The Holy Spirit's work in sanctification is the central theme, explaining how believers can maintain a holy life through the Spirit's power. The sermon draws from Romans 6-8, using the analogy of the brazen altar in the tabernacle to illustrate salvation, justification, and sanctification. It emphasizes that believers are identified with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and must actively 'put off' the old man, 'crucify' the flesh, and yield their bodies as instruments of righteousness. The sermon concludes by highlighting the Spirit's role as the indwelling power for overcoming sin, the witness of our adoption, our intercessor, and the agent who conforms believers to the image of Christ.
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Shall we read together, please, in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter six? The Epistle to the Romans, chapter six. And we'll read from verse one. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Knowing enough that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like us Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. knowing this that her old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him, For in that he died, he died unto sin once, for in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lustre of. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now the last paragraph of chapter seven, verse twenty-two. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law on my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and forcing condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Now verse nine. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Now verse fourteen. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. for ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God, and of children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Now verse twenty-six. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we are. But the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints, according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. to them who were the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, but he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And over whom he did predestinate, then he also called. On whom he called, then he also justified. On whom he justified, then he also glorified. May God add his blessings. for the reading of his own precious word. We have been looking at various books of the New Testament concerning the personal work of the Holy Spirit. You may remember that in the Gospel according to John we have the great basic teaching of our Lord Himself in the upper room concerning the personal work of the Holy Spirit of God. In John's Gospel the great basic teaching there is connected with salvation.
And then we have been looking also in the Acts of the Apostles. And in the Acts of the Apostles, the five-fold function of the Holy Spirit there is in relation particularly to our service. We were looking at this last night. Now this morning, just for about half an hour, I want to speak of the Holy Spirit in relation to sanctification. Now notice the development of the teaching as we go along. Salvation in John... service and the Acts. And here in the Epistle of the Romans, it has to do particularly with the tremendous truth of sanctification. That is, how a holy life can be maintained.
And the one who is responsible for that is the Holy Spirit of God. Now just for a few minutes, let's look at the Epistle of the Romans and the tremendous truth that we have opened up for us here. I don't think that when Paul wrote the epistle to the Romans that he had ever been in Rome. But when he writes to them, apparently there were three groups of believers in Rome itself. And we were to read the last chapter, chapter sixteen. Apparently there were at least three different groups of believers in the city of Rome. Now how the gospel reached there were not sure.
We do know that on the day of Pentecost there were Jews that came from Rome that were present on the day of Pentecost. And possibly some of these people have been converted and took the gospel back. And then you may remember that there was a godly couple, Aquila and Priscilla. Many times they've been called Mr. and Mrs. A and P, Aquila and Priscilla. They're a lovely, lovely pair. And they were in Rome and on account of an edict that the Emperor Claudius had made, the Jews had to leave Rome. Now it's possible that they were believers at that time. And they came to Corinth.
And there the Apostle met them for the first time. And their home formed a beachhead for the Gospel, first of all in Corinth, and then in Ephesus, and then finally they went back to Rome again. In a period of fifteen years, they had four different moves, but there must have been a wonderful prayer, Aquila and Priscilla. But in any case, the Apostle, he knows that there are believers in Rome, and he wants to send this Greek letter to them, where he expounds the gospel that he preached. Now the Epistle of the Romans is divided in three parts. The first eight chapters is doctrinal. beget the great doctrine of the gospel and all the truths associated with it in the first eight chapters.
So the next three chapters, chapters nine, ten, and eleven are dispensational. They have to do with the relation of God to the nation of Israel. And of these three chapters, the apostle, he asked the question, have God cast away his people whom he foreknew? Or said, God forbid? And he points out that the covenants and the promises of God are without repentance. That means that God will never change his mind. As to the promises that he made to the nation of Israel, and they will be completely fulfilled. And in these three magnificent chapters, he shows us Israel in the past, Israel in the present, and Israel in the future.
These are dispensational. And then from chapter twelve to the end of the epistle, it's practical. The duty of the believer in about half a dozen spheres, the apostle, he opens this up at the latter part of the epistle. Now, it's mostly the first part of the epistle of the Romans that we want to look at for a few minutes this morning. The first eight chapters gives us the doctrine of the gospel. It has often been compared to the brazen altar in the tabernacle. You remember when the tabernacle was built? going through the door or the gate into the court of the tabernacle, the first item you would meet there was the brazen altar.
And it was there that the sacrifice was offered. Now that brazen altar never was placed in any haphazard way. It was the first article of furniture of the tabernacle that you would meet in going through the gate. Now there are four sides to that altar. There was the north side, the east side, the west side, and the south side. And there's something typical in connection with these four sides of the altar. A person who came in with a sacrifice. And when they come through the gate, they always went to the north side. The north side of the altar was a place where death took place. It was there where the sacrifice was offered.
It was there that the blood was shed. the north side of the altar. The cold north was the place of condemnation, it was the place of death. It was there that the sacrifice was offered. Now after the sacrifice had been offered, it was placed upon the altar. And the burnt offering, all apart from the skin, was placed upon the altar, and it was completely reduced to ashes. And then the fire burned in it all night. And in the morning, the priest, he comes along, and he takes the ashes of the sacrifice in which the fire had been burning all night, and taking those ashes of the sacrifice, he placed it on the east side of the altar.
And that was the place of the sunrise. And the very first thing that happened, as the sun rays came up over the horizon, it lit upon those ashes of the completed sacrifice on the east side. Now going round the altar to the west side, it was there that the brazen lever was placed. It was placed halfway between the brazen altar and the door of the tabernacle itself. And the priest, in going inside to perform the ministry of the sanctuary, he washed his hands and feet in the brazen lever, and then he went inside. Now that brazen lever, it speaks of the great truth of sanctification.
It was on the west side of the altar. And then you remember Ezekiel forty-seven, where we get that lovely picture of millennial days. We read that the water, the river, that came out from the temple, Under the threshold of the temple, it flowed past the south side of the altar. And then it went out to bring verdure and blessing wherever it went. It flowed out to the dead sea. So these are the four sides of the altar. And I would suggest that this is what we get in the first eight chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. Romans chapters one and two and three is the north side.
There is a place where the sacrifice was offered. You remember in Romans chapter one, we get the dark, heathen, pagan world. Oh, the world that the gospel never has reached, we get that in chapter one. And the apostle goes into some detail in describing the heathen world in chapter one. And then he speaks about the Greek philosopher. And he speaks about men that knew an awful lot, educated, men who had a veneer of culture and education, and he brings them in guilty before God. They were teaching other people how to behave, and yet they were living an impure life themselves.
And then, see, he brings in the Jew. And then finally he brings in the Jew, and he points out that the Jew was the man that God had revealed himself to. They were the custodians of the law, and God had revealed himself to them that they might be witnesses for him down here. But unfortunately, Whether it's the dark, heathen, pagan world, or whether it's the world of education and culture, or whether it's the world of religion, we read this no difference. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And this is Romans chapters one, two and three. But then the wonderful truth of salvation is brought in.
And the Apostle uses four great words there as the remedy for sin. He speaks, first of all, of redemption. That is the work of a king. Then he speaks of propitiation. That is the work of a priest. And then he speaks of justification. That is the work of a judge. But finally, he speaks of the righteousness of God and Christ Jesus. And that is the work of God. These are four great words that speak doctrinally. of the salvation that God has brought on the remedy for sin, men who have been condemned in the sight of God. Now these first three chapters of the north side of the altar, and then on the east side, this is where the ashes of the sacrifice are placed.
And as the sun comes up over the horizon, it lights upon the ashes of the sacrifice. That is Romans chapters four and five. You remember in chapter five, we read those words, those lovely words. There is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. And what a lovely outline we get there of the result of the work of Christ upon Calvary Strauss. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have access into the presence of God. And there are seven different results that we find in chapter five as the result of the work of Christ upon Calvary Strah.
But then when we come into chapter six and seven, here we're brought to the west side of the altar. Here is the brazen neighbor. And what we get here is the great truth of sanctification. And it's this I want to speak about for a few minutes this morning. Here we get the truth of sin in the believer's life and how it is dealt with. And beloved brethren and sisters here this morning, I feel that this is one great truth that needs to be expounded again and again in the world in which we live. Oh, we love to speak about Christ. We love to speak about the church. We love to speak about the coming.
And the great prophetic truths of Holy Scripture These are magnificent doctrines in the Word of God, but on the day in which we live, I believe we need to get down to practical things about conduct and behavior, and life, and sin in the life, and how it is dealt with. We get it in these three magnificent chapters. In chapters... and seven, and then going into chapter eight, we get the river of blessing coming out from God on the south side of the altar. So in chapter six and seven particularly, sin in the believer's life is dealt with.
And the apostle points out that the power for holiness and sanctification in the believer's life is the Holy Spirit of God. Now the apostle, in opening up this section, He said, Shall we therefore continue in sin that grace may abound? He asked that question. He said, God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And then he uses a great illustration of believers' baptism as an illustration of what happened when Christ died upon the cross. You know, it is identification for that one who is crucified upon Calvary's cross.
Identification with him. in his death, in his burial, and in his resurrection. And the Apostle here eleven times in this first paragraph of chapter, chapter six, he uses a point tense. That is something that happened, a point tense, the auras tense. And he said, when he died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. When he rose again, I rose with him, and I rise to walk in newness of life." Now the illustration that he uses here is Believer's Baptism. I know that the sum would rule out completely Believer's Baptism in this passage, and there are many, many dear servants of God and distinguished teachers of the Word that would say what we get here is Spirit of Baptism.
You know, Spirit baptism, as we've been already pointing out, on emphasizing, Spirit baptism is into the body. It's baptism into the body of Christ, but water baptism is into the death of Christ. There are two entirely different ideas. Spirit baptism is into the body of Christ, where we're linked with the risen head and linked to each other as members of the body. But believers' baptism is identification with Christ in his death, his burial, and his resurrection. And this is the great illustration that the Apostle uses here when he answers the question, shall we continue in sin?
Shall we go ahead with the old life, the old habits that we lived in before we were saved? Well, he said, God forbid. And then he uses the illustration of what we profess when we are baptized with him. The initial step in the believer's life, when they are linked with Christ at the Hebrew, the initial step in the Christian life is believers' baptism. And in that baptism we profess that when Christ died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. And when he rose again, I rose to walk, I rose with him to walk in newness of life.
It is identification with Christ. in these three phases of his death, his burial and his resurrection. Now the apostle further down, he uses three terms here connected with this old sin in the life of the believer. And first of all, he speaks about the old man. And then he speaks about the flesh. And then he speaks about the body of sin. Now these are three terms that he uses. And these three terms are not sin in them. And all that one would need to do is to look at how they're used in the New Testament to understand their meaning. First of all, there's the old man.
Now, what does that mean? The old man is the old life that I lived before I became a Christian. The habits, the thoughts, the actions in my life before I became a believer, that's the old man. Now the Apostle in speaking about the old man, he said, put it off, put it off, put it off. Now there are two passages in the epistles where he mentions this. One is in the epistle to the Ephesians, and the other is in the epistle to the Colossians. Now in Ephesians he gives the exhortation, put it off, put it off. But in the epistle to the Colossians he said, you have put it off.
In the one case, it's something that we are asked to do, and in the other case, it's something that we've already done. What is the old man? It's the old life, the old habits, the impurities. In the old life, we're told to put it out. And the whole idea is, it's just like an old coat or an old dress. And you know, that old coat and old dress, it has been soiled. It's ragged. It's called filthy rags in the Old Testament. and we're told to put it off. Somebody said you never put it on again unless you want to do some dirty work. And we have to be very careful that what we do here, we take it off, we put it off, and we don't put it on again.
Now that is the old man. Now the second term that he uses here is the flesh. And this is an entirely different idea. The flesh is the old, evil nature, That nature that we inherited from our first parents, and that will never change. All of us here this morning we have the flesh. The word flesh, of course, it could mean the material body. That is our flesh. But the idea here, the flesh, it means the old, evil, wicked nature that has never been born again. It's still the same. And it always will be the same.
as long as we live down here. What are we told to do with it? We're told to crucify it. When Christ died, I died. When He was buried, I was buried. But when He rose again, He rose again in resurrection life, and I rise to walk in units of life. Now as far as the flesh is concerned, it is to be crucified. Now there are three terms that the Apostle uses here in connection with that crucifixion. And the first one is, no. And he uses that term three times. The second word that he uses here is reckon. And that means that what you know you put into practice.
And the third term that he uses is yield. That is, yield your members of instruments of righteousness. You know, the very first thing that we need to understand is this great truth of crucifixion with Christ. That is to know it. To have an intellectual grasp of it. But then secondly, we're to reckon it. That is what we know in connection with it and to put it into practice. And then the third thing is the body of sin. The third term that you see here, the old man, the flesh, and then the body of sin. The body of sin, it simply means this, that my body, My material body that God has given to me can be either an instrument of righteousness or an instrument of sin.
And this is the reason why in First Corinthians the Apostle again and again he emphasized the body, the body, the body, the body. And you know the body that God has given to you and to me, it can be either used in one way or in another. It can be used as an instrument of righteousness, or it can be used as an instrument of sin. And this is the third term that he uses here. You know, I'm awfully thankful for a good body. Awfully thankful. God has given me a good, strong, healthy body, and I'm so thankful and grateful to God for it. We've been on the work of the Lord now for fifty-two years, gone through all kinds of experiences, slept on the ground thousands of times beside a fire with the stars overhead.
Exposed to all kinds of disease and all the rest of it. But I'm thankful that God has preserved me. He has given me a good body. And I'm grateful to God for it. And if he's done the same for you, be thankful. But you know, my body that God has given me, it can be used either in his service or else as an instrument of sin. You know, he's given me two hands. And those hands should be used for him. He has given me two feet. And those two feet should be used for him. He has given me a tongue. And that tongue should be used for him. But you know, our tongue and our hands and our feet and our brain and all the rest of it, it can be used either as an instrument of unrighteousness, of sin.
But when it is dedicated to him, it can be used as an instrument of righteousness. And this is what the Apostle is speaking about here. So the three terms that he uses in connection with this old nature that we have is, first of all, the old man, and then the flesh, and the body of sin. And the three words that he uses in connection with it is, first of all, no, based on knowledge of what the Bible teaches along these lines. Secondly, reckon it. That is, put it into practice. And then thirdly, yield your body as instruments of righteousness on instruments of sin. Now this is a fundamental basic teaching that he gives us in chapter six.
And then he uses again three other illustrations. He speaks about a king on the subject. Then he speaks about a slave master and the slave. And then he speaks about a husband and a wife. Now again, we can't take time to go into detail about these three illustrations, but they give again three tremendous exhortations in connection with our life down here. The king and the subject. And as I look at myself, I want to ask myself the question, who is on the throne in here? Who is king? Who has dominion in here? Is it sin or is it Christ?
The king and the subject. And you know, we've told, set apart Christ as Lord in your heart. And we have the opportunity down here for a little while of allowing Christ to reign in our hearts. And then the master and the slave. I think in the world in which we live today, we know a little bit about this, drugs. the drug culture, or young people today, sometimes young people twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years of age, and one thing that's characteristic of the world in which we live today, drugs and other things as well that we're not going to talk about this morning.
But if there's anything in my life at all that I allow to be Master, and I'm a slave. Oh, there's something wrong. But thank God we have the means of overcoming these things. And instead of sin being the slave master and I'm a slave to that particular habit or to that particular thing, then I have to examine myself and put it away so that Christ may reign in my heart. And not only that, but instead of the slave master and the slave, that I'd be completely delivered from anything that would not be according to the mind and will of God. And then the husband and wife.
That goes into chapter seven, and here it's a question of whether we're married to the law or married to Christ. The apostle, in speaking about himself, he said, once it was the law that governed my life. But he said, now I'm dead to the law. And he speaks about the relationship between husband and wife. And if either dies, then the survivor is freed from that law, and they can be married to another. That is the illustration that the Apostle uses here in chapter seven. He speaks of the relationship to the law, then to the law, through the body of Christ, so it may be married to another, which is our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
So these are the illustrations that the apostle uses here in connection with the old life and sin in the life. And then going into chapter eight, then he gives us a glorious remedy. But there's one little point that we get at the last paragraph of chapter seven. The apostle there, he speaks about the law of sin and the law of God and then the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You know here is the glorious remedy. But before he speaks of the remedy, he speaks of that conflict in his mind and heart. He says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?
That was a cry that went up to God from his heart. As he thought about that law of sin in his members, he said, who shall deliver me from this dead body, from this body of death? I understand in the old Roman Empire, any man that was guilty of a horrible crime of violence and who murdered someone else, sometimes they give a law or they give a command that that person be tied to the victim and the victim was tied to them. And that body as it putrefied, mortified and went to pieces. That person, it was tied to that dead body. And you can imagine anybody like that.
Who shall deliver me from this body of death? That cry that went up to God? You know, the Africans are smart. And they have a dog that kills chickens. They have a way of curing it. What they do is this. They catch the dog and they act of killing a chicken. They get the chicken and they tie it to the back of the neck of the dog in such a way that it can't get away from it. And you can see that old dog going around with a dead chicken on the back of its neck. And it does everything it possibly can to get away from it. But then it starts to putrify. And it just goes bad. And the horrible smell, you see, that old dog wanted to get rid of it.
But they let it stay there until it putrefies. And then after a while, they'll take it away and let it go. And that dog will never touch a chicken again. It has learned its lesson. And this is Paul saying, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Do you ever feel like that? You know, some of us have been a Christian for many, many years. You know, every time we get out of our bed, we have to ask God, oh, Lord, do keep me today from anything that would bring dishonor upon my name. Because we still have that old. We still have the old man. We still have the flesh. We still have the body of sin. But oh, thank God there's a glorious remedy.
And that remedy we find opened up for us in chapter eight. Now here is the river, the river of blessing coming out from the temple and flowing past the south side of the altar, and it is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Now there's four different activities of the spirit of God in chapter eight. This is a glorious remedy for sin in the believer's life, and it opens up to us this tremendous truth of practical sanctification in the heart and life of the believers. And how glorious it is. First of all, we get the expression, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Now in verse nine, we get the indwelling spirit. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. is so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. Now, alongside of the flesh, in my heart, I also have the Holy Spirit of God, and he dwells in me as the inner shrine. Now, who's going to rule? Is it the flesh or is it the Spirit of Christ? The indwelling Spirit of God is the power that we have today to overcome sin. You know, every time I think of this, I think of the old days and the sailing ships.
You remember the sailing ships and the old and days before steam came in? They were completely dependent upon wind and tide. I happened to serve my time as a shipwright. That was my business. I served a five-year apprenticeship in building ships. And some of the old men, old sea dogs, Men that had served their time and sail as a boy, I used to sit and listen to their stories. And I was always thrilled. I loved my business. I loved my trade. And you know, those men were men of iron, iron, men, and wooden ships. And I loved to hear their story. But sometimes they've been completely...
completely held up by wind and weather. The doldrums, sometimes the sails would flop against the mass and they weren't able to move maybe for five or six days because they were dependent on the wind and the weather. Now that's the Old Testament. That's the Old Testament of the Holy Spirit of God. It came intermittently upon certain people and it empowered them to do certain things at certain times. The days of the old sailing ship is the Old Testament. But, you know, in the New Testament, we get the indwelling spirit of God permanently in our hearts. And we're not dependent on winter weather. Sometimes I go down and see some of the things that have been invented in recent years in connection with ships, nuclear-powered ships.
Today they have submarines, and they have nuclear... power in those submarines and they're actually able to submerge and go underwater for three months without even coming to the surface. Now they're not dependent on winter weather. And you take the Queen Elizabeth, that beautiful, beautiful, beautiful ship. She's coming into New York, Harvard. She's not depending on winter weather. And I had the opportunity one time of going down into the engine room and see those magnificent turbines. right away down on the heart of that vessel. And you have filled my soul to see it. They're not dependent on wind or weather.
And today we have that great power in our hearts. What clear power of you please? And it's inside the indwelling spirit of God. And this is the power that we have today to overcome sin. You still have the flesh, still there, never will be eradicated while we're down here. But we have the spirit of life in Christ Jesus in our hearts to help us to overcome in any particular situation. The indwelling Spirit of God, and then the witness of the Spirit. Verse fourteen, as many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. We have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but we have received the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, Abba Father, the Spirit himself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children, the sons of God.
You know there's something delightful about this. The Spirit of God bears witness with my spirit that I'm a child of God. If anybody were to come to me and say, how do you know that you're a Christian? Well, there's one thing I always think of. Before God saved me, I hated to go to a prayer meeting. I hated to go to a gospel meeting. I was brought up in a Christian home. And you know whether I wanted or not, I had to go. And sometimes for six solid weeks, I had to sit night after night in the Gospel meeting, and I must confess, before God saved me, I hated it. It was compulsion. And I had to go.
But you know, God brought me down very low. And He made me see that I was a poor, helpless, guilty sinner fit for nothing but banishment from God. And one night sitting in a little gospel meeting, I trusted Christ as my Savior and the Holy Ghost to amen. And I can say this honestly and sincerely this morning. There's no place I'm happier than in a prayer meeting. And along with some of God's dear children, just to come into a prayer meeting in Sedan and look my head and say, Abba Father, to me that is the supreme blessing of life. And to sit at the Lord's table on the Sunday morning. and remember the Lord.
To me, that's the ante-room of heaven. Oh, there's a change. And what does that change? It was the Holy Ghost came in, and he bears witness who was my spirit, that I'm a child of God. Because the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart, it shows that there has been a definite change. You know, I can imagine someone who's not a Christian getting up to heaven. That would be absolutely uncomfortable there. That's not their environment at all. But you know, every dear child of God, that has been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit witnesses with their Spirit that they are children of God. This is the second great blessing we have in this chapter. And then he's our intercessor.
And as we look down here, the Spirit himself also helpeth our infirmities. We know not what we should pray for as we are, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. We have the paraclete in our hearts, and we have another paraclete above. The same word is used of our Lord. We have an advocate with the Father. If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And the advocate above the paraclete is our Lord, who sits at God's right hand, and we have the other paraclete right in our hearts, dwelling in our hearts.
And he maketh intercession for the saints, according to the will of God. So if you ever go into God's presence, and as you get down upon your knees before God, all you can say is, Oh, God, it's just a grove. You know, I think all of us that have had any experience of life, we know something of this. There are things that just ring your hearts, and we go into God's presence, and we don't know what we should say. But oh, just to go into God's presence, all it could say is, oh, God, oh, Father. Well, the Holy Spirit is able to take that and interpret it and tell God all about it. That is the function of the Holy Spirit of God as our intercessor with God's right hand, with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he's able to interpret that groan and he's able to tell God just exactly what it is. Now, the final thing here is, and with this, I'm going to close. Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Now that is the final work of the Holy Spirit of God, to be conformed to the image of his Son. You remember when God made man at the beginning, he was made in the image, unlikeness of God. But you know, that has been sadly battered. the image and the likeness of God. In that man that God, the first man Adam, it was made in the image and likeness of God, but it is badly battered.
But you know, one day that image and likeness is going to be restored. And here we get God has a purpose for his people that we be conformed to the image of his Son. Now that's the restoration of the image, and we're going to be like Christ. And the Apostle John In that lovely passage, in first John chapter three, he said, We know not what we shall be, but we know when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. That is the likeness restored. In Romans chapter eight, it is the image restored, the image of a son conformed to the image of his son.
But in first John chapter three, it is the likeness restored. We shall be like him. for we shall see him as he is. And beloved brethren, and sister to the other's mind, the object of the Holy Spirit of God in your life and mine is to make us more like Christ. And may that be so for his ministry. Shall we pray? Our God and Father, again we bow in thy presence with thankful, grateful hearts for thy word. May thank thee for the comfort of thy word. And, O Lord, as we lift our heads in thy presence, we have to confess our weakness and our failure. But, Lord, we do pray that from day to day, that the Holy Spirit of God may be able to take us and mold us and make us more like Christ.
And, our Father, we do pray that our testimony may be brighter and brighter from day to day, and that we may be able to walk in this scene as those that are thy children, and that we're able to testify for thee in every single day of our lives. I recommend this to thee. Bless thy word we pray to each one of our hearts. We ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen. Thank you.