.S.,

and as a result of that, I got to meet some pretty cool people,

got to have some cool opportunities

as I worked for the radio station.

The thing about it, though, is that Moody Radio

was in the 8th and the 9th floor of the building,

one of the buildings on campus,

and every time I had to go to work,

I had to walk into Crowell Hall,

take my ID, my fob, tap it on the door to get in there,

get to the elevator, tap it again to get up to my floor,

get up to the floor the radio station's on,

tap it again to finally get into the studios

and the things like that.

As a result of working at Moody Radio,

I got to meet some pretty cool people.

I got to meet Matt Chandler, if you're familiar,

Ken Ham, Louie Giglio, some of these people.

Not because of how great I was,

but because of the fact that I belonged to Moody Radio.

I was part of the team, and I was given access to it here.

And similarly, those who...

Those who belong to Christ

are given access to the Holy Spirit.

The sign of belonging to Christ

is the Holy Spirit within the believer.

What's interesting about these verses here,

as we're going to see in the next couple of verses as well, though,

is that this passage isn't a list of commands,

which are really easy to teach.

Instead, it's really facts that are true,

true statements about believers,

but also non-believers.

And so after speaking in the positive sense here,

the second half of verse 9,

Paul says,

So he goes back to the third person here.

He's no longer pointing the finger,

but he's laying it out here.

Anyone that does not have the Spirit of Christ

does not belong to him.

If you're listening or reading really closely,

you've noticed a couple of different terms that I've used

and that the Scriptures have used.

We've heard the Spirit of God.

We've heard the Spirit of Christ.

I've been referring to the Holy Spirit as well.

And I just want to kind of clear the air.

This is not talking about a different spirit.

Paul really shows us that the Holy Spirit

is showing the inner workings of the Trinity.

It's God the Father,

God the Son,

and God the Holy Spirit.

One of the commentators said,

the indwelling Spirit

and the indwelling Christ

are distinguishable,

but they're inseparable.

They work together.

We could say that Father, Son, the Holy Spirit

are entangled within one another.

I don't know about you,

but when things are tangled,

I tend to get frustrated.

I tend to just try and,

you know, untangle them

and it drives me crazy

because I'm not very patient

when it comes to stuff like that.

I just pull it apart

and if you've never done that,

it just tightens, right?

It gets worse

and it takes even longer.

Well, this tangle here,

the entanglement of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

though they are inseparable,

we can tell them apart from within one another.

They have separate roles,

but they work together so closely

that the terms can really be used

almost interchangeably here.

This is really a beautiful tangle.

But using this term here,

the Spirit of Christ,

anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ

does not belong to Him.

It's clear that this is a warning

to those that don't know Christ.

It's possible to have all the outworkings

looking like a follower of Jesus.

Church attendance,

maybe some niceness you could say.

Maybe you're willing to serve others at times.

You do the right things.

Maybe you even tithe and you give to the church.

You support the things.

But it's possible to have all the outworkings,

while at the same time being absent of power

and the comfort of the Holy Spirit internally.

You can do all those things

without having the Holy Spirit.

So verse 9 is very clear

that you're either in or you're out.

You either have the Holy Spirit or you don't.

You either are in Christ or you're not.

There's no halfway in with God.

You know, it's not that you have the Holy Spirit

sometimes when you're at summer camp

or when you're here at church.

Or when you do something nice,

but you don't have the Holy Spirit at other times.

You either do or you don't.

So do you belong to Christ?

Do you have the Holy Spirit?

If you do, well, Paul's going to continue in verse 10

to show us the benefit,

one of the many benefits of the Holy Spirit.

Let's read in verse 10.

But if Christ is in you,

although the body is dead because of sin,

the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Okay, Paul, follow this again here.

He switches back in the,

you, he's speaking to the second person here.

He's saying you, if Christ is in you,

says the body is dead.

Although our bodies are failing us,

we can point all the way back to the fall

in Genesis chapter three, verse 19.

We see that by the sweat of your face,

you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

For out of it you are taken,

for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

The result of Adam and Eve, sinning, the fall, death,

every single one of us now born sinful.

And we have an end.

Our days are written, we're mortal.

Any of us, we don't wanna think about this.

We try and run from this fact.

We don't wanna dwell on this,

but Paul is speaking the truth here.

He's being straightforward.

He says, although the body is dead because of sin,

the consequence of the fall and of sin,

the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

So this is the same Holy Spirit

that we've been talking about.

The Holy Spirit that each believer receives

at the moment of conversion.

When you repent of your sin,

believe upon Christ and confess Him as Lord,

you receive the Holy Spirit right then and there.

And this Holy Spirit gives life.

We saw all the way back in verse one of chapter eight,

there is therefore now no condemnation

for those who are in Christ Jesus.

This life, one of the benefits is that we can walk free

in this life from shame and guilt,

the weight, the shadow of condemnation

because of what Jesus has done on the cross in our place.

The Spirit brings us to the cross.

The Spirit brings us life to us.

Why?

Because of righteousness.

This righteousness here is not our righteousness

that saves us, but it's Jesus's righteousness.

It's His perfection.

This is what we receive again,

not only at the moment of conversion

do we receive the Holy Spirit,

but the scriptures also tell us that we are justified.

We are made right in the eyes of God

and we choose to follow Him because of what Jesus has done.

Jesus's perfect life and death and resurrection

He shares with us.

We receive life.

We receive that.

It's called the imputed righteousness,

the righteousness that we receive,

that we are counted as righteous before God.

This is why, this is how we are able

to be counted as righteous,

this full life that Jesus has.

And then as a result of that righteousness,

after we're justified, the Lord then sanctifies us.

To be sanctified means to be made more and more

into the image of Jesus Christ.

The hope is that the longer you've walked with the Lord,

the more the Lord has chiseled away

at the rough parts of you.

He's convicted you of sin more and more.

He's chipped away at the anger and the short temper,

maybe cheating, the stealing, maybe it's the speeding.

I don't know what it is for you,

but also we're called to be made, to be more righteous.

Because of Christ's perfect righteousness,

we can be sanctified.

So the second thing about the Holy Spirit

is that the Holy Spirit is also the source

of our spiritual life.

This full life, this full life,

Even though our bodies are subject to death,

God's Spirit gives us life with Him right now.

A life free from condemnation, shame,

but it's also this life that we have

that the Holy Spirit is our comfort

and also our compass when we're unclear

of the life ahead.

In verse 10 here that we just read is the hinge.

Go back to the teeter-totter.

It's a teeter-totter that the passage

in really all of chapter eight is tipping on.

Pick it up in verse 11.

The Holy 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.

The Holy Spirit is pointing us to something greater

that's ahead for the believer.

Verse 11 here is switched.

It's now in the future tense.

What is to come?

The Holy Spirit is the instrument

by which God the Father brings resurrection to believers.

The Holy Spirit that dwells within you.

You, if you're a follower of Jesus,

keeps using this term dwells in you,

this residing, this living in.

So how do you know if the Holy Spirit,

do you have the Holy Spirit?

How do you know if the Holy Spirit is indwelling you?

I would just want to make it pretty simple, pretty clear.

When you sin, do you feel conviction?

If after, before, you're gonna lie or cheat or steal

or maybe it's not that big,

but maybe it's before you just tell a little white lie

or exaggerate something or fib something

or claim somebody's sin,

somebody else's work is your own.

Do you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit afterwards?

So the Holy Spirit dwells within you.

The Holy Spirit doesn't convict non-believers,

but he convicts his children, his own,

those that belong to him.

It's like if you've ever switched jobs before,

the boss that you once had,

your relationship changes with them.

Once they're no longer your boss,

when you see them out and about,

they can't tell you what to do.

They can't boss you around

because you got a new boss now.

It's like if you're a parent or an aunt or an uncle

or your friend's kids are over,

it's not your job to discipline those kids,

but you discipline your own.

You're responsible for them.

And so does the Holy Spirit convict those

who have placed themselves under him as their Lord.

It doesn't discipline those who aren't.

Ephesians chapter two tells us

that all of us in our natural state were dead

in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked.

Following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the air,

the spirit that is now at work

in the sons of disobedience.

There's a spirit that can have a spirit of disobedience

that comes not from the Lord,

that all of us are dead to sin.

Sin is our master.

Why don't we feel conviction if you're not in Christ?

Because sin is your master.

You're following your leader, your master.

And this is all of us before Christ,

utterly dead in our sin.

There's nothing we can do about it,

no way to dig ourselves out of it,

nothing we can do to cancel it.

We can't cancel out what we've done,

except what God did.

Ephesians chapter two, verse four says,

but God being rich in mercy

because of the great love with which he loved us,

even though we were dead in our trespasses,

made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved.

This is what's offered to every single person,

but God, what he has done,

being rich in mercy,

sent his son, Jesus Christ in our place.

Though we're dead, we've all failed.

Every part of us has been corrupted by sin.

Our weakest moment, Jesus came.

He lived the perfect life that none of us could.

No sin in him died the death that we deserve.

Back to life three days later

to show that he's stronger than sin and death.

He appeared to a couple hundred people and he's standing,

he's sitting at the right hand of God, the Father now.

And so if that is true,

if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead

dwells in you,

he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead

will also be saved.

He will also give life to your mortal bodies.

And so if God the Father raised Jesus Christ,

so he will give life to us,

is the promise.

The thing here is that I love what Paul writes here.

He says, he uses his language here,

you notice, he says,

the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead

will give life.

Jesus needed to be raised from the dead,

but we need to be given life.

Just as in the very beginning,

the Lord breathed life into us in Genesis 2, verse 7,

says the Lord God formed the man of dust

from the ground,

and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

And the man became a living preacher

as God breathed life into mankind.

So he will once again breathe life into us now

and also into our resurrection bodies.

He'll be free from decay, disease, frailty, pain, sickness.

So if God the Father raised Jesus,

so he will give life to our bodies.

John Stott puts it well.

He says that Christ's resurrection is the pledge

and the promise.

And so the Holy Spirit is also the sign

and the guarantee of our future resurrection life.

Our future isn't frail because the tomb is empty.

Same spirit that raised Jesus is at work,

is in us today.

So if you belong to Christ,

you can walk around confident that you are his.

If you have the Holy Spirit within you,

so there's this tension in the Christian life

that although we're spiritually alive today

because the Holy Spirit dwells in us,

we haven't experienced this full resurrection life

that's promised to us.

If you've ever grown a garden,

one of the first things you do

is after you prepare the soil,

you plant the seed and you got to water it.

It needs the sun.

And before it ever sprouts up and becomes anything,

it's working down below the surface.

And this is kind of a picture of us now.

With this fact that we have the Holy Spirit,

but we haven't experienced everything yet.

We haven't experienced this full resurrection.

It says this already has happened,

but also this not yet at the same time.

God is working beneath the surface of our lives,

preparing us for a future with him.

So as we wrap up, just want to ask you,

do you belong to Christ?

Do you have the Holy Spirit as your conviction

and as your compass?

If so, comforted that God is working,

that God is sharing,

that God is shaping you more and more

into the image of his son, Jesus Christ.

He's prepared good works for us to walk into

as a result of what he's done.

Do you wake up each day reminded of this amazing truth

that the Holy Spirit dwells within you?

As 2 Corinthians 6 says,

we are the temple of the living God.

As God said, I will make my dwelling among them

and walk among them and I'll be their God

and they shall be my peace.

People, you are the temple of the living God.

If you've repented of your sin,

confessed Jesus as your Lord,

believed upon him for salvation,

you can walk around with that,

with the power of the Holy Spirit.

And as a result of that,

the fruit of the Spirit should be evident in our lives.

Maybe you say, the Holy Spirit,

man, it's been a little while.

I haven't seen the Lord working.

When's the last time you got alone with him?

When's the last time you've fallen away?

It was just you and the word, you and him.

If you belong to him,

you're his.

There's nowhere better for us to be.

If you say, I don't have that,

I don't have the Holy Spirit,

but I want to receive the Lord Jesus Christ today.

I want this resurrection the Lord has for me.

Romans 10, 9 is clear.

If you confess with your mouth,

and believe in your heart

that God raised him from the dead,

you will be saved.

In that moment,

you receive many, many blessings of the Holy Spirit.

you felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit

that you've been walking with him.

If you haven't been obedient into baptism,

be happy and walk with him.

Walk right through those curtains over there.

During the next song,

we'd be happy to baptize you

to take the step of obedience to Jesus.

If you belong to him,

the Holy Spirit is the sign,

the guarantee we're his,

but also the future that we have with him.

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