Moody Grad

He views the Word as more precious than gold and sweeter than honey. Yes, I have had times when the Word was the sweetest thing in my life. He sacrifices everything he has to be pleasing to Christ. He is asking God to make his words and his thoughts pleasing to God.

The psalm says that God is the creator of everything beautiful. He made humans to be stewards of the earth. We are valuable in His sight, "crowned with glory and honor." We have been given what we need to defeat our enemies and to rule the earth. We are responsible to care for the earth, to uphold its majesty which is found in Christ, the creator and giver of all things.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us when we cannot express something in words. John 14:16 and 15:26 refer to the Holy Spirit as a helper and a guide. I think we take the Holy Spirit for granted because we come to expect His help. We forgot how much we would flounder without Him.

The idea of sons and daughters is alluded to about a half-dozen times. We are promised that we are children of God and will inherit everything that belongs to Christ. We have been adopted into the heavenly family and can know that our future includes sharing in Christ's glory and the ultimate freedom of eternity.

Praise God that we are no longer compelled to sin. We are not obligated to live in sin any longer. We have a new nature directed by the Spirit of Christ. We still sin sometimes because we are physical beings in a fallen world but we can live free from sin much of the time if we submit ourselves to walk in the Spirit. "Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world."

No, I do not believe it is possible to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit's indwelling; however, it is possible to live in defeat rather than alive in the Spirit. We remain "full" of the Spirit by sacrificing our lives to Him every single day and giving up our worldly desires for the things of Christ.

When I set my mind on the things of the Spirit, my singular passion is to serve Christ and do what is right. It is a very deliberate thing that must be done often. When one's mind is set on the Spirit, he knows his mind is set on the sinful nature when he wants to do selfish things that go against God's ways. The Holy Spirit helps us keeps our minds set on the things of the Spirit. If we try to do it in our own willpower, we will fail and fall victim to our sinful nature.

The law can't save us because it alone cannot free us from our sins. Our sinful nature keeps us from walking in victory. We needed a Savior to free us from our sins so that, by His Spirit, we might be made holy and able to uphold the law. Christ did that by becoming the sin offering for us and cleansing us from our sins by his death on the cross. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

I believe Paul is referring to himself and all Christians who live by the Spirit but must still deal with sin that resides in the flesh. Only when we reach Heaven will we be freed from sin that is in us but is not who we are.

Without Christ, we are slowing wasting away. We need the spirit of God in us to do good. I believe that modern man believes that he is basically good because, as Jeremiah 17:9 says, his heart is "deceitful". It tells him that he is good while he is really evil until he receives the regeneration of the Spirit through Christ.

The law helps us to see God's righteousness and holiness; however, it is hindered by our sinful nature. We needed someone to free us from bondage to our flesh. Christ did that when He became our sin offering and condemned sin in our lives.

The flesh responds to "do not covet" by coveting more because our flesh always desires to break the law. In order to stop coveting, we must make our flesh submit to the Spirit of Christ within us. Our Spirit desires to do what is right and have nothing to do with evil.

The flesh is the human nature which is selfish and must be submitted to God every day so that we "walk by faith and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). Until we enter Paradise with Christ, our flesh will always be influenced by the fallen world that we live in.

No, there is no independent freedom apart from slavery to sin or to Christ. You are enslaved to one or the other. We want independent freedom because we want to be free from the control of righteousness. We hesitate to state our allegiance because we want to control our lives but we forget about the wonderful promise of eternal life found in Christ.

Good doctrine frees us from the bondage of sin. We should honor it because it teaches us how to live. Rather than avoid doctrine entirely, we should avoid false teaching that deceives.

Obedience is like slavery in that whatever I choose to obey has dominion over me. When I do acts of righteousness, I demonstrate that I am a slave to God because obedience to God leads to righteousness. Slaves to sin always do bad things because they cannot do anything else. This bondage is broken when we choose to follow the teachings of Christ. I believe that God is speaking to me about trusting Him in all things in order to experience obedience anew in my life.

Whenever I try to take control of my life, I offer myself up to sin. When I let go, I offer myself up to God. We sin unconsciously because we live in a fallen world. I need to sacrifice my desires daily to Christ to offer my members to God. I need to continually relinquish control and pray to allow the Holy Spirit to guide me throughout the day.

If we let sin reign, we can do nothing but obey its evil desires. If sin does not reign, we are freed to obey God.

When I count myself dead to sin, I consider the truth that my sins have been eliminated. If I consider the truth of my death to sin, I can walk in victory and unity with Christ. He has won the battle. We must join Him to raise the banner.

Our flesh has been done away with, demolished by Christ