Romans chapter 8. Our text will be found in verse
14, and the title of the message this morning is Spirit-Led Sons. Spirit-Led Sons. Scripture says,
ìFor as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God.î To be a son of God is the greatest
privilege that can be given to Adamís race. It is the greatest
privilege that can be given to man, is to be a son of God, a
child of God. While it is true that God has
created all men, it is also true that not all men are sons of
God. There is a false doctrine being
taught in our day of universal sonship. God has created, He
is the creator of all men, but not all men are His sons. Not all men are His children. There are many who believe in
the universal sonship of man, but that's not true. The text
declares plainly that there is a qualification. There is a qualification
given to be a son of God, and it is this. They that are led
by the Spirit, and only they that are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God. They are the sons of God. Are you a son of God? Are you
a child of God? Well that depends. Are you led by the Spirit of
God? Are you led by the Spirit of
God? Because all sons are led by the Spirit of God. All sons. What is it to be led by the Spirit
of God? Well, there are many who are
led by a spirit, but it's not the Spirit of God. All men are led by a spirit.
It is the spirit of disobedience. It is the spirit of the prince
of the power of the air. It is the spirit of the children
of disobedience and wrath. Look at this in Ephesians. Flip
over to Ephesians chapter 2. And this is the condition of
all men by nature. All men by nature have this.
All men by nature are led, all the fallen sons of Adam. And
we who are believers, who are sons, we know this by experience.
We know this to be true of ourselves. We know that the scripture says
in verse 1, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air," here it is, "...the spirit that worketh
in the children of disobedience, among whom also we had our conversation,"
our lifestyle, "...in time past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
children," children of what? Children of wrath. children that
hated God. Haters of God. Man, by nature,
is a hater of God. Hater of God. A preacher, I don't believe that.
Well, that's what it says. It says we were a child of wrath,
even as others. Not a child of God's wrath, a
child of wrath against God. All men are led by this spirit,
by nature, are led by this spirit of disobedience, this spirit
of wrath against God. By nature, men are led by a carnal
lusts of the flesh. In our text, if you look back
in verse 7, it says this, Because the carnal mind is enmity, hatred,
against God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, here it is, neither indeed can be. The natural man,
the natural flesh, the nature that we were born with is not
subject to God, neither indeed can be. You could beat it, you
could put any law you want to on it, it will not be subject
to God. When you see a sign that says
don't touch, what is it? It's something in us just wants
to touch it. You put law on us and immediately
there's a desire to be disobedient. It's our carnal nature. Man by nature is led by spirit
but it's not the Spirit of God. And all men are born with this
same carnal mind, following the spirit that worketh in the children
of disobedience, all the sons of Adam. Man by nature, that
doesn't mean he's not religious. Oh, man by nature is very religious. Man by nature is very superstitious. He follows the spirit of religion,
the spirit of superstition. But that's not being led by the
Holy Spirit. All who are led by the Holy Spirit
of God will not follow after the flesh, the lust of the flesh,
no matter how moral a man may be or how religious he may be. If a man is trusting in any of
his works, he is following after the flesh and not after the spirit. If a man is following after his
flesh to merit The favor of God. If a man is trying to obey the
law of God for his salvation, or relying on any of his own
works, he is not following after the Spirit of God. He is following
after his own carnal lusts. The Spirit of the flesh is to
rely on self. I want us to be sure of this,
if any man is trying to obey God by the law, and honor God
by his obedience to the law, he's the same as a sodomite. There's no difference. There's
no difference. If you are trying to earn God's
favor by your works, you are following the same spirit as
a pedophile. The spirit of the flesh. God is very clear in this, in
verse 8 of our text, so then, they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. If you are following after your
own works, you cannot please God. The Scriptures are clear,
all have sinned and missed the mark of the glory of God. They've fallen short of the glory
of God. In other words, if it were possible,
if it were possible for you from this point forward, if it were
possible for you to obey the law in every jot and tittle from
this time forth, it would not count at all because you have
already failed. You have already missed the mark. You've already sinned against
God. There is none righteous. No,
not one. There is none good. No, not one. And there is none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They are all together become
unprofitable, there's none that doeth good, no not one. The scripture
is plainly clear on this. That man by nature follows his
own lust, he follows by nature, he follows after his own spirit,
the spirit of disobedience. You remember in Genesis, when
the Lord was going to destroy the world by flood. He gave the
reason for this. He said every thought of the
imagination of the heart of man was evil continually. Do you get that? Every imagination
of the thought, every motive and intent of the heart was evil
how much? Continually. Well, pastor, that was before
the flood. Well, you want to hear what God said after the
flood? In Genesis chapter 8, in Genesis chapter 8, God says
this, that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his
youth. He says the same thing after the flood. And therefore,
all men are born dead in sins and can by no means please God
in the flesh. Jesus tells us it is easier for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man
to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And he wasn't talking
about monetary richness. He was talking about richness
of self-righteousness. If you are rich in self-righteousness,
it's easier for a camel, big animal, go through an eye of
a needle, little hole. And then the disciples said,
who then can be saved? And Jesus said, with man it is
impossible. Impossible. But with God, all
things are possible. There's nothing you can do to
merit your salvation. There's nothing you can do to
make yourself a son of God. There's nothing you can do to
be led by the Spirit. It is completely and utterly
the work of God alone, and you can do nothing. It's impossible
for you to do anything. But the good news is, with God,
it is possible. With God, it is possible. Are you a son of God? That's
impossible for you to be a son of God, but I tell you, it's
possible with God. It's possible if God made you
a son. That's the only way. In other words, to be led of
the Spirit and to be a son of God, you must be born of God. You must be born of God. Go over
to John chapter 1, born of God. John chapter 1 and verse 11, He, Jesus, came
unto His own, and His own received Him not. But As many as received
Him, to them gave He power. The word power means the right.
The right to become the sons of God. Even to them that believe
on His name, which were born, not of blood. In other words,
not of kin. I have two children. I am a believer. I am a son of God. But I do not
pass sonship to them because I'm a son. Not by blood. This doesn't transfer. Being
born again of God is not a transference of kin or relationship. And he
says, nor of the will of the flesh. If you are a son of God,
it's not because you will to be a son of God. You weren't
born again because of your will. Says it right there. Not of the
will of the flesh. Nor of the will of man. In other
words, not some man pronounces you to be a son. You can't have
some priest or some preacher or some pope sit there and declare
you to be a son by some silly hand movement. Foolish nonsense. Not by the will of man. But of God. If you are born again, it is
because of God and God alone. To God be the glory. Great things
He hath done. God. It is by the sovereign free
will of God. The sons of God were not made
sons by our faith. We do believe in Christ. You
who are sons of God, led by the Spirit of God, you are born again
and you do receive Christ. But your faith did not make you
a son. You were a son long before you
believed. Faith is the evidence of being
a son. Faith is the evidence of being
a son. Our faith didn't make us sons of God, it revealed that
we were sons of God. It revealed that we were sons
of God by receiving Jesus Christ as we were born again of the
Holy Spirit. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
You can hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell whether it's
coming and where it's going. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit of God. It's a miracle. It's simply a
miracle. I've seen people that I thought
were sure on the verge of being born of God. I said, man, that
person's really excited. They have these ears and they're
just intently listening. And sure enough, nothing happened
to that person. And then there's some people
that you never think these people would ever be saved. There's
just no way. And you see the wind comes along
and God saves them. It's a miracle of grace. He blows
where He will. He saves whom He will. Salvation
is of the Lord. Behold, the glorious purpose
of God from eternity was to adopt sons. Adopt sons of Adam's fallen race. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. One of the most clear passages
of Scripture concerning the sonship of God's people. Look at verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Praise be to God the Father for adopting some of Adam's race. Had God not chosen some to be
his sons, it is very clear none of us would
have been sons. Had God not elected a people,
there would be no salvation. I'm so thankful He did not leave
it up to the will of man. None of us would have been willing.
None of us. God, willing to show the glory
of His grace, adopted His sons, not according to any merit of
the sons, but according to His own glory, His own will, His
own purpose of grace. God purposed that His name be
glorified and His grace be shown. And the greatest way He could
show His grace was to adopt worthless sinners. Therefore, all the sons of God
were made accepted in Christ. When? When were you believer
in Christ? When were you accepted? Not when
you accepted anything. You were accepted in Christ before
the world began. You were already His Son. You
were already His Son. But when He came to you in the
Spirit to give you life and faith, it's then you realized He had
made you Son from eternity. It's then you realize you were
accepted in Christ before the world began. Glorious thought
that God has made us accepted in our surety even before there was sin. What thing can hinder us? If
we were sons before sin, precious thought. We were His
before there was ever any curse. We were His sons. We were in
the surety of Jesus Christ before the world began. In 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 1, And verse 9, it says, Who hath
saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. In Titus chapter 1 and verse
2 it says, "...in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot
live, promised before the world began." What such grace that
God has bestowed upon us who have been born of the Spirit
of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that we were not sons
at our faith, We were given the right to be sons at our faith,
but we were sons long before we knew it. We were sons accepted
in Christ before the world began. In the eternal covenant of grace,
all the sons of God should be holy and without blame before
the Father. Can we not see this from the
first sinner? Can you not see this grace being
worked in the first sinner, our father Adam? When Adam sinned,
he was dead spiritually, and what did he do? He covered himself
and he ran from God. That's exactly what we all do.
By nature, the natural man that follows the spirit of man covers
his sin, tries to use religion or works to cover himself before
God. And then when he actually hears
God walking, does he run to God for mercy? Is that what our father
did? Did he cast off his fig leaves,
expose himself and say, God, I have sinned, help me? No, he
ran and hid from God. It was God that found him. And
I tell you, God will find every one of his sons. He will bring every one of His
sons to repent of their sins, to cast off their works, and
to believe in His salvation. And God gave us that gospel in
the first instance. When Adam sinned, he exposed
Adam of his sin, but he also provided a sacrifice to cover
his sins. He killed those animals, and
he gave those skins to Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness. You see, the covering of righteousness
comes by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He said the woman, the seed of
the woman, shall crush the head of the serpent. He promised that the Deliverer
would come and destroy the works of the devil, which was death
and sin. It was God who gave the picture
of the Passover Lamb. It was God that gave the Great
Day of Atonement. It was God that promised in the
Psalms and Prophets that His Son would come from Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob. That He would be the Lion of
the tribe of Judah, the Son of David and David's Lord. All of
this was promised because God had already purposed it. And the surety of God's sons
was made one of us so that He might represent us. Adam represented
us. And he failed. And we all died
in Him. Even so, Jesus Christ is a representative
man. He represents His sons, the sons
of God. He represented them when He came
into the world to obey the law of God in their stead, in their
place, to obtain righteousness for them. Jesus Christ was manifest in
the flesh to be God's servant and God's fellow, God's equal. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The surety of the sons of God
was made a representative for all of His elect so that He should
be the captain of our salvation. We who could do no righteousness,
but Jesus could do no sin. Our Lord could do no sin. Jesus
challenged his enemies, he said, which of you convinces me of
sin? Jesus honored and established the law of God by his own obedience. If you look in verse 3 of your
text, go back to Romans chapter 8, you see this, for what the
law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. The law
is good, isn't it? What's the problem? The problem
is us. We're the problem. We're weak
in the flesh. We could not do it. God, sending
His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. Whose flesh? Not mine. In the flesh of the Lord Jesus
Christ, God condemned my sin. God poured my sin on His own
Son. His justice poured out on His
Son. And all the sins of His sons
have been paid for in the offering of Jesus Christ. All of them,
all the sins of all His people, of all time, were put on Christ,
were in His body and His flesh, and God condemned Him to death. And He died. Thus the righteousness of God
was fulfilled in us. It says that in verse 4. It says
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us. Because of what He did, it's
fulfilled in you, sons of God. The law is satisfied with you. The law can do nothing to you.
The law can demand nothing of you. It's satisfied in us. who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. Jesus is the Lord our righteousness. He is the only sinless and spotless
sacrifice and after honoring God's law in obedience and made
his soul an offering for sin satisfied justice and was risen
from the dead. It was upon the cross that we
might see the desire of man's free will. Do you want to see
what man's free will, the result of man's free will is? It's to
kill the Lord of Glory. That's it. All men desire by
nature to kill the Lord of Glory, to despise Him. They despise
the salvation by free grace of God. But God for His sons offered
His only begotten Son and condemned sin in His flesh, made peace
by the blood of His cross. And by His one offering, He hath perfected, perfected forever. Who? Them that are sanctified. Not sanctified by your works.
Not sanctified by your flesh. Sanctified in that you were chosen
of God to be His sons. Sanctified. You who are chosen.
You who are called to life and faith in Christ. Born again of the Spirit. You. You that have been sanctified.
Jesus has made you perfect. You want to be perfect? Don't spend a lot of money on
cosmetics and plastic surgery. You're already perfect. You're
already perfect! He perfected you, sons of God. He has cast away our sins as
far as the east is from the west, so far as He removed our sins
from us. We are perfected forever. We
are reconciled to God by His blood. We are justified before
God. And now, now we have heard the
word of reconciliation. And we believe on Jesus Christ
alone. That is what it is to be led
by the Spirit of God. It is to be born of God. It is
to be a son of God by election. It is to be a son of God by the
representation and substitution of Jesus Christ. To be a son
of God is to be called to faith in Jesus Christ. Are you a believer
in Christ? Do you rest all your weight on
Him and cast off all your righteousness? That's what it is to be led by
the Spirit. This is the Gospel of God. Jesus Christ is risen from the
dead and seated on the throne of God and rules all things after
the counsel of His own will. It is the same will of the Father
and the same will of the Son from eternity. that of all he
hath given me, Jesus said, I should lose what? Nothing. In other words, everyone chosen
to be a son will be called of the Spirit of God and they will
be saved forever a son of God. Now the Spirit of God has gone
out into the world and God is gathering His saints. Maybe even
today God would gather one of His elect. I tell you, sinner, believe on
Christ. Stop your madness of running
to hell and seek God. Believe on His Son. And may God
give you grace to be led of the Spirit of God. The just. You that are justified, how shall
you live in this world? By law? You that are led by the
Spirit, does the Spirit lead you to law? Absolutely not. Look at verse 15. 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. Those who are led
by the Spirit are never led back to the law. If the Spirit that you claim
to be the Spirit of God leads you back to the law. I tell you
it is a spirit of flesh you are following, not the Spirit of
God. The Spirit of God does not lead
his children to bondage again. He does not lead us from grace
to law. He leads us from grace to grace
to grace to grace to grace. From faith to faith to faith
to faith. Believing the just shall live
how? By faith. That's what it is to
be led by the Spirit of God. Do you believe on Christ? Good.
Believe on Christ. And when you've done that, believe
on Christ. And when you've done that, believe
on Christ. That's being led by the Spirit. The Spirit is always
going to point you to Christ. Not going to point you to anything
else. If you're pointing yourself to something else, that's you.
That's not Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The just shall live by faith. That's what it is to be led by
the Spirit of God, and as many as are led by the Spirit of God. You have this comfort. You are. You're not waiting to be the
sons of God. You're waiting for it to be revealed
more. But you are the sons of God. And if God is our Father,
what else could you want? Is there anything greater than
God? Is there anything more precious
than Christ? Is there anything else that you
would rather hear? Not for a son of God. Praise God for His grace. May
God bless this to your heart. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.