In this sermon, the preacher discusses three contrasts found in the book of Romans. The first contrast is between the actions and presence of the Spirit, with no mention of the Spirit in chapter seven and many mentions in chapter three. The second contrast is between slavery and freedom, with chapter seven depicting a state of constant spiritual defeat and bondage to sin. The preacher emphasizes that Paul uses the metaphor of being sold as a slave to sin, highlighting the control and direction that sin has over a person. The sermon also references Thomas Boston's fourfold state, which describes the natural state of being dead in trespasses and sins, the legal state of being justified through Christ's sacrifice, the evangelical state of being awakened and regenerated, and the state of victory realized through obedience to God.

It was on my heart, you know, this hymn when, at the beginning of the conference, but it was also on my heart when we got married, on the day that Liz and I got married. Very good hymn. Let's start, sing number 68 in your chorus group. I think it will be projected. If you can see it. Amen. Speak to us again, Lord. Father, we've been sorry. Be God in our midst today. Lord, come. Amen. Good morning. Before we read some verses from Romans 8, two brief but very sincere words of thanks. The first one, to the brethren for giving me the privilege and inviting me to come to this conference. I'm sure that on their part, it was a step of faith to invite someone they didn't know. You know how well or how good their faith was, so thank you for that. On behalf of Gene and myself, to all of you, our very warm thanks for your wonderful fellowship in the Lord. We have enjoyed these days together so very, very much. We came hoping to minister. We have certainly been ministered unto. We have enjoyed these days immensely. You are our kind of people. We have just felt spiritually at home. And to be with you, to be a part and to talk to quite a number of you has been such a blessing. I've learned down the years in following Jesus that one of the byproducts, maybe it isn't even a byproduct, of salvation is you come to know the best people in the world. The people of God. The people who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity and in truth. We love being with the people of God. Now, about those books, I am amazed. Not just at the low prices, which I repeat. I made the unkind remark that it mustn't be a Scotsman who is selling them, but ignore that. Ignore that. Sorry, folks. I can't believe that so many copies of Henry Breeden's mid-Victorian, mid-19th century Methodist, Revivalist, Evangelist, wonderfully used of God, a brand new book. It's on the second-hand department, but it's brand new. And I can't believe that so many are left when it's only selling, or well, it was selling for £2.50. That must make it what now? £2. That's not selling. That's giving away. There was quite a number of copies there, so nobody need leave just now. I want us to read in Romans chapter 8. Yesterday we finished our reading at verse 4, so we read from verse 5. Romans 8, verse 5. 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, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Because the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the works of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the spirit of sonship by whom we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. What a great passage. Ending at verse 16 and asking for the Lord's help in these moments as we look at it together. So, a moment of prayer. Come, Holy Ghost. Our hearts inspire. Let us Thine influence prove. Source of the old prophetic fire. Fountain of light and love. Come, Holy Ghost. For moved by Thee the prophets wrote and spoke. Unlock the truth, Thyself the key. Unseal the sacred book. Gracious Lord, we pray this humbly, believingly, expectantly in our Lord's name. Amen. We finished talking yesterday at Romans 5. Talking about the context of Romans 8. Remember, a text without a context is a pretext. And Paul is building up this wonderful argument beginning in Romans 1. And we finish in chapter 5 where there is a great passage on the parallel between the first Adam, in whose headship we are all involved, to the parallel of the second Adam, the last Adam, our blessed Lord Jesus, who by His death and resurrection and descending of the Spirit has made provision that all that was done in the first Adam can be undone in the last Adam. And then in chapter 6, one last mention of the context. What do you think would naturally follow on from justification by faith? Why, of course, sanctification by faith. Always in that order. God's order is always, He justifies sinners, and then He sanctifies believers. You can never ever reverse the order. There is a passage in John Wesley's journal for August 1739, the year the open air preaching began. He is down in Bristol and he has been charged with a number of things. And he looks back on the ten years at Oxford, this ordained minister of the Church of England, this fellow of Lincoln College, this former missionary to the American Indians, and he says, during my days as an Oxford Methodist, I was fundamentally apathist and knew it not. What on earth did this son of the Church of England mean by that? He meant, I was striving for sanctification, but I didn't know the foundation of justification. You cannot, you must not invert God's order. God does not sanctify unbelievers. As sinners, we need to be justified. And having laid out the great doctrine of justification by faith, still the heart of the gospel, still the heart of all gospel preaching, if you and I are not preaching justification by faith, we are not preaching the gospel of the New Testament. Wherever it may be acceptable, wherever people think it is all right, it is not, it is not, it is not the New Testament gospel. God justifies sinners. And then His plan, that having justified us, is to lead us into sanctification, into holiness, into the work, the fullness, the baptism of the Spirit. And so, Romans 6. Romans 6 is all about the full deliverance that is in the gospel. Verse 15 is the key to the chapter. Sin will not have dominion over you. No matter what any church creed says to the contrary. Scripture says, St. Paul, under the leadership of the Spirit, says, Sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? You are no longer under the law, which is powerless. You are now under grace. That is a great and glorious message. We could spend, we could spend every public service in a conference like that, talking about Romans 6.15. Sin shall not... Almost 800 years ago, 792 to be exact, but who is counting? At Runnymede, the barons of England forced the autocratic King John to sign, what? The Great Charter, which we know of course as, from that, Magna Carta. The Great Charter. And for almost 800 years, the bases of civil liberties in England have been based on that document. Magna Carta. And I say to you this morning, that what we have in Romans 6 is a kind of spiritual Magna Carta. Sin shall not have dominion over you. In Christ we are free. In Christ we are redeemed. We are released. We are saved. We are justified men and women. And neither sins nor sin will have dominion over you. And in that chapter, Paul uses three figures of speech to drive it home. I mention them briefly. That victory is symbolized in baptism. Hence all the language at the beginning of Romans 6 about being buried with Christ and then raised up. Victory is symbolized in baptism. Victory is dramatized in crucifixion. Not only was the Son of God crucified for the sins of the world, but in Christ our old man has been crucified with Him. And thirdly, victory is realized in obedience. So at the end of chapter 6, you get all those mentions of the word yield, yield, yield. As once you yielded yourself as servants to sin, now yield the members of your body as instruments of righteousness. So this great spiritual victory, this spiritual magna carta, this deliverance, this sanctified life is symbolized in baptism, dramatized in crucifixion and realized in everyday obedience to God and His Word. Then Romans 7, or at least the latter part of it, beginning at verse 14 and going to the end, Paul speaks in the first person singular. Verse 14, We know, we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold unto sin. And he continues to speak in the first person singular all the way to the end of Romans 7. His own personal struggle, which we will mention in a minute, and then into chapter 8, life in the Spirit. Now friend, this is why you and I have spent so much time with the context of chapter 8. Let me put it like this. What Paul writes in Romans 8, he could not have written earlier in the letter. He could not have written it, for example, in chapter 1. On the argument that the apostle has, the only place that Romans 8 can come is at the end of Romans 7. It cannot come earlier in the letter. Hence, the emphasis on the context. This is a magnificent argument that builds all the way from universal sinfulness through grace, justification, sanctification, to life in the Spirit. And in our salvation, every one of us has to travel the same road. There are no shortcuts to Romans 8. You can't jump from Romans 1 to Romans 8. You can't bypass justification. And so, life in the Spirit. Now, that is the context. Now, secondly, the contrast. What does Romans 8 contrast with? The second half of chapter 7. The second half. When Paul recounts in great detail his own spiritual struggle. I am carnal, sold under sin. The good that I want to do, I cannot do. The evil that I don't want to do, is what I end up doing. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me? The Church of God has never doubted that that is the account of a personal struggle written, experienced by Paul. The question is, experienced when? When? Just because he uses the present tense doesn't necessarily mean that he is speaking it now. Because if he does, as we'll see, then Romans 8 and Romans 6 make no sense at all. So, I suggest to you, there are three contrasts. I'm going to call it Romans 7, but I really mean the latter part. But I don't want to keep on repeating that, so I'll say the whole chapter. But I mean verses 14 to the end. There are three contrasts between Romans 8 and Romans 7. Contrast number one is very important. Please read, I don't mean now, but read the verses from 14 to 25. The account of the struggle. And you find a strange absence. Something. No, not something. Someone. Someone is missing from those verses. And the one who is missing, you know, is the Holy Spirit. Please read carefully verses 14 to 25. There is not a single reference. Not one. Not even an allusion to the person or the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Not one. Now, I pose to you a simple question. Is it possible, is it possible to describe Christian experience with the Holy Spirit entirely absent? Well, according to what we read in chapter 8, if a man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong. That should settle the issue. But that's only part of the evidence. Now, the contrast between that part of Romans 7 where the Holy Spirit is strangely absent, the contrast is chapter 8. Do you remember one thing we said yesterday about Romans 8? There are more references to the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8, listen carefully, than any other chapter in the entire Bible. There are at least 19. I say at least 19, possibly 20. There's one place where Numa, it's a bit uncertain if he means his own spirit or the Holy Spirit. There are at least 19 references to the person of the Spirit and the work of the Spirit in Romans 8. No mention at all in the latter part of 7. Now, let me ask you a rhetorical question. Where do you think God wants us to live? Where the Spirit is absent? No! Where the Spirit is present! And because this is part of the great Gospel, if some of us are living in chapter 7, God wants us to change our address and get out of 7 and get into 8. Now, does that mean then that the man described in Romans 7 is totally unregenerate? No! No, it doesn't! Paul is not talking about the whole of his entire past life as a Pharisee. He's talking about the time before the Damascus Road, we don't know the length, when he was awakened by the Holy Spirit to an understanding that he was a sinner and that the law could not save him. Read the opening verses of chapter 7. It illustrates that the law is good and pure and holy, but the law is powerless. The law can show me the standard, but it cannot defeat sin in my life. The law can tell me what God requires, but it cannot help me to get there. And there came a time when Saul the Pharisee was awakened by the Spirit. Saul, Saul, it is hard for you to kick against the pricks. The Spirit had been dealing with him. He was awake, he was awakened, but he was not yet regenerated. Back in the 17th century, that great Scottish Presbyterian theologian Thomas Boston wrote a great spiritual classic called Man's, it means women as well of course, Man's Fourfold State. And in the way that Boston does, if you'll stay with him for all of his near 500 pages, it's not exactly book at bedtime reading, but it's worth reading. Thomas Boston argued that in Scripture there is a fourfold state. Number one, the natural, into which we are all born when we are dead in trespasses and sins. We do not know God. We don't want to know God. It is a natural state. We are all, says Paul, children of wrath in the natural state. State number two, says Boston, is the legal state where we are awakened by the Holy Spirit to an understanding of our sinfulness, awakened, struggling, but not yet delivered. Natural, legal, state number three, evangelical, where we are born again of God and brought into His family. Evangelical. State number four, glorified when we are translated to be with God. So, natural, legal, evangelical, glorified. The man in Romans 7 is not in the natural state. He says, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. No sinner can do that. But when Saul of Tarsus was awakened by the Spirit to a deep, deep conviction of sin, he saw that the law was holy. He loved the law of God, but he could not accomplish. And so in vivid terms, in vivid terms, he reminds us of the struggle moving from natural to legal to evangelical. The second contrast is between slavery and freedom. They are opposites, aren't they? Slavery and freedom. The first contrast is no mention of the Spirit, then many mentions. Second contrast, slavery in chapter 7. Freedom in chapter 8. Let me give you two samples from chapter 7. Verse 14. I am carnal, sold on the sin. Now, that's a very peculiar expression. I don't mean peculiar odd. I mean peculiar distinctive. Paul doesn't say, I'm a sinner. He doesn't say, I sometimes sin. He doesn't even say, I'm prone to sin. He uses the common Greek word for buying and selling. But the context is the selling of slaves in the market. And he says, I am sold like a slave under sin. Sin owns me. Sin masters me. Sin controls me. Sin directs me. Very strong word. Sold. Sold under sin. Now friends, another rhetorical question. If Romans 7 describes a man sold under sin, how could he possibly be regenerate? You can't be sold under sin and free in Christ at the same time. That's verse 14. Look at verse 23. I see another law in my members bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death. Sold under sin in verse 14 bringing me into captivity. I am a captive. To what? To the law or the principle of sin. So there is no doubt that the whole language, the whole ethos, the whole atmosphere of the second part of Romans 7 is about slavery. Now the contrast. Listen to Romans 8 verse 2. The law of the spirit of life. He has just spoken about the law of sin. Here is another law. Here is a new law. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has what? Made me free. I mean, it's so plain. Slavery in chapter 7. Glorious freedom. Wonderful freedom. In chapter 8 verse 2. That's why I said that 8.2 is really the key text to this whole thing. But you know, there is something interesting that Paul does. He says, the law of the spirit of life has made me free. It's the only place in chapter 8 where he uses the first person singular. So in fact, he has found this freedom. He could have said, the law of the spirit of life has made us free. But he actually makes it more personal. This is the road he has traveled from being under the law and bound in sin to glorious freedom. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. A couple of years ago, in our church in Salford, for years and years and years, we had used the old, that fine old hymn book, Redemption Hymnal. We then decided to buy the new Redemption Hymnal which raised the number of hymns to 800 to 1,000, dropped some old ones and added some new ones. I was particularly glad to see that among the new ones was a hymn by Halder Lilienus. You might guess from the name that he was born in Norway. Emigrated as a young man to America, he happened to be a member of my own communion, the Church of the Nazarene, and a hymn writer. And in the new Redemption Hymnal, his great and glorious hymn, Glorious Freedom, all its verses are there. Once I was bound by sins, galling fetters, chained like a slave, I struggled in vain. But I received a glorious freedom when Jesus broke my fetters in twain. And then the great refrain, Glorious Freedom, wonderful freedom, no more in chains of sin I repine, Jesus, the glorious Emancipator, now and forever He shall be mine. It is slavery in chapter 7. It is glorious freedom in chapter 8. But I said there were three contrasts. The contrast between the absence and presence of the Spirit. The contrast between slavery and freedom. And the third contrast between defeat and victory. Listen to 7.15. I do not do what I want to do. I do the thing I hate. That's defeat. He cannot do the good. And He cannot stop doing the wrong. 18. I can will to do what is right. But I cannot do it. The whole ethos, the whole atmosphere of 7, is not only slavery, it is constant spiritual defeat. He doesn't say, I am sometimes defeated, or I am quite often defeated. I am defeated all the time. All the wrong I don't want to do, I do. And all the good that I want to do, I cannot do. Now, contrast that in 7 with 8.4. That the just requirements of the law might be fulfilled. Fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Saul, the Pharisee, was not able to keep the law. But Paul, the Christian, is enabled to keep the law. All that the law demands, summed up by our Lord as the love of God and neighbor, Paul says, is fulfilled in those who are walking according to the Spirit. John Stark remarks, verse 4, is of great importance for our understanding of Christian holiness. It is the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation and the Atonement. Holiness is Christlikeness, keeping the law. Holiness is the work of the Spirit. Now friends, please understand, Paul is a million miles from saying we are saved by the law. He is saying we are saved in order to be able to keep the law. A vast difference. We cannot keep the law until God breaks into our lives. We cannot. Saul, the Pharisee, couldn't. But when we are saved, we are not saved to license. We are not saved to complacency. We are not saved to antinomianism. We are saved to fulfilling the law. To loving God and loving our neighbor. And so in this great chapter that begins with no condemnation and ends up with no separation, Paul outlines what the Spirit does. What life in the Spirit is. Quite a number of years ago, my late good friend and colleague, a name familiar to many of you, Arthur Skevington Wood, who for many years, of course, was principal of Cliff College and worked with a number of evangelistic groups in this country, wrote a very fine study of Romans chapter 8. In the early seventies, the book was republished under the title Life in the Spirit. Good title, that's what it's about. But when Skevington Wood first published the book twenty years earlier, it had a different title. I don't think I ever asked him why the title was changed. The first edition title was Paul's Pentecost. Paul's Pentecost. And Romans 8 is Paul's Pentecost. It is actually the Pentecost of Romans. And in order to get there, you have to travel all the way from chapter 1 through sin and grace and atonement and justification to arrive at Pentecost. Life in the Spirit. So in this latter part, all I'm going to do is mention a few of the many things that are in this glorious... Remember, it has more references to the Holy Spirit than any other chapter in the Bible. And that's under the inspiration of the Spirit. Some of the things Paul tells us about the Pentecost of Romans, about life in the Spirit. And the first is freedom in the Spirit. Back to verse 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free. Why the law of the Spirit? Because in both chapters, he uses the word law as a principle. In chapter 7, it's the law or the principle of sin and death. In chapter 8, it is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. In other words, the life, the realm of the Spirit in which He lives, a principle of life. In chapter 7, it's a principle of law leading to death. In chapter 8, it is the principle of the Spirit leading to life. And this morning, this morning, every human being in the world, bar none, is living under either the law of sin and death or the law of the Spirit of life. There is no middle ground. And we cannot get from the first to the second except by God's almighty saving, justifying, sanctifying, Spirit-filling grace. Freedom in the Spirit. I think that is why Paul uses the first person singular. It was so vivid to him. Verse 2 is personal testimony. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made me free. So he is not writing. He is not dictating something that is foreign to him. This is the way he traveled. This is what happened to him. For almost 30 years, the late Professor F. F. Bruce, a name known to many of you, was our good friend and neighbor in Manchester. Dr. Bruce was born among the Christian brethren in Aberdeen, lived nearly all his life in England, and to the end of his day kept his strong Aberdeen accent. As soon as he opened his mouth, you would know where he came from. F. F. Bruce, for 30-40 years, was one of the most distinguished evangelical New Testament scholars in the entire world. Lots of students streamed to Manchester, especially from North America, to study under F. F. Bruce. In the old Tyndale series, the ones with the blue covers, the committee had the right good sense to ask Professor Bruce to write the commentary on Romans. And here is what he says about verse 2. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free. He says, This is the first place in the argument where the Spirit of God is mentioned. It is no accident that with his entry there is no further talk of defeat. That is quite significant. Quite significant. There is no spirit in chapter 7, so it is defeat. Now, says Bruce, the Spirit is brought in and there is no more talk of defeat. It may be that some of us have come to this conference knowing spiritual defeat. And God's word for us is we need not go on being defeated. We can be delivered by the Spirit from defeat into victory. Free in the Spirit. Verse 4. Holiness by the Spirit. The just requirements of the law are being fulfilled. Now, what are the just requirements? What is the law then? It is the Ten Commandments. Summed up again by our Lord as love of God and love of neighbor. Saul of Tarsus discovered through bitter experience that he could not live like that. No man or woman can. But when a man or woman is justified and experiences the coming of the Spirit, they are enabled to do what they could not do before. The just demands of the law are being fulfilled. Look, the poem says, I am now keeping the Ten Commandments. Not by my own strenuous effort, but by the power of the Spirit dwelling in me and controlling my life. He is not an antinomian. He is not saying, well, keeping the law doesn't matter anymore. That is so dangerous. In Christ, we are given the freedom to fulfill God's demands. Do you remember an old bit of hymn? More a bit of doggerel. To run and work the law demands, but gives me neither feet or hands. But better news the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings. Charles Wesley didn't write that. Or Isaac Watts. But it is very biblical. The law tells me what to do, but gives me no enabling. The gospel brings better news. It tells me to fly and it gives me wings. Being fulfilled. Being fulfilled in those who live in the Spirit. Number three. Motivated by the Spirit. Verse five. Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Now here, and earlier, we meet in Romans this all important word, sarx, translated flesh. What does Paul mean by the flesh? He doesn't mean the soft tissue that covers our skeleton. He doesn't just mean some of our instincts and appetites that are wrong. He means the whole of our human fallenness. Our fallen, egocentric self. The sin dominated self. And those who live in that set their minds on that. But those who live in the Spirit set their minds. In other words, their motivation on the things of the Spirit. Setting the mind literally means your mindset. What is the purpose of our lives? Our thoughts? Our interests? Our affections? What do we live for? What is our mindset? Let me put it another way. What preoccupies us? What preoccupies you and me? What is the big dominating thing that preoccupies life? What ambitions drive us? What concerns engross us? What do we concentrate on? What are our goals? What do we live for? In other words, what motivates life? And Paul says, for those who live in the flesh, they are motivated by the things of the flesh. That is their world. And we were all there until Christ delivered us. But those who are in the Spirit, the whole motivation of life is transferred from the things of the flesh to the things of the Spirit. We are not only indwelt, we are not only filled, we are not only baptized, we are motivated. Motivated by the Holy Spirit. A very good friend of mine is working on a new commentary on Romans. I am looking forward when it comes out. He is a very, very fine Biblical scholar. And I know that his commentary will be outstanding. A couple of years ago, I heard him lecture on Romans. And he told a story about motivation. Kept it in my imagination. Now, I don't know if it is factual or if his facile mind invented it, but the illustration... He talked about a woman, a man and a woman, who were married. And not very long after she was married, the wife made a discovery that if she had known before, she wouldn't have married the fellow. He was a tyrant, and a legalist, and all the rest. They had hardly been married a month when he produced a document. And sisters, it wasn't a Magna Carta. It wasn't a document of liberty. It was a list of do's and don'ts. The way he wanted. His wife to live, and dress, and behave. It included the precise time at which the meals must be on the table. Not ten minutes early. And certainly not ten minutes... Oh, that was only a little bit of it. He went down through a whole regimentation of do's and don'ts. But she had made her vows. She was loyal. And under that regime, she lived for five years, heartbroken, unable to tell anybody what was going on, living constantly in fear that either she would either do something or forget to do something that would make her husband very, very unhappy. And at the end of five years, the husband died. Now, come on! Come on now! We shouldn't say Amen, but we want to. I know that. Okay. For ten years, the lady was a widow. And then she remarried. And the second marriage was as different from the first, as we say, chalk and cheese. The second marriage was built on mutual love and mutual respect. And whereas for five years she had been unspeakably sad, miserable and depressed, in the love and liberty of the second marriage, she was a new woman. And when she had been married quite a number of years, one day, going through some old papers, let's see who's quick, what do you think she found? Yeah? She found the list. The list that husband number one, the tyrant, the legalist, had drawn up. The list that caused her so much heartbreak. And she looked at it and she read it through and she thought, but I'm doing all this now and much, much more. Not because it's demanded, but because we love each other. Not out of law, but out of love. See, what motivates us, what motivates us is all important. And Chris was reminding us last night that God is not like the first husband. He's like the second husband. He's gracious. He's loving. He doesn't come making demand. He comes enabling us. We love Him because He first loved us. And life in the Spirit is a journey of joy and happiness and fulfillment. Because we're under a new law. The law of the Spirit of life. The law of the Spirit that makes us free. We serve Jesus gladly and willingly out of a loving, transformed, Spirit-filled heart. That's what motivates us. In the first marriage, the poor woman was crushed. In the second marriage, and of course there are no husbands here like that. I take that for granted. In the second marriage, she was liberated. Friends, we are meant in the Spirit to enjoy the life of liberty. In the Spirit, number four quickly, we are controlled by the Spirit. Remember I said there are many of these. I'm mentioning four or five. Verse 14. All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. Paul spoke in chapter 7 about life controlled by sin and self. Here in chapter 8, it is controlled by the Spirit and led by the Spirit. The indwelling Spirit gives us the desire not only not to commit sin, but stay away from sin. The Spirit gives us the determination to avoid sin. And the Spirit gives us the discipline, the desire, the determination, and the discipline to live a life pleasing to God. Not to fall back into the old ways, but to be controlled by the Spirit. When I was working on this some weeks ago, do you know what came back into my mind? I suppose for many people, the most well-known chapter in the entire Bible. Psalm 23. He leads me, where? In the paths of righteousness. That's where we're led. We're led even then. Led in paths of righteousness. Controlled by the Spirit. Until we know when God is speaking to us. Until we know when God is guiding us. Our lives are under the control. We are baptized into Him. Our lives are controlled by the Spirit. A year or so ago, I was reading about C.T. Studd. And I came across something, but one in particular, it got my interest because of a Manchester connection. Because of the man Frank Crossley. If you're interested in motor cars, you may remember the Crossley engine. Frank Crossley was the Manchester inventor who with his brother produced a wonderful engine. In fact, it's still used. It's now today a diesel engine. It's used around the world. And Crossley built up his great work yonder in Manchester and here near where we live in Torquay on a visit. Frank Crossley was baptized with the Spirit. His life was entirely surrendered. He was filled with it. And he went back to continue the business. Eventually he left and built Star Hall and left the work to his brother. Now Studd, Studd tells us they were in central China, a long way from home, and all the money ran out. Well, said Studd, we did what we always did. We had a night of prayer and we trusted God. And then we waited for the mail bag to come. It only came every two weeks. And after a few days, the mail bag came and there was nothing in it. Well, there were letters, but no money. And Studd said, this has never happened to us. This cannot happen. We are trusting God. You agree with it for yourself. Then he said, I did something I had never done before. He said, I picked up the mail bag and I turned it upside down and I shook it. And out of it fell a letter. Now here are his words. I opened the letter and began to read. We were different after the reading of that letter. And I think our whole lives have been different since. I looked at the signature. One wholly unknown to me. The stamp was Manchester. The signature, Frank Crossley. Here is what Crossley wrote. I have for some reason or other received the command of God to send you 100 pounds. I asked someone who knows about these things. Well, he said, 100 pounds in the 1880s today would have an equivalent of about 15,000. I have not met you. I have only heard of you. And that not often. But God prevented me from sleeping tonight by this command. Why He should command me to send you this, I don't know. You will know better than I. Anyhow, here it is. And I hope it will do good. Frank Crossley. They didn't know each other. A couple of months later, their daughter was born. No wonder they gave her the middle name Crossley. See, here is the point. It had taken that letter almost two months to get from Manchester to central China long before the need arose. God had a spirit-filled man in Manchester by the name of Frank Crossley who was living in the spirit and listening to God. And one night God said to him, Send 100 pounds to see to his stud. Crossley hardly knew whose stud was. But because he was controlled by the spirit, he did what God told him. And that money was on the road for two months, arrived just in time to meet a great need. Why? Because Frank Crossley, living in the spirit, was controlled. He said, God gave me a command! And he immediately sent the money. We read the last verse, 16. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. I have mentioned only four or five of the great marks of life in the spirit. The Pentecost of Romans. The Pentecost that Paul experienced. And all the things we haven't mentioned, but which are there, are a part of life in the spirit. Dear, dear people, all of us in this conference, if some of us feel that our lives are more like Romans 7 than Romans 8, then God's word to us this morning is, I can change your address for you. I can take you out of Romans 7 and I can put you into Romans 8 to life in the spirit. This is a wonderful way to live. These are some of the outworkings of living in the spirit. These are, not all, some of the consequences of being filled with the spirit, of being baptized with the spirit, of walking in the spirit. This is the spirit-filled life. And we can't get to Romans 8 until we make the journey from chapter 1 all the way through. But when we get there, oh, what a climax it is. And I pray that God the Spirit will send you and me home from this conference not only thinking about this, but seeking and praying until God does it for us, until every one of us, by His magnificent grace and His indwelling Spirit, is enjoying life in the Spirit. To Jesus be the glory.