Well, it goes without saying
that I'm thankful to be back. Thankful to see you and to fellowship
with you. Thankful for the messages last
night we heard. Thankful for the song. You write
that song? That's good, isn't it? Well, I want you to turn with
me. I just have one verse of scripture over in Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 15. Romans chapter 8 and verse 15.
For you have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. But you have received the spirit
of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Sort of my subject
this morning, I guess, if I had a title, would be what the Apostle
Paul said here, the spirit of bondage to fear. Seems like there's a general
principle taught in this verse, if you just think about it, in general, physically speaking,
mentally speaking, that we don't fear anything until that's represented to our
minds that we should fear it. I don't know if it's the way
God made us in the beginning, that in the beginning Adam, when
he was in his holy state, feared nothing. God didn't make him
afraid of anything. He feared God. And that's all
he feared. And maybe this is something that
man has retained in his conscience, in his fallen nature, that he
doesn't fear anything. His heart doesn't fear anything
until that's represented to him as a danger. Something that he
should fear. It has to be received from some
outside source. I was reading a little story
about a small child playing with a nest of copperheads. A child was playing with a nest
of copperheads. Why would a child play with a
nest of copperheads? A child has no sense that those
copperheads are dangerous. I had a sister when we were young. She was four or five years old
and she loved to play in the fire. And one day my dad was
burning a brush pile and she caught herself on fire and almost
burned herself to death if my dad hadn't saw her in time and
put her out. But she never got in the fire
again. That scared her from being in the fire. So in the natural
realm, We see people get themselves into all kinds of trouble. Young
people. We try to stress to young people,
don't do this. Stay away from debt. Don't get
yourself in debt. You'll ruin yourself financially.
We see so many young people ruining themselves financially, ruining
themselves physically with drugs and all of this. And there's
a reason they do that. They don't fear. And even in
the natural realm, when we think of this fear, it's not so natural
to us. It has to be represented to us
from some outside source. Now, this is bad enough in the
physical realm, but this can be devastating when it comes
to the physical realm. I wonder if you and I could go
out across this town of Rocky Mountain this morning. We see
this when we talk to people. and talk to people about their
state, their spiritual condition before God. What do you think
about sin? What do you think about the judgment
of God? What do you think about dying
and eternity? And you know the average person
you talk to would have no concern about that. And isn't that amazing? That
men are standing on the brink of eternity and don't fear? I think one of the things that
shows the exceeding wickedness of the fallen heart is that it's
so willing to deceive itself in this very matter of its sinfulness
and the danger that it's in. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and to deceive other people, that's bad enough. But
to deceive itself, and not deceive itself about, I'm going to lose
my job, I'm going to lose my health if I'm not careful, I'm
going to maybe lose my family if I'm not careful, but the eternal
loss of its soul. That shows the exceeding wickedness
of a man's heart. But you know something? No man
will ever fear he has lost a statement before God until an outside source
represents that to his mind. Man, you're about to lose your
soul. Man, you're a sinner before God. You're lost before God. And I think that's what the Apostle
Paul is telling us here in this passage. We can never know our lostness. We can never know our sin and
our guilt before God. We just cannot know it until
that condition, the danger, is represented to our minds. And he says here that this is
received. In other words, it's not something
original to us. It's not something that here
we're going along and we come up to our teenage years and our
own hearts begins to make us concerned. And makes us begin
to consider, what's your condition before God? You're facing eternity
and you're a sinner. Think about that. In other words,
that don't originate with us. Such thoughts, such concern,
such fear doesn't originate with us. It has to be received. It's something that's received.
You've not received the spirit of bondage again. And you know,
it's not willingly received. And here's where the Holy Spirit
has to be a sovereign spirit. Who's going to receive a spirit
of bondage? Who's going to open his arms
and say, oh, I welcome this. I welcome to show me what I am. No, nobody's going to come into
bondage. And the Holy Spirit has to be sovereign in representing
to our minds. One of the reasons we believe
in the irresistible grace of God, because it has to be irresistible. It has to be. Stephen said, you do always resist
the Holy Ghost, and you would too if He permits you. Because
what He's got to show us at first is not pleasant. It's the Spirit
that brings us into bondage, to fear. Fear is a heavy thing,
isn't it? It's a heavy thing. It's essential. Holy Spirit conviction
is essential. for us to be saved. And this
is what I see in this text here. The Holy Spirit, before he becomes
a spirit of adoption, is to us the spirit of bondage, to make
us afraid. That rich man never lifted up
his eyes until hell did him. He never lifted up his eyes until
hell made him lift up his eyes. Why didn't he lift up his eyes
here? One or two reasons. Either it had never been represented
to him the danger that he was in. And that may be so. That
may be so. There's a lot of people that
never fear until they awaken hell. Or it was represented to
him in some degree and only God knows he hardened his heart against
that fear. Holy Spirit conviction, Him coming
to us, weighed in our hearts down with the heaviness of this
fear, this bondage, is so essential that we'll never know the spirit
of adoption, which is also received, until He comes to us and represents
it to us. That familiar scripture in John
chapter 16, where the Lord Jesus said, when He has come, Those
three things He tells us about sin. When He comes, He will convict,
He will convince the world of sin. Men from all over the world,
His elect from all over the world, He comes to them and convinces
them of the evil of sin. Evil. Oh, sin is an evil thing. Isn't it an evil thing? It's
against the holy God. It's against the good God. Against
thee, and thee only, of our sin. He convinces us of that. The
nature of sin, the guilt of sin, the guilt of it. We're without excuse, aren't
we? We're without excuse. Nature teaches us that. Everything
we look up around us and teaches us, we're guilty. Our conscience convicts us of
it. The Word of God convicts us. The preacher gets up and
our conscience is convicted. We were thou, thou art inexcusable,
oh man. The end of sin, Brother Walter
just read it. Sin when it's finished bringeth
forth death. Holy Spirit represents that to
us. Sin. The need of a sacrifice to atone
for sin without shedding of blood is no remission of sins and our
need of forgiveness of sins. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, but who gives a hoot? Preach
him all you want to. Send him forth in his beauty
and his glory, but who cares? until this Holy Spirit comes
as a spirit of bondage to fear. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit, and He begins it. And when He
begins it, it brings our conscience into bondage. He has to be sovereign in this
work. Our forefathers used to tell
us that It's a very dangerous thing to be found before you're
lost. Remember that? It's a dangerous thing to be
healed before you're wounded. Dangerous thing to have life
before you've been killed. That's what this verse is telling
us. It's simply what this verse is telling us. The Holy Spirit
first comes to us and represents to us the danger that we're in. He makes us fear, burdens our
hearts with it. And then in God's time, and God
only knows, this Spirit gives way to the blessed Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Father, Father. Now here's where I want
to begin. I want to give you five reasons.
that the Holy Spirit's sovereign work is so necessary. This is so necessary. You have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have.
You have one time. The Spirit began to work on you.
Here's why this work of the Holy Spirit bringing us into bondage
is so necessary. Let me begin this way. Here's
the first one. Here's the first reason why it's so necessary. Because the heart of lost sinners
are deceived. They're blind. They're hard. The heart is willing to live
in sin without seriously considering the consequences of it. The heart
of lost sinners are like light-hearted little children in the playground,
running from one toy to another. The pleasures, the joys of this
life, the joys and pleasures of sin. Brother Scott said sinners,
poor sinners, are skating over a bottomless pit on thin ice. And they'll continue to whistle
and sing until the Spirit comes and makes them heavy. And makes them realize, man, I'm
so heavy. I'm going to break through and
perish. You know all God has to do for
a man to perish is just leave him alone. Just leave him alone. The ice is getting thinner and
thinner and thinner. Pretty soon, He'll break through.
And He won't even care. Oh, how necessary it is this
morning. If you're here and you're a lost
sinner, you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, how necessary it
is that He come to you this morning, not to first of all make you
comfortable, but to make you feel your misery, the danger
that you're in. Secondly, lost sinners are satisfied
in sin. If anything, they just want more
of it. Just give me more. More pleasure. More fun. Leave me alone and
just let me enjoy this life. I love it. Like that poor rich
man that said, I'm going to tear down my barns and I want to build
bigger barns, better barns, prettier barns to bestow all my goods. Man, I've got these crops coming
in. I'm so satisfied. Then I'm going to say to my soul,
take it easy, man. Take thine ease. Take thine ease. My God, man, you are going to
die tonight. The fuel is in the back hole
to dig your grave. This night, your soul is going
to be required of faith. Well, when the children of Israel
were down in Egypt, they got so satisfied down there, didn't
they? They were sitting by those flesh pots, roasting their beef,
eating their garlics and their onions, But when it come time
that God was going to deliver those people from there, you
know what He did? He said, Pharaoh, bring them
into bondage. Afflict them and make them miserable. And boy, when they began to feel
the whip on their back, they had no rest. They were tired. Then they sighed by reason of
the bondage. I think this verse you're just
teaching us here, that the Lord has to bring a sinner to the
point that he's dissatisfied. Have you ever been that way? How many times have we heard
people talk about being dissatisfied, and at first, they didn't know
what they were dissatisfied with. I just got to the point, I'm
dissatisfied with life. Dissatisfied with my sin. Things
didn't satisfy me anymore. I think sometimes the Holy Spirit
begins that way. But it's necessary. Third reason that this is so
necessary is this. Jesus Christ never gives Himself
to anybody savingly until first He makes them feel their need
of Him. He's not a cheap Savior. He gives Himself to us. but only
after He's brought us to the point of, I want Him more than
anything. Why isn't this place running
over with people this morning? Why aren't the windows raised
up and people on ladders out here looking to Him? Why aren't
people giving themselves to Jesus Christ this morning? To love
Him and believe Him and follow Him? Why aren't the masses flocking
to Him? Calling up on Him and pleading
for mercy. There's just one reason. They
don't need Him. We're looking for somebody that needs a Savior.
I worked with a man, one of the least he was honest to me. I
asked him one day, Bob Slavin. I said, Bob, why won't you come
to Christ? There's life in Jesus Christ.
He's the door back to the Father. In Him is everything a poor sinner
needs. He said, Bruce, it's obvious
why I don't come to Him. I don't need Him. That's the
truth. God will be honest. Who came
to Him when He was here? The sick, the blind, the lame. He healed those who had need
of healing. And it's still that way today,
isn't it? And here we go in our emptiness,
in our lostness, in our deadness, in our danger, and we don't even
need Him until this Holy Spirit comes and begins His work. And
He brings us to the point that we need Him more than we need
our next breath. This is where it begins. This
is where it begins. Fourthly, The work of the Holy
Spirit is so essential because faith is born out of desperation. Faith is born out of trouble.
Now I'm not talking about some trouble man brings you into.
If man has confused you and troubled you, then another man can come
along and unconfuse you and all of this. But I'm talking about
when God begins faith in a man's heart. That faith is born out of trouble.
Now there's a good passage, and you know it well, and I want
you to turn over there. It's over in Psalms chapter 107.
All of you are very familiar with this chapter, but I think
it proves this point here that I'm talking about. Look in Psalms
107. I think there's a reason why Many people today are so content
with a mere profession of faith. Any little thing will satisfy
them. You take them and baptize them,
that'll satisfy them. Or they pay tithes, even if they
have to send them in, that'll satisfy them. You see people
walk in the aisle, we hear of that, walk in the aisle and repeat
the sinner's prayer, all of these things that we're hearing about
in our day. And you see people doing that
and they live satisfied with that. Well, this spirit of bondage
again to fear will remedy being satisfied with that. being satisfied with a faith
that's not saving, to live with a hope that's false and presumptuous. Faith is born out of trouble.
Look here what he says. He explains it better than I
can. In Psalms 107, he begins there with saying, Give thanks
unto the Lord for He's good. And that's what leads a man to
repentance, is it not? The goodness of God leads a man
to repentance. You see a poor man bowed down
with his guilt and he's afraid. That's not because God hates
him, that's because God loves him. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of his enemy. And
look at this, he's not only redeemed them, but now, and he gathers
them. of all the land from the east,
the west, the north and the south. He's elect, that's what he's
talking about. But look how he gathers them. They wandered in
the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell
in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord. Why didn't they cry before then?
They weren't hungry. They weren't thirsty. And their
souls never fainted. They cried to the Lord, look
at this, in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their
distresses and led them forth by the right way that they might
go to a city of habitation. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord. And look in verse 9. He satisfied
the longing soul, He filled the hungry soul with goodness. Such
is said in the darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound
with affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words
of God, and they despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore
He brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there
was none to help." How did they know there was none to help?
They probably sought for help. And there's like that woman with
an issue of blood. And I've just gotten worse. It's
a shame, but that's us. If I can get satisfaction from
any other place, I'll do it. But when God brings our hearts
down with labor and we fall and none can help us, what do we
do then? Verse 13, Then they cried unto
the Lord of their trouble, And He saved them out of their distress. And you can go on. Two more examples
there. You can go on and read it for yourself in your leisure. And I'm just saying this, brothers
and sisters, that faith is born out of soul trouble. It's born
out of trouble. Somebody said this. The soul will never appreciate
rest until it's first felt the heaviness of the load. A captain will never value the
quietness of the haven until he's first faced the churning
of the stormy seas. The sailor will never truly appreciate
the security of the anchor until he's first been tossed by the
waves. Who appreciates that fountain
open for sin? The one that's felt the filthiness
of sin on his conscience. Who but the naked person appreciates
the garments of salvation? Who appreciates life in Christ
but he that's felt how dead in sins that he is? And who will
live and bask in the glory of heaven but those that first feel
like, I don't have any hope? This is the Spirit's work. You
have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear. And you know, don't we still
retain just a little bit of this anxiety today, if it's suggested
to our conscience about, are you going to leave me? You ever had something suggest
that to your conscience? Are you going to leave Christ?
Are you going to leave the Lord Jesus? Oh, just to think about
it. Oh, just to think about it. If you entertain such a thought,
it will fill you with anxiety. Lord, to whom shall we go? The Spirit has taught us that. He
taught us that. Fifthly and lastly, why this
principle is so necessary, because God has purposed to get Jesus
Christ our Lord and Savior a great name and great glory. And the Spirit has come to fulfill
that purpose in our hearts. He's come to glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ in our hearts. And how does He glorify Him?
But as a Savior. A great Savior. So He makes us
feel our awful need of Him. And we never get over it. When
He begins His work, we never get over it. You preached a message
one time, decades ago. You are getting old, man. Decades
ago, you preached this message. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into this world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. I remember these two poems
that you preached. You said two things a believer
will never get over with in this life. One, I'm the sinner and
he's the Savior. Everything we learn as we increase
in grace and knowledge, that's at the bottom of it. A preacher came up, and you may
have been there when he preached this, Paul. I didn't talk to
you about it, but he came up to a church there where some
of the folks there in the congregation preached. He came up and he made
this statement. He said, we've got to get beyond Christ. And our deacon was there. And
man, did he ever confront that guy. He said, what's out there? How do you get beyond Christ? Well, this work of the Holy Spirit,
when He brings this work and He does this work in our hearts,
I tell you what, that will remedy such an attitude of getting beyond
Jesus Christ. You'll never get over Jesus Christ. I used to say He'll climax in
heaven, but I don't even know if He's going to climax in earth.
I don't think we'll get over Him that way. Around the throne in eternity,
they'll be casting their crowns before Him saying, Thou art worthy,
O Lamb. You redeemed us to God by Thy
blood. Oh, there's something in Jesus
Christ more glorious We can't explain it. And we'll be experiencing it
for all eternity. And that's the glory of His redeeming
mercy and love. But this is why this work of
the Holy Spirit is necessary here, brothers and sisters. He
makes us to feel our need. He makes us to glory in Him. Two things quickly our text implies
strongly that's very comforting, and I'm going to begin here Sunday
morning if the Lord's willing. When he said, you've not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the
spirit of adoption. He strongly implies here that once we've experienced this new
birth, The Holy Spirit come into our hearts as a spirit of adoption.
We'll never be lost again. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again, Daphne. Doesn't he imply that? Somebody
said, Oh, Paul, I'm lost again. He said, No. No. You'll never become unadopted. You'll never become unsealed.
The Spirit would have to reverse what He's done. He would have
to cease being the Spirit of adoption and go back to being
the Spirit of bondage. That'll never happen. No. This is an eternal work. When He begins His work and He's
become a Spirit of adoption, He'll be a Spirit of adoption
to you the rest of your days. You'll be saying, Father, Father,
Father. Isn't it wonderful to have a
salvation you can't lose? I've lost so many things. I just
lose them the older I get and I misplace and forget them. This
is something you'll never lose. You didn't begin this work. He came to you and He prepared
your heart. And now that He's come to you,
that's the spirit of adoption. always be the Spirit of Adoption.
Have you ever noticed sometime when you've sinned that your
conscience has refused to address God as your Father? I mean, boy,
you just felt unworthy, you felt so sinful, and the Holy Spirit
has checked you? He's checked your conscience? He'll never disown you as His
child. He's not willing for you to disown
Him as your Father. Twenty-four hours a day, the
rest of your life, every moment of your life, address Him as
Father. My Father. You say, Bruce, I
feel so unworthy. Well, you're unworthy any time
in your life. My Father, My Father, He's a
merciful, heavenly Father to you. Address Him that way. Live under the assurance of that.
You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. And
lastly is this. The Father who has begun this
sweet communion between Himself and His child is never willing
that that communion be broken are even interrupted. This is an amazing thing that
you and I have a union with a triune God. Paul said it in Galatians
6 like this, he said, Christ hath redeemed us, and because
He has, because you're sons, He sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your heart. And what's that Spirit crying?
Abba, Father. That's the Spirit of God's own
Son. The first person of the Trinity sent the Spirit of the
second person of the Trinity into our hearts crying, Father,
Father. It's Him crying that. And here
in our text, he said in verse 15, you receive the spirit of
adoption whereby you cry. You cry. The Spirit is in us
crying and our spirits are crying. We have this perfect union, this
sweet communion and union with the triune God. God the Father
The Spirit of God's Son and us, we're all in union. Now eternal,
unbroken union. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. And as necessary as that was,
you'll never receive it again. You have received the spirit
of adoption. Goodbye, dear crowd. God bless you. Thank you. God
bless you, Donnie.