If you're still in Romans 8, we'll be looking at verses 11-17
this evening. Romans 8, verse 11. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we
are debtors, not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For
if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 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 itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if 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, Steve and I would like to look at verses 11 through 17,
but I want to briefly look through 11 through 15, and that will
lead us up to verse 16 and 17. The title of my message tonight
is A Protected Inheritance. A Protected Inheritance. Look
there in verse 11 again, Romans 8-11. But if the Spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." This body that you and
me and all men and women walk around in, it gets sick. It has diseases. It goes through
trials. And because of that sin that
we are, sin that's in these old bodies, one day we're going to
die. This body will be no more. But,
but if the Spirit of God dwells in us, He's made His abode in
us. If we're given a new heart through
that new birth, if we're quickened, if we're made alive in a new
spirit, the death of this mortal body is not the end. This body
we are in will be raised from the grave, made perfect, made
like Christ in His image. Let's turn over to 1 Corinthians
15. 1 Corinthians 15. Some throughout time In Paul's day, before then, and
now in our day, they've said that there will be no resurrection.
They say that once this life's over, once you close your eyes
for the last time, that's it. What a horrible thought. You
talk about people saying that they live for themselves, live
for the flesh, and they have no rule of law over them. or
antinomian that can't be bound, that's a prime candidate. If
this was all the hope I had in this world, what was this world,
I'd be hiding somewhere. I'd be doing something wrong.
I'd be living for myself only. But this isn't something new.
These people walk around and preach this, and they knock on
doors and tell people this, gently, because they don't want people
thinking they're crazy. This isn't something new. Look here
in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 12. Now if Christ be preached that
he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ be not risen,
then our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea,
and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then
is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins. Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. He's saying that
if we have no hope, everyone else that believe Christ that
walked this earth has no hope. They'll perish, we're gonna perish,
and it's all perishing. It's all death. If in this life
only, verse 19, we have hope in Christ, if we only trust him,
we only have this good news for what time we're walking this
earth, for this season, we are of all men most miserable. But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. For since by man came death,
and by man came also the resurrection of dead. What's he talking about?
For as in Adam all died, even so in Christ, the God-man, shall
all be made alive. This world is not the end of
believers. We will not taste that second
death, that never-ending death. We'll be conformed to the image
of Christ. He's risen. He will raise us. Preacher, what's it going to
be like? I don't know. I try to dwell on these things. I want to be focused on those
things above, but we saw just a few messages ago what John
told us. There in 1 John, he said, Beloved,
now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be. We don't know what we're going to be like, but we
know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, because
we shall see Him as He is. That's what I want to be made
like. I don't care if I'm tall or short, or if I'm just as ugly
as I am now. I'm going to be like Him. I'm going to be able to see Him,
be with Him. Back in our text, in Romans chapter
8, because we're given a new spirit, We are made alive right
now in Christ. We have no condemnation before
the Father. We're not ruled and reigned by
this flesh because the Spirit dwells in us. And we have eternal
hope through the resurrection of Christ. Because He lives,
we have hope to live. Now look in there in verse 12,
Romans 8, 12. Therefore brethren, because of all this, therefore
we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, because
that redemptive work of Christ on Calvary's cross, we are not
bound to this world, and we're not bound to that old nature.
We're freed from sin. We're freed from death. In our
new birth, we're made alive to God. We live for Him. We are
His debtors, not this world's debtors. Our new hearts made
alive by God, it looks on heavenly things. We're concerned and our
affections are set on things above. That's what that new man's
concern is. But being freed from this flesh,
being freed from that condemnation that Christ bore for His elect,
that does not mean we're freed from obedience. We are not freed
from believing Christ. We're not freed from loving our
brethren. We're not freed from the fruits of the Spirit. from
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. We're not free from those things.
We're ruled by and motivated by our love for Christ and His
love for us. Paul told the church at Corinth,
for the love of Christ constraineth us. That's what we're ruled by.
That's what constrains us. Because we thus judge that if
one died for all, then all were dead. That means if it was needful
for Christ to die for me, I was a dead man walking. I had a death
sentence. It was needful. That was the
punishment. And that He died for all, all
His elect. They which should live should
not live henceforth unto themselves out of that debt of gratitude,
but unto Him which died for them and rose again. That's who we
live for. That new man strives after our
mastery. one that died for us. Now is
this just Paul showing us this? Paul telling us here in Romans,
Paul telling us in Corinthians. Is Paul the one showing us that
the love of Christ for his people is what makes us serve and be
debtors to the Lord? We just saw last week too, John
told us that plainly. Hereby perceive we the love of
God because he laid down his life for us and we ought debt
of gratitude. We ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren. Those saved by grace have nothing
against serving the Master. I've had people say, well, you're
bound to Christ. Amen. I pray I am. What a blessing. That's a privilege
to serve Him. It's not a burden. It's a privilege.
We're allowed to serve Him. We were sentenced to death and
our old nature from Adam and Christ secured His and the Father's
glory and honor in upholding that law and dying for the sheep
and freeing us from sin and death. Therefore we are debtors to His
love and we're debtors to His glory." What a wonderful thing
to be a debtor to. Alright, back to our text here
in Romans chapter 8. What are the facts that come
with man's motivation. What are the results of either
living after the Spirit or living after the flesh? Romans 8 verse
13, For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die. But if ye, through the Spirit,
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. If you're living
for your flesh and by your flesh, You are still dead in sin and
only eternal death waits. Only eternal condemnation. That's
the only thing that lies ahead. If you trust in something you
did, you trust in something you said, something you thought to
save your soul, living after that flesh, you shall die. You ain't gonna make it. But
if you mortify the deeds of the flesh, What's that mean? We put down, we crush, we subdue,
we hate, we despise, we loathe. We despise our works and our
ability. We're humiliated by our attempts
at righteousness. Then that conviction of sin is
through the Spirit. We are against that death that
we are because now we have life in Christ. And, and, We're not dead. We're freed from
all that. We now have life in Christ. And
we're not only given life and ruled by Christ, not by this
flesh, we are made sons. Those that believe on Christ
are children of the Almighty God or His child. Look here in verse 14, Romans
8, 14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God. Here's the evidence. We are the
sons of God. We are led by the Spirit. We
are led to praise God alone, not man. We're led to worship
Christ alone. We're led to mortify this body
of death. Put it down. We're led to live
for His glory and the furtherance of His gospel. Turn over to John
16. We'll mark our place there in
John 16. If you've got two markers or a piece of paper, we'll come
back to it later. But does a man choose to give Christ the glory? Is that something that we muster
up in this old flesh? Do we convince ourselves and
build upon our faith to believe Christ and worship Him? Look
here in John 16. Verse 13, Howbeit, when He, the
Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.
For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear,
that shall He speak, and He will show you things to come. He shall
glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall Show it unto you. There's going
to be a revelation. There's going to be a work done.
Not a work proposed. Not a work offered. When that
Spirit comes, He's going to glorify Christ, that great Comforter,
and He shall show it unto you. He's going to show you Christ's
glory. Sure He is. Being led by the Holy Spirit, we glorify
Christ and not ourselves. We glorify Him. This is the proof
that our salvation is the work of God solely and that we're
made His children. Back in our text there. If you
can, mark your place in John 16. Back to our text in Romans
8. The inmate sons. being made the children of God
through that effectual work of Christ, we don't fear condemnation. We are freed from condemnation. We fear the Lord in honor and
in respect, but not in punishment. That condemnation is gone. Romans
8.15, 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. We are the adopted children of
God, and we as little children, dependent only on our Father
for all things, we cry for Him. Abba Father. Father, Father is
what the word means. Daddy, Daddy. Cry for Him. Some of you people have children,
and your children may show me something, They may be happy
about something, come to me. They may have a little bit of
a concern and come to me. But they won't come to me as
they'll come to their parents. When we're in true pain or we're
in true joy, when a child is, you cry to the one that loves
you and the one that you love, your parent. The saints of God
have been loved by Christ through that sin-atoning sacrifice He
made for us. We've been made one with Him.
And through Him loving us first, we love Him. And only because
we have been made His sons and daughters, we cry to our Heavenly
Father. We come to Him with all things.
And I was thinking of that illustration. I think Clay used it, but he
talked about love. How Christ loved us when we were
yet sinners. When we're babes in Christ. We're
unable. We're unknowledgeable. We don't know nothing about Him.
You see a mother or father with a little newborn baby. What's
that baby do? It cries. It eats. It messes its diaper and it sleeps.
That's it. It doesn't know anything. It
doesn't do anything productive. It's nothing but work. But you
love it. Oh, you love it. And he cared
for it, and he provided for it, and you give it security, and
you watch after it. And then when that child gets
a little bit older, a little bit bigger, just a few months old,
a newborn baby that doesn't do anything, you can hold it, and
if it's mommy walks in the room, and it makes eyes with her, it'll
start crying, won't it? Won't touch mommy. Don't even
know it's name's mommy. It'll start crying after that
parent. Oh, father, father. We don't
have to know much. We just have to be his child.
Alright, verse 16, Romans 8, 16. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. To those born again, the Holy
Spirit witnesses to our new nature, to our new spirit, that we are
the eternally secure children of God. However, my old man often
doubts that. Do you? Do you doubt Am I a child
of God? Do you have moments of insecurity,
unbelief, doubt, times of worry, wondering if you're a child of
God, if Christ died for you? Am I one of them that he died
for? Am I one of the elect? When we look around us or we
look in us, there's two big reasons that we doubt our salvation.
First off, we see a glimpse of how great and wonderful this
blessing of salvation is. We see how great it is. Romans
11 says, For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He
might have mercy upon them all. He looked at all His children.
He said, None of them believe Me, and I will have mercy on
them. Oh, the depth! of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out. We can't wrap our
minds around the majesty of the grace of God in Christ. His love
for His people was so perfect that He sent His Son to this
earth to be made like us. to be made a man. He lived a
perfect life on behalf of his people underneath that holy law
of God. Obeying every jot and tittle.
And he suffered and died that shame on a cross. All while being
perfectly righteous without sin. He knew no sin. So, we could
be made his righteousness. That's so unsearchable. Believers
are prone to doubt that such wonderfulness and great blessings
are already ours. That's done. If you're His, that's
yours. He did that for you. Christ died
for you. Why would we be so prone to think it's just too good to
be true? Why is that? The second reason. The first
reason we see how wonderful, how majestic salvation is through
Christ. The second reason we're so quick
to doubt that adoption, that sonship, is because we see a
glimpse of just how sinful and unworthy we truly are. How undeserving
we are. The understanding of our sin
is not through a lot of reasoning. We don't understand our sin because
we sat down and read the Bible a whole bunch. The knowledge
of what we are does not come from our admission of guilt.
I was wrong. Well, saying you were wrong don't
convict you of sin. It comes from the heart work
and the conviction that the Holy Spirit gives. That comforter
comes and convicts of sin. Now let's look back there in
John 16 again. John 16, the conviction of sin
is not the only thing that the Spirit convicts us of. Look here
in John 16, 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not
away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart,
I will send Him unto you. Christ is going to send the Comforter
to His people. And when He has come, He will
reprove the world of sin and righteousness and of judgment.
Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and ye see me no more. He was righteous. He was accepted by the Father.
And of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. Prince of Darkness is already
judged. The children of God, those adopted by the Father through
Christ Jesus our Lord, we are shown by the Holy Spirit what
we are. Sin. We're convicted of sin. We're shown in our hearts who
and what Christ is. Righteousness. He is righteousness. And in addition to those two
things, we're shown what holy and true judgment is. holiness
of the Father to punish the sin that we are in His Son. And that from finishing that
salvation, Christ's accomplished work for His elect, He's glorified,
He's ruling, He's judging, and He's reigning right now in all
things. That's the proof His work was
accepted. We have an empty tomb. We don't
have a tomb of bones. It's empty. Why? It's done. Finished. And we're made to know
these things. That's how John could tell us
there in 1 John 5, and we know that the Son of God has come
and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. It's Him. And we're made to know
Him. That's not a burden to be a debtor
to that. That's good news. Worldly, my
children know me. You young people know me. You
all know I love you. You know I provide for you. You
know I keep you safe. But there's times that you doubt
that. There's times you've been afraid,
even if I'm standing next to you. But that does not affect
my ability or my determination to be a father to you. Whether
you question me or not, that doesn't change what I'm going
to do. And that's on this earth. The Lord asked those disciples,
He said, which one of you, if your children come and say they're
hungry, they want a fish, you will give them a scorpion? He
said, in your evil, and you know better than that, how much more
your Heavenly Father will provide for you. and my children doubt of me doesn't
make them any less my children." That doesn't change. Back to
our text in Romans 8. But just as human children, they
doubt and they trust. They fear and they love. Spiritual
children have times of weakness and times of strength too. But
nothing changes our Heavenly Father's holy love for us. Nothing
changes His almighty ability. to preserve us forever. We're
still His heir. We are still His children. No
matter what we are, we're His. Look there in verse 17, Romans
8, 17. And if 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
in parts of this chapter, Paul says we're sons. I know some
people nowadays don't like that. Men, man, and sons, the male
part. Another part says children. Why
does he say both? Why is that? Well, in the Roman
law, a natural born child or an adopted child, either one,
male or female, they were all equal in being heirs of their
parents. It didn't matter. Now, in Jewish
law, for the Jews. The daughters did not receive
the inheritance of the parents unless there was no male heir.
You had to be a son. So regardless of what, what's
Paul getting at, regardless of man's law, whether it's Roman
law, if it's a Jewish law, or some law we have nowadays, however
you cut it, whatever law you was raised under, All the saints
of God are fully His heir. Jew or Greek, male or female,
rich or poor, educated or uneducated, it doesn't matter. There's no
ranks, there's no degrees of children. We're all joint heirs
with Christ. And like Bob brought to us Sunday,
that illustration of that, that man came to Christ and said,
talk to my brother. and make him share that inheritance
with me. Because the firstborn got the lion's share of the inheritance. They got the bulk of it. And
he wanted everything to be even. Between us, between the children
of God, it's even. We have Christ. He is our inheritance. If somebody's wanting a stone
in their crown, I feel sorry for them. They might just get
it and miss him. And if the two-thirds of the
share goes to our elder brother, glory be to him. Let him have
it. How does a person in this country
right now become an heir? We're born or we are adopted
by someone, and that becomes our parent. And then when they
die, we receive whatever they have declared is ours. They said,
I'm gonna leave this to you, and that's what you get. But
sometimes, sadly, In families, there's lawsuits and there's
fights over who gets what or who gets how much of what. And
worldly, that parent is dead and they cannot defend their
wishes. They cannot see that matter straight.
And in some cases, family members cave. They give in to a sibling
and I say, that's fine, you can have, I know mom said you had
to get this part of it, and you can have another part of it.
They'll give in to their siblings, or worse off, a court will rule
in favor against the last will and testament of someone. Those
are worldly things. But that benefactor's wishes
were not honored. They were not granted. So in
our day and time, being an heir is not necessarily something
that's guaranteed. I want to leave you children everything
I have." You may get it, you may not. The state might take
it. But our God, our Father, He lives. Christ is sitting on
the right hand of the throne of all grace and all power. He's
interceding and controlling all things on our behalf. And His
will must be performed in earth and in heaven. His inheritance
is not going to be misgiven. His will and testament will be
honored. What He declares is going to
happen. By His power, He's going to make sure of it. And He's
alive to defend it. And He will govern His eternal
will in the daily lives of His people. Not only in our eternal
blessings, but in our daily blessings. What are our daily blessings?
Sometimes it's a time of trial. The Lord sends that to His children.
Sometimes it's a time of joy. He sends that to His children.
Sometimes it's a time of great persecution. He sends that to
His children. All of which He uses to chasten
His children out of love, out of mercy, pointing us yet again
back to our Redeemer. Teaching us that we were made
joint heirs with Christ. Meaning that our sonship is through
Him and it's with Him. And no one can pluck us from
His hand. We're eternally secure in Him. Romans 8, 17 again, and
if 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. It says there, if we suffer with
him. That gives the children of God two different comforts.
First, we're one with Christ. When he suffered, he bled, he
died, his children suffered and bled and died. We had to be one
with him. We're one with him now. That
is how we died to sin. That's how we died to death.
That's how we're freed from condemnation of the law. And being in him,
in his life, his death, his burial, we are one with him as he's raised
from the grave. As he lives right now, so we
live. We're alive in Him. Now the second
comfort of suffering with Christ is we know because our Master
suffered on this earth, we're going to suffer too. The Lord
told us that. He said there must be heresies,
there must be trials. It's going to come. It's going
to happen. And I always find it easier to bear a trial if
I know it's coming. You like being blindsided? I
like knowing something's coming. Trials are coming. If you're
His, you're going to suffer with Him. Our master suffered, and
the servant's not above his master. Hardships must come. And when
that hard trial comes, for His sake and for His glory, we can
be reassured once again where He is. If you have everything
easy in this life, no speed bumps in the road of life, be weary. Our confidence rests only in
Him. And we with Apostle Paul, he wrote to us in Philippians
3, for our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look
for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body,
according to the working whereby He is able, even to subdue all
things unto Himself. Now if we're His, if we're a
child and He's able to subdue all things unto Himself, why
do I worry? Why do I get sad? Why do I get
down? I'm His. He's able to subdue
all things. That includes me and everything
around me. Why would I fear? A believer
has no excuse to not walk through this life the happiest, most
peaceful, confident, and calm person that ever lived. It's
alright. Our Father rules and reigns.
Christ lives. I'm a joint heir with Him and
my condemnation's gone. That's eternally secure. Alright,
let's pray together.