Good evening, let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 292. 292. A pilgrim was I and a one dream
In the cold night of sin I did roam When Jesus the kind shepherd
found me And now I am on my way home Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. He restoreth my soul when I'm
weary. He giveth me strength day by
day. He leads me beside the still
waters. He guards me each step of the
way. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. When I walk through the dark,
lonesome valley, My Savior will walk with me there And safely
His great hand will lead me To the mansions He's gone to prepare
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the
days of my life. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. And I shall dwell in the house
of the Lord when I shall feast at the table spread for me. Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days, all the days of my life. All the days, all the days of
my life. be seated and just turn you page
one page back to him number 290. 290. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order and
provide. In every change, he faithful
will remain. Peace to my soul, my best, identity
friend. Through thorny ways, leads to
a joyful end. Be still my soul, thy God doth
entertain, To guide the future as he has the past. I pump thy confidence, let nothing All now mysterious shall be pride
at last. He's still my soul, but waves
and winds still know His voice to rule him while he dwelt below. Be still my soul, the hour is
hastening on When we shall be forever with the One When disappointment,
grief, and fear are gone. Sorrow for God, love's purest
joys restored. Hope all of you could make it
over to house Saturday. Romans chapter 8. Read from verse 11 down to verse
17. 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 you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you 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
bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs
with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together. Our most blessed, blessed God
of heaven and earth, creator, sustainer of this world and all
that's in it. Lord, we are so blessed, so blessed, so privileged to be able together
with the children of God. And I remember, Lord, where you
said that if two or three are gathered together in my name,
there you'd be in the midst. So, Lord, we ask you, claim that
promise tonight that you'd be in our midst. You said you would,
and we've gathered here tonight in your name to hear about you,
to learn of you, to learn about how desperately we need you because
of this old rotten, corrupt flesh. And, Lord, we come. As a needy
people, always poor and needy, we have nothing we can bring
of our own, and we always are in need, need of your presence,
your power, your mercy, and your grace. And Lord, I pray for those
that are not with us tonight that are providentially hindered.
We ask for your blessings and mercies to be upon them. For
those who are listening tonight or watching, God bless them. And Lord, bring glory to yourself
tonight, and please be merciful, oh God, be merciful to our families,
sons and daughters, children and grandchildren. Lord, go where
they are, go where they are, because they will not come to
where you are unless you come to where they are. So Lord, go
after them, go get them. Go get them like you come and
got us. You drew us to yourself, draw them to yourself. You work
your power in us, work your power in them. You saved us by grace,
oh Lord, save them by grace. But most of all, bring glory
to yourself in whatever you do, your will be done. Meet with
us for Christ's sake, amen. M number 480. 480. There's probably a lot of songs
I don't play just right, but I know I'm not playing this one
just right. But maybe we'll get through it anyway. In tenderness he sought me, weary
and sick with sin, and on his shoulders brought me back to
his fold again. His presence sang until the chords
of heaven rang. Oh, the love that sought me. Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought me. the wondrous grace that brought
me to the fold. He washed the bleeding sin wounds
and poured in oil and wine. He whispered to us, Never heard a sweeter voice It
made my aching heart rejoice Oh, the love that sought me Oh,
the blood that bought me Oh, the grace that brought me wondrous grace that brought me
to the fold. He pointed to the nail pricks,
for me his blood was shed. A mocking crown so thorny was
placed upon his head. me to suffer such deep agony. Oh, the love that sought me. Oh, the blood that bought me. Oh, the grace that brought ? The wondrous grace that brought
me to the fold ? ? I'm sitting in His presence ? ? The sunshine
of His face ? ? While with adoring wonder His blessings I see ?
It seems as if eternal days are far too short to sound his praise. Oh, the love that sought me. Oh, the blood that bought me. ? Oh, the grace that brought me
to the fold ? ? Conscious grace that brought me to the fold ?
? So while the hours are passing ? ? All now is perfect rest ? the brightest and the best. When He will call us to His side,
to be within His spotless pride. Oh, the love that saw me Wondrous grace that brought me
to the fore. It tells us there in verse 11,
if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, his resurrection,
talking about his resurrection, if that same spirit that raised
Christ from the dead dwell in you, that raised up Christ from
the dead, shall also, when we're in the grave, When we die, when
we go to be with Christ, He'll quicken us, our mortal bodies,
by His Spirit, and that Spirit dwells in us. And then He says,
therefore, in verse 12, therefore, that's where I'm going to pick
up at. When you see a therefore, find out what it's there for.
I tell you that all the time. But you know, since by the power,
therefore, since by the power of the Holy Spirit, we've been
regenerated. been delivered from condemnation,
that's what it says in verse one, there's therefore now no
condemnation, none whatsoever to them in Christ. Since we've
been saved from the power of the flesh and death, look what
it says in verse two, for the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus, that's where we get our life from, from Christ.
hath made me and made us free from the law of sin. And sin
is such a law, I mean, there's no way the world, we could ever
do away with it by ourselves, and that's why we can't do away
with it by the flesh, from the law of sin and death. You know,
Now, we're still talking about sanctification. We're not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit. That's what the Scriptures tells
us. We're not in the flesh, but we're in the Spirit. You know,
we're sanctified by God the Father, according to Jude. We're sanctified
by the Holy Spirit set apart. And I believe, I read the other
day, that there's 18 mentions of sanctification in the New
Testament. and we absolutely have nothing to do with any one
of them. God does all the sanctifying. Christ is our sanctification,
and that word sanctification means set apart or to be made
holy, to be made a saint, that's what it actually means. And then
our Lord Jesus Christ said, Father, sanctify them through thy words. that Word, it comes and brings
it to us and it sets us apart, constantly setting us apart from
ourselves, our thoughts, our opinions, our flesh, and the
things that we find wrong with even ourselves. And I tell you,
you know, sanctification is evidence of us being justified. Like I
told you, they go together. Being justified FREELY! Being
justified FREELY! And when it says justified FREELY,
THAT MEANS EXACTLY WHAT IT IS, WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.
THROUGH HIS GRACE, BEING JUSTIFIED FREELY THROUGH GRACE, THROUGH
THE PAYMENT PRICE OF BLOOD, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR LORD JESUS
CHRIST. AND THE BIBLE IS TELLING US PLAINLY
HERE THAT THE POWER OF SANCTIFICATION IS NOT IN THE FLESH. AND I KNOW
THERE ARE PEOPLE THAT REALLY BELIEVE THAT THEY CAN SANCTIFY
THEMSELVES AND GET BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER. They call
it PROGRESSIVE sanctification. Now, I've been here for over
45 years, and I ain't progressed a bit in sanctification. In fact,
I feel like I'm getting worse. You know, how in the world do
you PROGRESS in sanctification? What the flesh, you know, the
flesh There's no way in the world that we can sanctify ourselves
by the power of the flesh. I heard a preacher preach that
one time. I heard him preach that, you know, you've got to
get better and you've got to quit sinning and you've got to
keep doing something, you've got to keep doing this, you've
got to keep doing that, and you've got to do this and do that other
thing. And that's all free will preaching is. Pentecostal preaching
is, it s just MOTIVATION, motivating you to do something, motivate
you to live right, motivate you to quit sinning, motivate you
to do something for Jesus. I read to Shirley this morning,
somebody there was handing out food to the poor, and he said,
I m Jesus' hands today handing out food. So he s done something good by
his flesh, by His flesh. But the only way in the world
that we'll overcome anything in us at all is by the POWER
of the Holy Ghost Himself. We cannot do it ourselves. And
look what He says, therefore, in verse 12, Brethren, we're
debtors, we're in debt, we're in debt. But what are we in debt
to? Well, we're not in debt to the
flesh, to live after the flesh. Let me ask you something. What
has your flesh ever contributed to your salvation any time? Has your salvation made you better
in any way? Has your flesh made you better
in any way? Has it ever contributed to a
good thought? To a good deed? To an obedience? Boy, I tell you, I handle that
real, real well, that we are debtors NOT to the flesh! We
owe this flesh NOTHING! This flesh is an ENEMY, and it
hinders us so much anyway! You know, we come to a service
like this, and some of you have worked all day, you went to work
early in the morning, you had your lunch hour, and you went
back to work, and then you get home, and you relax just a few
minutes, and here you come to be here! And that flesh makes
you weak, that flesh makes you tired. And then, but when you
come in here, when the Holy Spirit comes down among us, then you
leave here not as tired as you did when you got here. How can
that be? Because the flesh contributes
nothing. All it does is hinder us, don't
it? Oh my, we're Abraham's seed,
we don't live after the flesh. This flesh has never given us
any advantage whatsoever. And oh my, we're not debtors,
not to the flesh to live after the flesh. Our primary interest
is not the flesh, not the flesh. Brad and I was talking about
the other day, Scott said this so many times, he said, you know,
keep your service as simple as you possibly can and do not give
any opportunity to the flesh to raise its head. And that's
why we keep it about as simple as it gets. Sing a couple songs,
read the Bible, pray some, and then preach. How more simple
can you be than that? And our primary interest is not
in the flesh or materialism or the things of this world, but
all our interest in the Kingdom of God and His blessed righteousness.
And to be fleshly minded is evidence of not having the presence of
the Spirit of God. It's evidence of being absent.
Just look with me in Matthew 7. Let me show you something
over here in Matthew 7. You know, when to be fleshly
minded is evidence of an absence of the Spirit. Matthew chapter
7, look down in verse 21, this is some
worldly-minded people, this is some placely-minded people. He said, Our Lord says, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, now see he mentioned Lord twice. Oh, we got Lord,
Lord, shall enter HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED IN YOUR NAME, PREACHED
IN YOUR NAME, AND IN YOUR NAME WE'VE CAST OUT DEVILS? IN YOUR
NAME WE'VE DONE MANY WONDERFUL WORKS. BUT LOOK WHAT CHRIST SAYS
ABOUT THEM, SHOW YOU THAT THEIR EFFORTS ARE STRICTLY OF THE FLESH,
AND THEN WILL I PROFESS UNTO THEM, I NEVER KNEW YOU. DEPART FROM ME, YOU THAT WORK
OF INIQUITY. BUT EVERYTHING THEY'VE DONE,
THEY'VE DONE IN JESUS' NAME. He said, I never knew you, you're
workers of iniquity. That's all the flesh can produce,
is something that the flesh. You know, our flesh and everything
that pertains to it is gonna die. It's gonna die. Every day we get another day
older. I never would have dreamed I'd
been as old as I am now. I thought, man, I was just 25
just the other day. What happened? Well, same thing's
happened to all of us. Everything pertains to this flesh,
houses, lands, property, but anything that we have is gonna
die, gonna die. And we'll be raised in the likeness
of our blessed, blessed Savior. And by God's grace, we're not
obligated to live after this flesh or this world, but we want
to live under Christ, under Him that loved us and gave Himself
for us. And I tell you, we're free from
condemnation, but let me show you something. And we're free
from condemnation and death, but we're not free from obedience. Look with me in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. I want you to see this. You know, we're not free from obedience.
We're free from sin and death and condemnation. But oh my,
look what it says here in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14. But we're not free
from obedience to our Master. If a man loves me, he'll keep
my commandments. And look what he said here in
verse 14, 2 Corinthians 5. For the love of Christ constrains
us. The love that Christ has for
us and our love for Him constrains us. That means it compels us,
it makes us, pulls at us, tugs at us. Because we judge this,
this is what we judge, that if one died for all, if Christ died
for all, then all that He died for, they are all dead too. where
they died in Christ, with Christ. Now look what the next verse
says. And that He died for all, that they which henceforth should
not live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them
and rose again. He constrains us and we want
to live unto Him. We want to live unto Him. That's
why Paul said, Oh, you foolish, foolish Galatians, YOU FOOLISH
GALATIANS, YOU HAVEN'T BEGUN AND THE SPIRIT IS GOING TO BE
MADE PERFECT BY THE FLESH. DID FAITH COME TO YOU BY THE
WORKS OF THE FLESH OR DID IT COME TO YOU BY HEARING, HEARING,
HEARING? OR HOW DID IT COME TO YOU? THEN
LOOK WHAT IT SAYS IN VERSE 13 OVER HERE IN ROMANS. Here's the consequences of living
after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh,
and like we said, the flesh means our old nature, our old endemic
nature. For if you live after the flesh,
if you live after your old nature, but if you through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. And there's just
two consequences here. Those who live after the flesh,
it says they die. They shall die. They're already
dead in trespasses and sin. And let me, and I was thought
of this. You know, there's people that start out Good, they start
out very well. They start out attending the
services for several years, and then all of a sudden they quit,
they get missing a little here, and miss a little there, and
miss a little here, and miss a little there. And I think this what happened
is that they start living after the flesh, and they die spiritually. They didn t have spirit to begin
with, but they had that flesh, and they was going by the energy
of the flesh, and they die spiritually. I mean they are THROUGH with
Christ. And then not only that, They're
already dead, and then they go for an eternal death and a SECOND
death. Spiritual death means to be separated
from God Almighty. Do you think about that, being
separated from God, being separated from Christ? And then there's
an eternal death separated from God for eternity, and then God's
gonna bring all the dead from out of the graves, and He's gonna
say them that did what's not in the Lamb's book of life, they're
gonna be sent to the SECOND death! They died ONCE and went down
there, God's gonna bring them back up, and then He's gonna
send them down to die a SECOND time! And they're gonna have to face
everything that they did! Oh my! You know, two issues are
certain. If you live after the flesh,
death is certain, death is certain. You live after the spirit, life
is certain. Flesh, death, spirit, life, and
they're both certain. Now, let me say something right
here, and I believe every one of you will understand what I'm
saying. The man that's in Christ is not in the flesh. but the
flesh is still in him. Huh? And that's why we're not trying
to transform the flesh into something good or learn how to live with
this. What we're trying to do is by
God's grace live every day without this flesh just making us miserable. Oh my! We need the presence and
power of the Holy Spirit of God. That's what we need more than
anything else. You know that s what He said
in verse 9, look back up there in verse 9 with me, and this
is what God says now, and what God says is so regardless of
how we feel. But you re not in the flesh,
who is? God s elect ain t, God s people
ain t, those that are in old condemnation ain t. If you re
not in the flesh but you re where you re at, you re in the Spirit,
and if so, be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Christ in you,
the hope of glory. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of life, the Spirit of grace,
the Spirit of mercy, the Spirit of love, the Spirit of power,
if he has not the Spirit of Christ, he don't belong to Him. He don't
belong to Him. But oh, we're going down here
now. Oh, but he says, He said in verse 13, if you live after
the flesh you die, but if you through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body. But we have life through the
Spirit. This is how believers live, by
the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit and Christ in them. And they
deny the flesh. Oh, deny the flesh. It's power,
it's strength, it's righteousness, it's goodness, it's desires.
We deny it, we don't give no power to it. Paul said, you know,
we're the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and you know what else he said? Have no confidence
in the flesh. And oh my, it's the Spirit of
God that makes us to live. It's the Spirit of God that gives
us power. It's the Spirit of God, and this
flesh, this flesh contributes nothing to it whatsoever. And
I tell you, the believers are conscious, very, very conscious
of their character and their conduct, and they want their
character and conduct to honor their Lord, their blessed Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we never, ever have overcome
sin by the power of the flesh, but only by the power of the
Spirit. You know, it's a sad, sad thing. John Wesley, and if you believe
I'm lying about it, made it up, you go get his works. He's got
three volumes, and he taught two things. He taught that a
man could be morally persuaded to believe, that if you could
just morally persuade a man, you could get him to become a
believer. And the second thing he taught
was, is that Man can live a sinless life. He said a man can live
a sinless life. I was living, staying in a motel
one time, some bunch of preachers and stuff was on the first floor
and I was on the second floor. That's the only time I've ever
lived above sin. I had to say it. So that's the only way I'm going
to be on the second floor. But oh, he talks about mortifying
the flesh, mortifying the body, you know, mortify the deeds of
the body, the things that the body would do. And that word
mortify means to make it dead, to consider it dead. to MAKE
it dead and not let it be your master. And that word, you know,
in Romans 7, let me show you this in Romans 7 and this is exactly what we do. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
become dead through the law by the body of Christ. Body of Christ. And so we've become dead to sin
over there, so we mortify, we've already died in Christ, we've
already died with Christ, and we mortify the deeds of this
body. We don't let this body have LIFE
and control us. And then look down here at verse
14. Oh, I love this verse right here. Here's the results of living
after Christ. For as many are led by the Spirit
of God, they're the sons of God. Now let me ask you, where does
the Spirit of God lead us? It leads us one place. Always
had led us to one place, one person. You know, our Lord Jesus
Christ, everyone that hath heard and learned of the Father, He
comes to me. He said that Spirit, when He
has come, He shall not testify of Himself and not speak of Himself,
but He will take the things of mine and show them unto you.
The Spirit of God. How do we know we're sons of
God? How do we know we're sons of
God? The Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost of God leads us to Christ. leads us to grace, leads us to
trust Christ, leads us to believe Christ, leads us to the Bible,
and believe the Bible! I've often said, you know, when
Jonah was swallowed by the whale, if the Bible said that Jonah
swallowed the whale, I'd believe that! That's how convinced I
am by the Word of God, and that's what we're talking about, as
many as are led. Now, a lot of people say, well,
the Lord led me here, and the Lord led me there, and they say
that's what it means, the Lord led me here, and I know I'm a
son of God, because He led me to this place, led me to that
place. There's one person that the Spirit of God leads you to,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how we know we're
sons of God. BEHOLD WHAT MANNER OF LOVE THE FATHER BESTOWED ON
US, THAT WE SHOULD BE CALLED THE SONS OF GOD. AND IT DOETH
NOT YET APPEAR WHAT WE SHALL BE, BUT WE DO KNOW THAT WHEN
WE SEE HIM, GOING TO BE JUST LIKE HIM. THAT'S THE WHOLE PURPOSE
OF PREDESTINATION, IS TO TAKE US AND CONFORM US EVENTUALLY
INTO THE VERY PERSON OF CHRIST, JUST LIKE CHRIST. AND OH, IT
SAYS, YOU KNOW, WE'RE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD. our REGENERATIONS
by the Spirit of God. We are BORN AGAIN by the Spirit
of God. We are BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST by
the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit TEACHES us about
Christ and the things of Christ. And you know when we PRAY, when
we WORSHIP, when we PRAISE, when we SING, when we LIVE, the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of God is the only one that can help us
and do those things in a spiritual way. The spiritual way. Oh my. And then look what happens in
verse 15. Look what happens now. He said,
we've got the spirit of God, he's led us to Christ, he's led
us to God, and we're the sons of God. And then he says, for
you've not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father. Now, I don't know how many of
you all remember living after the flesh and trying to please
God by the energy of the flesh, trying to make peace with God,
try to live right, try to live a holy life and try to dress
right and not go to certain places and do things like that. It brought
bondage. It brought fear. I'll never be
able to satisfy God. I'll never, I'll never be able
to get to heaven by doing it by myself. And it produced a
bondage, it produced fear. When will I ever have any peace? Oh my. And that's what he's talking
about, the spirit of bondage, the flesh. The flesh, religious
flesh, any kind of flesh produces bondage and fear. And bondage,
when you're in bondage, in this sense here he's talking about
being a slave. You're a bondage, you're a SLAVE
to fear, you're a SLAVE! And oh, our Lord said perfect
love casts out fear. And I'll tell you what, our love
ain't perfect, but His is, His is, and oh my! But oh, the flesh
brings bondage and fear. And Paul told Timothy, he said,
We've not received the spirit of fear, under bondage, but the
Spirit of POWER, sound mind and POWER. I never had a sound mind
until God saved me, and we never had any problem with the FLESH
until God saved us. You didn't even know you had
FLESH until God saved you, and then a WAR started! Oh my, but he goes on to say,
but we've not received again the bondage to fear, the law
any kind of bondage. We're not under the law, we're
not under the flesh, we're not under works, under grace. But
here He says here, and we're talking about the sons of God,
we have received the SPIRIT of adoption. And oh my, what does
that Spirit's adoption mean? We cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. I looked up that word today,
Abba. I looked it up. And a slave a
slave back when the Jews and them had slaves, the slave was
not allowed to call the father, father. I mean he wasn't allowed
to call him Abba, he had to call him father or master. The only
one that could call the father of Abba or call him father was
children. The only one that could call
him Abba, and Abba is the infant's way of trying to say daddy. And
they bake their lips, get up, and they say, Abba, Abba, Abba,
Abba, Abba. And then when you get up big
enough, Father, and he said, we're like a baby, we say Abba,
and we're like adults, children say Father. And I don't mind being both,
do you? Don't mind being both. Oh my, and now we're sons by
birth, We're born again by the Spirit of God and we're sons
by adoption. And as sons, we're not under
bondage, we're free, we're free. Free from the law, no condemnation. Jesus has provided a perfect
salvation. Free from law, free from condemnation,
free from the power of sin, free from the death in the flesh. And I tell you, we're sons by
birth. Let me tell you, we're sons by birth. We're born again
by the Spirit of God. We're sons of God by birth and
nature. God puts his nature in us. The
nature that desires him and wants him and needs him that understands
the scripture. We have sons by birth and by
nature through regeneration. And we're sons by position and
privilege by adoption. Now why does he say adopted?
Because God only had one son, only one begotten son. So anybody
else is going to be in the family of God. And this is the difference. You can adopt somebody, but you
can't give them your nature. God can give us His nature and
then give us a legal standing, and this is why it's called adoption.
It's a legal standing, whereas the adopted child has right to
inheritance. ONLY THE SON GETS TO INHERIT
EVERYTHING. So what God, He said, You know, I want everybody to
have an inheritance, so I m going to ADOPT THEM, and I m going
to make them LEGAL SONS OF GOD, and they ll be able to be HEIRS. And oh, because we re
SONS, we cry, I have a FATHER, we have peace of mind, we love,
respect, adore, and trust our BLESSED FATHER. And then look
what it says here in verse 16, THE SPIRIT ITSELF BEARS WITNESS
WITH OUR SPIRIT THAT WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF GOD. THIS IS A DOUBLE
WITNESS HERE. THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARS WITNESS
WITH OUR SPIRIT, OUR SPIRIT. RIGHT HERE TONIGHT WITH OUR SPIRIT,
THE HOLY SPIRIT BEARS WITNESS WITH OUR SPIRIT, DOUBLE WITNESS
BEARS WITNESS WITH OUR SPIRIT. AND OUR SPIRIT, NOW WATCH WHAT
IT SAYS HERE, And that we witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God. You know why He bears witness
to our spirit? To make us understand that we are God's child. We belong
to Him. We're His children. Huh? We're
God's child. And the Holy Spirit bears witness
to us that we are God's child. God sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts. Oh my! And now we're sons of
God. And also he says then, we have
the witness that we are the children of God. We are God's children. And I've heard Todd mention this
so many times. He said, when I'm hearing the
gospel, I have more assurance when I'm hearing the gospel than
I have at any other time in my whole life. And when I'm sitting
here and somebody preach the gospel, oh, I'm so thankful. He's telling me I'm a child of
God. The way he's preaching, I'm finding out I belong to the
Lord. And I love it! But oh, my, look what he goes
on to say. We re children of God. And then
he said in verse 17, And if children, if you re children, and oh, how many times did John
say little children? If children, oh, children of
God have the blessings and privilege of being a child of God, no longer
children of wrath, children of darkness, children of disobedience.
Then he said, If children, then look what he says, then you re
also an heir. You're an heir. You're an heir of God. You know, I've used this illustration
so many times. You know, if you've got six people
in a family, and they're all gonna inherit whatever their
mom and daddy had left, and say they had 60 acres, and everybody's
gonna get 10. Well, but here's the thing about
it. when you re an heir of God, you don t get ten acres, you
get the whole sixty, you don t get just to split the pie six
ways, you get the whole pie! We get it all! We get it all! And look what he says, Well,
you know, we receive an inheritance now, we receive the promise of
the Spirit, we receive the promise of Abraham, And oh my, we already
possess part of it here, and some hereafter. But oh, look
what it said, if you're chilled in your heirs, heirs of God,
and this is what's the kicker, and join heirs with Christ. Heirs
with Christ. Whatever Christ inherits, we
get exactly what He gets. Join heirs with Him. Join heirs
with Him. And I tell you what that means,
it's because of Him, by Him, through Him, that we possess
ANYTHING at all. And I tell you what, anything
good, anything holy, and God our Father has made us heirs
with His Son, the Son of His love. You all remember the Bride
of Isaac, let me just give you a little bit about that. Y'all
remember when Abraham sent his son, sent his servant to go get
a son for Isaac, a bride for his son Isaac. And he went off
way over into far country and he went to find a bride for his
son Isaac. You know what the first thing
he told that girl and told her daddy and told everybody in that
house? He said, My master has one son, one son. And he loves that son, and he
has made, he's given him EVERYTHING, he's made him heir of EVERYTHING,
everything that belongs to my master, and he's WEALTHY! He
said, I give it all to my son. And then he starts showing that
woman, you know, Rebecca, look at this silver, look at that
gold, look at them clothes, you know, and she said, Will you
go with him? I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. And that's the way it is. Christ
got all of it, and He said, I won't share it with you. I want you
to be an heir too. And then look what it says in
the last part of verse 17, and I'm done. Oh, for children then heirs,
heirs of God, join heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer
with Him, that we may be also glorified together. You know,
there's two thoughts here. We suffer with Him. We suffered
with Him when He came into this world, when He s on the cross. Christ and His people are one.
When our Lord suffered, when our Lord was crowned, when our
Lord died on the cross, everything that He did, we suffered with
Him in it. We suffered the wrath of God
in Him. We suffered the judgment of God in Him, suffered the fire
of God in Him. We suffered for sins in Him.
everything we've already suffered with Him. And since we're in
Him, that's why there's no condemnation. And also because of our one with
Him, we'll suffer in this life. We'll suffer in this life. You
know that we may also, if we suffer with Him, we're gonna
be glorified together. And because of our union with
the Lord Jesus Christ, we suffer here. We suffer, sometimes we
suffer some, sometimes we don't suffer so much. And oh my, we
bear it for his sake and the sake of the gospel. Oh my, suffering. A lot of people suffer. A lot
of people suffer. And they suffer a lot in this
world. Suffer in their bodies, suffer in their minds, suffer
a lot of different ways. Suffer sickness, awful sickness,
but oh my, we'll suffer to bear it all for his blessed name's
sake and for the sake of the gospel. We'll do it, hopefully,
without any murmuring or complaining. But it also says there if we
suffer with him, he was glorified. If we suffer with him, we're
gonna be glorified with him too. He's already glorified. Well,
we're gonna be glorified too. I hope that's a blessing. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to
meet here this evening. I thank you for your precious
word. God's such power. And oh, Lord, oh, we acknowledge our utter
utter and absolute dependence upon you for everything in this
life to keep us and keep this flesh subdued, instruct us and
keep us and preserve us for Christ's sake. Bless these dear saints
as they go their way. Bring glory to yourself through
us all for Christ's sake. Amen. Every moment and in every way,
I'm leaning on Jesus. Have I got it right? I hope I
do. And in every way I'm leaning
on Jesus. He's the rock of my soul. I'm singing His praises wherever
I go. Boy, if I could mess it up. I
tore up something yesterday. They'd go charge before, and
they did. And I said, I could tear up an alley.