Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. We are God's children. This is
what Paul is telling them. We are God's children and we
are led by the Spirit of God. We are not taking this journey
on our own. We are not traveling through
this life on our own. We are led by the Spirit. You know, in the wilderness,
when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they were
led by a cloud by day and a fire by night. And you and I are led by the
Spirit of God, and we are led by the Word of God. We are led
and we're told of God. And that's the point I want us
to see here is that we are God's children and the Spirit of God
witnesses to this fact. It's not guesswork. We are not
left to guesswork whether we are God's children or not. Because
the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are God's
children. Now Paul, we're going to pick
up here in verse 12. He starts verse 12 with, therefore. This word looks back to what
has previously been said, especially in verses 5, 6, and 9 of this
chapter. These verses say that those who
are in the flesh are in enmity against God and they are dead. They are dead, they are dead
in trespasses and sins. But those in whom the Spirit
of God dwells, they have life and peace. We have life and peace
now. Now, we don't have the full enjoyment
of peace, although we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our peace with God, but the enjoyment of that
right now is in a measure because of the flesh we're still in here.
We'll see this here in a little bit when he speaks of the first
fruits, the first fruit to the spirit. Do we realize what God has delivered
us from, death. The very thing that everyone
in this world is trying to avoid, God has delivered us from it.
Us who believe, God has delivered us from death. Death has no power
over us. We have been delivered from death
to life, spiritual life, the life of God. That which is born
of the spirit is spirit. We have been delivered into spiritual
life from death, from spiritual death. And because of this, because
of what our Lord has done for us, we are to walk in a manner,
and this is what Paul is teaching here in this first part of this
chapter here. We are to walk in such a manner that we adorn
the gospel of the grace of God. We adorn the gospel of God's
grace, and we are debtors to the grace of God. We are not
debtors to the flesh to live. I owe this flesh nothing. I don't
owe it a meal. I don't owe it a meal at all.
It can starve to death, starve it out. I owe nothing to it. But I tell you this, I owe everything
to the grace of God, don't we? We are here right now. Everyone's
here right now. You're here by the grace of God.
He's brought you here. He's given you an interest in
Jesus Christ. He's given you a love for Christ.
We are a debtor to the grace of God. For He has redeemed us
from the curse of the law. He set us free from the dominion
of sin. And now we are free to serve
God. We are free to serve Him and love Him. Walk with Him. I love that portion of scripture
where it says Enoch walked with God. If there's one thing that
could be put on your tombstone, if there's one thing, it's not
that I was a pastor here. It's not that you were whatever
you are, where you are doing what you're doing. Here's the
one thing, he or she walked with God. What a testimony. There cannot be a greater testimony
to a person than that person walked with God. And that's what
we're seeing here. Paul's talking about our walk
with God, and our walk is in such a manner that we adorn the
gospel of the grace of God. He says in verse 13, For if ye
live after the flesh, if you live, if you continue to live,
is what he's talking about, if you continue to live in a manner
that's agreeable to the old nature, it's agreeable to that old nature,
without faith in Christ, without repentance, if you live that
way according to the corrupt principles, listen, then you
shall die. He's not talking about going
to the cemetery. He's not talking about this body
dying and we're going over there and be buried. No, he's talking
about eternal death. You'll perish under the wrath
of God in the lake of fire. That's very real. He said, if
you walk, if that's who you are, then this is your end. You shall
die. You shall suffer all the miseries
of eternal hell. You shall die. But, oh, don't
you like the buts there in the Word of God? But God, who's rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. And here,
but, those who are born of the Spirit of God live after the
Spirit. They live after the Spirit. And
the evidence of them living after the Spirit, being led by the
Spirit, the Spirit of God dwelling in them, is this, they mortify
the deeds of the flesh. They don't feed that old man
like they once did. Every now and then we toss him
a bone, don't we? Every now and then we toss him
a bone. But we don't live like that. We don't live like that. We mourn over our sins. We mourn
over our conduct at times. but we are led by the Spirit
of God. We are sealed by the Spirit of
God. God, the Holy Spirit lives in
you and He's guiding you and He's directing
you. Believers, they seek to put down these deeds of the flesh
and live after the Spirit. For if you live after the Spirit,
you shall die, but if you through the Spirit, now see, you don't
do this by yourself. We cannot mortify the deeds of
this flesh, that is put to death. We can't do it by our own efforts. We do seek to do it, but we do
seek to do it by the Spirit of God, by the help of God. You
and I both pray, Lord, help me to overcome indwelling sin. Help
me to overcome these things. Don't let them have me. Let no
secret sin have me. Deliver me. But if you through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
It's evident you have life, now and hereafter. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Here
is the evidence of a child of God who's leading him. Nobody here, no one here is their
own person. You say, I'm my own man. No,
you're not. No, you're not. They're a person on this earth
that is their own. They are either under the power
and influence of the Spirit of God, or they are under the power
and influence of the Spirit of darkness. We're not out here
on an island by ourselves. We are not our own. Christ said
that, you're not your own. You've been bought with a price,
talking to the redeemed. We are led by the Spirit of God.
This is the evidence of a child of God. He or she is led daily,
led by the Spirit of God. And I tell you, we need to be
led. We need to be led in spiritual
things. Do you know what to do next? Do you know what's coming
next? Well, then you and I don't know
what to do next. We don't even know what's coming down the road.
But He does. He does. My whole life is before
Him. I'm living it out, but it's already
done before Him. He's done with Him. As far as
God's concerned, it's done. And the manner in which He leads
us is not by force. When we have kids, we have, what
did I read in Psalm? They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. You don't have to teach them
to do that. Sometimes you gotta force them to eat their, eat
proper, you gotta say, you gotta eat that, that's good for you.
I don't like it. You gotta eat it. But he doesn't
lead us by force. He doesn't lead us, because I
tell you why, you don't drive and force sheep. You lead sheep,
you drive goats, is what you do, but you lead sheep. And here's
what he does. He draws us, he woos us, and
reveals to us Christ. It's a drawing. Notice what Paul's
saying here, you are led. You are led by the Spirit. You're
not driven by Him, you're led by Him. and you're led by Him
willingly. You want to be led by Him. You
want Him to lead you. Listen, it says, and I believe
it's in Philippians, that He gives to His people both the
will and do, He gives it, both the will and do of His good pleasure. You had a will to be here this
morning. You willed to be here. You wanted
to be here. You had a desire to be here.
That's of God. That's of God. That's the evidence
of the Spirit of God in you. There's the evidence. You want
to be where the gospel is preached. You want to hear of Christ. You
want that. That's the leading of God's Spirit. That's that
new man. That new man is led by the Spirit. It says in Psalm 110, that thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. and the beauty
of holiness now has to do with thy youth. But God's people are
made willing to do. He teaches us, instructs us,
and shows us, and reveals Christ to us, and we are willing to
go in that direction. We are willing to do His will.
Not my will, but thine be done. Thy will be done. When you and
I are really, really submitted to the Lord's will being done,
the Holy Spirit brought you to that place. He brought you to
that place. Our Lord said, when He, the Spirit,
talking about the Holy Spirit, when He, the Spirit of truth
has come, He will guide you into all truth. He'll guide you. He's a great teacher. He's God. And it's only those who are led
by the Spirit of God that can be called the sons of God. Now he says in verse 15, For you
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. What spirit? Now listen, when
he says here, let me make this point. When he says here, you
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, you've
received the spirit of adoption. He's talking here, he's not talking
about the Holy Spirit now. He's talking about your attitude
and my attitude. That's what he's talking about.
We do not have an attitude of fear. If I don't go to church,
God's gonna kill me or God's gonna take it out the door another
way. If I don't do this, I don't,
you know, that's not why we come here. That's not. You don't have
the spirit of bondage like the children of Israel had. Most
of them, not all of them, most of them had that spirit of bondage. They always wanted to go back
to Egypt. They were afraid if they didn't do this or that.
That's not what you were given in the new birth. You were given
a spirit of sonship. That's why you cry, listen, he
said, that's why you cry, Abba, Father. And it's interesting,
I think Abba, it's the language the Hebrews used. For Father
in Hebrew, it was Abba. In Greek, it was Father. And
this is interesting, because I've read this, you just kind
of look at it and you read it, and then 40 some years later,
it jumps out at you. But here is Jew and Gentile calling
the same father, father. We're calling this, I call the
same father that Abraham called Abba, that David called Abba,
David didn't call him father, David called him Abba, and I'm
calling him father, that's the Greek word for father, father.
Here we are together, God has made both one. He's broken down the middle wall
of partition, it tells us, I believe it's in Colossians. He's broken
down that middle wall of partition and we are one and now we call
God our Father. He's not the Father of all men
and women. He's not. He is the God and Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ and of those in Christ. He is our
God and Father. God is my Father. My Father owns
this world. My father owned, you know, if
somebody asked me, how much land do I own? I could say, I own
all of it. Because on later here, it says that we will inherit,
we are heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ. It's all mine.
It's all mine. All things is what? Yours in
Christ Jesus. Everything really is yours. It's
just the wisdom of our father that deals it out to us in this
life. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear. Come boldly, it says, to the
throne of grace. Is that what it says? Come boldly
to the throne of grace. You don't have to come in fear
and trembling. Come bold, not arrogantly. Now,
the boldness is not arrogance. It's boldness that God is our
Father. He literally is my Father. The Spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. He gives us
the witness of His Spirit in our hearts assuring us that we
are God's children. Now, do you feel like it most
of the time? No, you don't. No, you don't. But why are you here? Why are you here? Because you
love Christ. You love Christ. You want to
hear of Him. There are times when you feel like the worst
person on this earth. I know you do. There's times
you feel like you're the most sinful person on this earth.
But then there's times when you hear the gospel. There's been
times that I have sat and heard the gospel. Many times I sat
and I heard Henry preach. And you remember in the gospels
when Mary walked into the room where Elizabeth, her cousin was,
she was three months, I think three months pregnant before
Mary. And it said that the child, when
she walked in, when Mary walked into the room, and she was pregnant
with the Lord, it says the child leaped in her womb. Have you
ever felt that under preaching? You just felt like you were just,
there were a hole inside, just leaped for joy. If you could,
and without sounding like a nut, you'd have jumped up and shouted.
You would have. There's been times, there's been
times, I have, I have, I thought, I wish we could stand up and
clap on that one. There has. There have been times I wish
I could stand up and clap, not for the person, but for God and
what he's done for me in Christ. That it's been that kind of an
experience that I've just, it was just like, that's his spirit
bearing witness with my spirit that I'm his child. Because there
ain't a dead sinner in this room or any other room that would
ever experience that kind of joy. You can't have that kind
of joy and Christ not be in you. It's not possible. You're just
like, well, we're going for lunch.
You're more interested in where you're going for lunch than what
you're hearing. But the child of God is more interested in
what they're hearing. But there are times when we're
the opposite. We're dull and we feel so dull and dead, but
thank God you feel it. Because the dead and dull don't
really feel it. But thank God you do feel it
when you have it. He's not left us alone, but he has sealed us. You are sealed. You ever, you
know what's canning? Some of you ladies can, garden,
you know what it is to seal that jar in here. Pop, you put a seal
on it. You're sealed with a... You're
preserved. That's why you seal it, isn't
it? Isn't that why you seal it? To preserve what's in it? God
has put His Spirit in you to preserve you and keep you as
we travel through this sinful world. Spirit of God dwells in
you. Every true believer has the Spirit
of God dwelling in them. at the time God saves him, you
sealed. You're not gonna get, someone
told me one time, he's getting a second work of the Spirit.
In other words, he was gonna receive the Holy Spirit. Well,
if you didn't get him the first time, you ain't gonna get him
a second. You just missed it, that's what you did. And if, now listen, and if heirs,
now we're children of God, and if heirs, then heirs of God. We are heirs of God. You know,
there have been people on this earth who've had parents and,
you know, the family has been very wealthy, and they're heirs
to that. That's nothing. That's less than
zero compared to what you and I are heirs to. We are heirs
of God. Everything he has, we have. We
are heirs of God, and joint heirs, listen, with Jesus Christ, just
joint heir is this, whatever He has, I have. Whatever belongs to Him belongs
to me. I'm a joint heir, is what I am. Now listen, if so be that
we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together with
Him. You see, we're heirs with Him.
We have all that He has, all the glory He has, all that's
been given to Him is ours. But now, the suffering is ours
too. The suffering's ours too. We suffered in Him at Calvary.
When He died, we died. But because of our oneness to
the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a measure of suffering, and
it's measured. He had full-blown suffering.
Ours is measured out. There's a measure of suffering
that we have for bearing the cross of Christ in this life,
whatever it is, whatever God puts us through. We are glad
to... Remember what Paul was saying
in Bible class, that he will glory in his infirmities, his
sufferings? It's given to us, in one place
he said, it's given to us not only to believe on Him, but to
suffer for His name. to count it a joy to suffer for
the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not only given on us
to be heirs of God, joint heirs of Christ, but it's given to
us to also suffer with Him as we pass through this life. And
this is what Paul says there in verse 18 concerning this suffering. that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us." Now, no suffering at the present time is good.
I mean, it seems good. It's painful, it hurts. Sometimes
you wonder, as David said, is the Lord clean gone? You wonder
if he knows what he does. Paul has says here, but I calculate,
that word reckon is to count, is to calculate. And you and
I ought to do that from time to time. We ought to sit down
and calculate what we have in Christ, calculate the blessings.
And if we weigh them up against what we go through in this life,
he says, it's not even worthy. He says, it's not even worthy
to be compared. And I tell you what, my sufferings,
I cannot compare them to the sufferings of my Lord. at the
hands of unmitigated wrath. I count, I reckon, I count it
up that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed." I want you
to listen. The glory that shall be revealed in us, the glory
is going to be revealed to us. We will see His glory. But seeing
we are joint heirs with Christ, we are going to experience the
glory. We're not going to just stand
around and look at glory. We are going to experience the
glory. He said the glory in us is going
to be revealed in us. We have no concept, there's just
no way to have a concept that when we die and we leave this
world, we go to glory, and when we receive that body, that new
body, how powerful that new body is going to be. How powerful
the mind will be without sin. It's unbelievable how powerful
just the mind will be and the body will be. and the glory that
we will have in the Lord Jesus Christ and in ourselves. As He
is, so are we in this world, and especially in glory. Now he's going to turn, he's
saying here that those who are led by the Spirit, they are the
sons of God, they are heirs of God, they are joint heirs of
Christ, everything is theirs, we are delivered from the bondage
of sin and corruption, and now he turns to creation. He's turning to this earth, the
trees, the grass, the flowers that we watch die every year. They die at the fall of the year. In the fall of the year, we look
at the leaves, especially you go to the mountains and you look
at the fall and all those colors. You say, boy, that's beautiful.
Well, it is. It's beautiful. And that's the
way we ought to be in our last years. We ought to be beautiful in our
last year. We ought to be more gracious and kind, and those
are the colors that should be coming out. But it's dying. What you're seeing is, in just
a few weeks, death. It's dying. You see the leaves
turning colors, and you see the flowers falling on the ground. What you see is the effect of
sin, from Adam's sin. Adam's sin not only affected
the human race, it affected God's creation, all of God's creation. That's why it says here, for
the earnest expectation of the creature, that's the creation.
Waiteth. This earth is waiting for the
manifestation of the sons of God. This earth is waiting for
that last child to be born. Because creation knows that when
it's done, it'll be renewed. It'll be new all over again. For the creature, the creation
was made subject to vanity, not willingly. Creation did not sin. Adam sinned. But because Adam
had dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air,
he had dominion over this earth. And because he had dominion over
this earth and he sinned on this earth, this earth was subject
now to futility. Because when God said to Adam
after he sinned, He said that the earth will bring forth what?
Thorns and thistles. That's the curse. When you get
stuck with a thorn, you get stuck with a curse. And he's probably
cursed too, but you get stuck with a curse. That's what it
is. And that's part of the curse.
The creature, the creation was made subject to vanity, the trees,
all the inanimate objects and all the animals, they were all
subject to sin. Not willingly, but by reason
of Him who has subjected the same in hope. God subjected creation
to hope, the hope of redemption that you and I have in Christ,
it's gonna be renewed. I'll tell you what, when he died
and he shed his blood, he bought it all. It's all his. All the kingdoms, everything
belongs to Jesus Christ. Everything's been turned over
to him, lock, stock and barrel. It's all his. He says here in verse 21, "...because the Creation itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into
the glorious liberty of the children of God." Creation itself shall
be delivered. The trees and that new, here's
what it is. There's a new heaven and new
earth. He's speaking about that new heaven and new earth. When
you and I die, what have we been reading about? A new body. We're going to have a new body.
There's going to be a new earth just like this one. But the trees
and the flowers are not going to die no more. Those things
that are dying now are not going to die anymore. There's going
to be a complete new creation just like this one. Just like
the body we're going to receive is going to be a new body, a
new creation just like this one, but without sin, with no sin. The creature itself shall be
delivered. Creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God. I was trying to find the scripture
here. It just hit me while I was up
here, and I think it's in Isaiah. The lion shall lay down by the
lamb, and it talks about that child that's playing by the hole
of the ass. That's that new creation. There's
no viciousness, there's no killing, there's no eating of one another. There's not an animal. You can
go up and pet a lion. It's a new creation. For we know, in verse 22, we
know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now. When you hear of earthquakes, you know what's happening. Creation
is groaning under the burden of sin. It's just groaning under the
burden of sin. Volcano? I was thinking this morning,
it's just the way I think, but I was thinking, because I have
acid reflux. I've got that pretty bad. I hate it. And I thought, that's the Earth's
acid reflux from sin. When you see a volcano go up
spewing out that hot volcanic ash, that's from sin is what
that is. That's the earth vomiting up
under the load of sin. That's what it is. Tornadoes,
storm, hurricanes coming through and blowing everything down.
That's the effects of sin on creation, but that's all gonna
be done. It's all gonna be done away with. And listen, and not
only they, the creation, but ourselves also, which have the
first fruit of the Spirit. What's he talking about here?
Us who have the first fruit of the Spirit. What is the fruit
of the Spirit? Is it not love, joy, peace, happiness? You and
I have a measure of happiness. We have a measure of joy in the
Lord, don't we? We have a measure of joy in the Lord, we have a
measure of happiness. But the full-blown harvest of that measure
will be experienced when we're in heaven. The full-blown harvest of it
will be experienced. Right now, by the Spirit of God,
we enjoy some happiness in the Lord, joy in the Lord, love one
another. We enjoy it. But then, when sin is gone, we
will enjoy what it really is to love our neighbor as ourself.
We will really enjoy, like I said to Vicki once, I said, when we
die and the Lord takes us to glory, we'll finally love each
other like we ought to. I wish we could now, but there's
just too much sin in us. There's too much self in us. And not only, and in verse 23,
and not only they, but ourselves also, which had the first fruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves. Don't
we do that? Oh, my back's hurting. Oh, this
body hurts. As we get older, this body hurts.
And we've grown over sin. We've grown a lot, don't we?
We've grown a lot, especially as you get older. I get out of
bed in the morning, first thing I do is, oh, my back's hurting.
Every morning. Then I gotta move around a little
bit and get going. Even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption, that is to say the redemption of our bodies.
I'm getting a new one. I'm getting a new one. I'm turning
this one in. I'm gonna turn it in the grave and nobody's gonna
dig it back up. I'm getting a new one. And you
are too. And for we are saved by hope.
See, we have this hope, and this hope keeps us going. And this
hope is of the Holy Spirit revealing Christ to us. But hope that is
seen is not hope for what a man sees. Why is it yet hope for?
You see, we have a hope of being with the Lord. David said, I'll
be satisfied when I awake with your likeness. We have a hope
of being like Him. We have a hope of that. We have
a glimpse of it now. Paul said we see through a glass
darkly. Someday hope is gonna give way
to reality, but until then we keep on hoping, hoping in the
promises of God, hoping in Christ, of whom the promises speak of. Until then, that's what he means,
we're saved by hope. It's the object of hope, the
Lord Jesus Christ. For if we hope, For if we hope
for that which we see not, then do we with patience? Wait for it. Wait for it. My, my, my. The hardest thing
in the world to do is wait for it. Wait. Wait on the Lord and be
of good courage and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I
say, on the Lord. Wait on Him. And likewise, the
Spirit also, we'll have to move along here, helpeth our infirmities.
He helpeth our infirmity. In other words, He doesn't let
you go. Now listen, He doesn't let you
go as far as you can go, then He picks it up and takes it the
rest of the way. No. We carry it. We deal with the
infirmity, but He helps us do it. He helps us to bear with
it. He helps us to deal with it. to deal with it and not fall
apart. He helps us to do it. Likewise, the Spirit also, He
helps our infirmities, for we know not what, and I said earlier,
the key word here is what. We don't know what is necessary
for ourselves under any circumstance, under any trial, we don't know
what's necessary. Lord, take it away. Well, that's
really not what's necessary. It may need to get worse. it
may need to get worse. And I tell you what, and the
Holy Spirit, that's what He intercedes for. Christ intercedes for us,
the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, and He intercedes for us
individually. He's interceding for me individually
in my particular situation. But the Spirit, the Holy Spirit
Himself, it says Itself, but Himself maketh intercession for
us, and He does it with groanings which cannot be uttered. And
He that searches the heart, who is He that searches the heart
and knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit? God. This is interesting. He knows, He searches the heart. He searches my heart, He searches
your heart. And God Almighty, God the Father
knows what is the mind of the Holy Spirit. And their mind is
one. The Holy Spirit's intercession
is always, always in accordance with the will of God. And He
brings us around to the will of God. But the Holy Spirit,
you say, I may be praying to take it away. The Holy Spirit
is praying, don't take it away. And then He brings me around
to the point where thy will be done. That is a real comfort to me. He that searches the heart, God
searches your heart. God searches our hearts, my heart,
your heart. He searches the hearts and He
knows what the mind of the Spirit because He that is the Holy Spirit
makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. He's not left us alone. You and I don't know what to
pray for. I really don't. I don't know what to pray for.
You know, some of you get sick and I hear things and I pray
that the Lord will heal you. I pray the Lord will lift you
up. And that is my prayer. But then I have to say that I
will be done because I don't know what's necessary. I don't
know what's best for you. And I don't know what's best
for me. Just like Paul asked God to remove that thorn in the
flesh three times. The Holy Spirit is praying, don't
remove it. Don't remove it. I know Paul. He needs it. I know
John. He needs this. He needs it. And he'll bring me around to
bow to the will of God. Alright.