Okay, here in Romans 8, verse
11, Paul writes, 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. Now, Paul is talking about the
promise of the resurrection of these bodies. And he gives two
assurances of the resurrection. The first one is this, Christ
our representative was resurrected from the grave. Now, He died.
When our sin was charged to Him, He died. God killed Him for those
sins. They laid His body in the tomb,
but He didn't stay in that tomb. He arose from the grave. And
Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. When He arose,
He arose as our representative. Look here in 1 Corinthians 15.
1 Corinthians 15. But now is Christ risen from
the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the
dead. For as in Adam all died, even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. But every man in his own order,
Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his
coming. Christ arose from the grave.
He's the firstborn among many brethren. There's going to be
many more to follow His pattern. And because Christ arose from
the grave, everyone who's in Him can say, O grave, where's
your victory? Unless Christ returns first,
all these bodies will lay in the grave, but they're not going
to stay there either. He's going to raise them from the grave.
That's the first assurance we have. Christ, our representative,
was resurrected. The second one he lists here
is the indwelling spirit of God, the spirit that dwelleth in you.
The same spirit who raised Christ from the grave will raise these
bodies from the grave in the exact same way with the same
power will be raised from the grave to everlasting life with
Christ. The same spirit who gave you
life spiritually in regeneration will raise this mortal body in
the resurrection. See, He's not going to leave
the work unfinished. We'll be redeemed body and soul. Right now, every believer is
redeemed in soul, not in body. One day it will be body and soul,
and this will be the day when the Spirit raises these bodies
the same way He raised Christ from the grave. And that day
is going to be something else. It's the day all of us hope for.
Every believer hopes for that day when these bodies are raised. And Paul says he's going to quicken
your mortal body. And that day, you're going to
be you. And that day, Cecil and I will see each other and we're
going to recognize each other. That's Cecil. He'll say, that's
Frank. We're going to recognize each other. You're going to be
you. You'll look like you. Everybody's going to recognize
you. But there's going to be a great change. You might look
like you're going to bear a resemblance to what you look like now, but
there's going to be a great change. Look over in 1 Corinthians 15.
Nancy Parks is visiting with us. She and I were talking about
this before service. She said, one day I'm going to fly. Not in
this body. These bodies are going to be
changed. Or they'll look like each other, but there's going
to be a great change, a wonderful change. 1 Corinthians 15, verse
39. Now all flesh is not the same
flesh. There's one kind of flesh of
men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, another of
birds. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial.
But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the
terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun,
another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. For one star
differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection
of the dead. It's sown in corruption. It's
raised in incorruption. It's sown in dishonor. It's raised
in glory. It's sown in weakness. It's raised
in power. It's sown in natural body. It's
raised to spiritual body. There is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. And these bodies that are sown
in dishonor are going to be raised in honor of a spiritual body.
No more sin. No more death. No more decay.
No more sickness. A glorious body. Perfect. Just like the body of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And until then, here's what Paul
is talking about in our lesson this morning. Until then, we
need to remember that right now, We are children of God. And I'll
grant you, this body is not much. It's just not much and it decays
the longer we live. But this body is a temple of
God the Holy Spirit. Now somebody might say, that's
a big statement for you to make. You're getting mighty big for
your britches to make a statement like that, that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit. And you'd be right in saying
that if God's Word didn't say so. And I'm going to show you
that in two places. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. The body of a believer
is the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16. Know ye not that ye are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Now if any
man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the
temple of God is holy, which temple you are, because the Holy
Spirit dwells in his people. Look over at chapter 6 verse
14. And God hath both raised up the
Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. Know ye
not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then
take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What, know ye not
that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two saith
he shall be one flesh, but he that is joined unto the Lord
is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that
a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication
sinneth against his own body. What, know ye not that your body
is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with the price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which
are God's." He's telling us to live in a way that would not
bring shame to the temple of God. And that's the believer's
desire, to live in a way that would not bring shame to our
Lord, but to bring glory and honor to Him. And we need to
keep that in mind as we go through this life. Now, in verse 12,
back in our text, Paul goes on, he says, Therefore, brethren,
we are debtors. Not to the flesh, to live after
the flesh. Now, a child of God has been
set free. We've been studying that here in the previous chapters
in Romans. We're set free from sin, from the condemnation of
sin, from the power of sin, from the penalty of sin. We've been
delivered from living after the flesh. We saw that last week.
To live after the flesh is to go after those things, to be
controlled by them, to be consumed by them, to have those things
be your desire. And God's children have been delivered from those
things, set free from those things. And we've been delivered into
the kingdom of God, into the family of God, by the blood of
Christ, by the righteousness of Christ, by His power, by His
grace. So we're no longer debtors to
this flesh. We're no longer debtors to the
fleshly activities of religion or the fleshly activities of
the world. We're not controlled by those things any longer. Even
though we're in the flesh, we're not controlled by those things.
But we're still debtors, aren't we? Debtors to God's grace. We owe a debt of love and gratitude
to the Lord who has been so gracious and merciful to us. He paid our
sin debt with His own blood by suffering under the wrath of
God for our sins. That's more than these pea brains
can comprehend. But then who much is forgiven,
the same will love much. And we don't know the full extent
of how much our sin has been forgiven, how much sin that we
have, but we've got some idea. And that person has got even
some idea of how much sin of ours that Christ paid for, what
he delivered us from, they'll be motivated by Christ's love
for us and by our love to him. To not live after the world,
but to live after Christ our Lord, our Redeemer. Now verse
13, 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.
Now if a person lives after the flesh, to be controlled by those
things, to make allowances and opportunity to gain those things,
that person's controlled by the desires of the flesh. They're
only interested in the things of the flesh. Well, that's evidence
that that person is spiritually dead, that they don't have any
spiritual life. And eventually, they'll die eternally. Unless
God has mercy on them, they're going to die eternally. But the
believer is changed. They have a changed outward conduct
because of Christ, who is their life. Now, we still do fleshly
things. By no means am I saying our outward
conduct is perfect, because it's far from it. We still have a
fleshly attitude, that fleshly nature that we're born with is
still there. And you don't have to go five minutes before you
see it crop up, do you? Pride, anger, self-righteousness,
selfishness. And those things are still in
us. And we hate them. But you don't live after those
things. You're not controlled by those things anymore. Because
the power of the Spirit who dwells in you gives you some ability
to subdue those things, to put those things down, gives you
a nature that hates those things. And that must be so. God's grace
changes a person in every way. Now, this is God's grace. It
has an effect on people. Yes, God's grace, the blood of
Christ, will change our standing with God. Absolutely it will.
Absolutely it changes our future state of glory, where we'll spend
eternity. I'm telling you what, God's grace
changes a man's walk right now. In this life, it'll be changed.
Everything's not what it once was. We'll mortify the deeds
of the body. But listen, this is not a once-for-all
thing. Well, we don't just mortify those
things. Well, I'm done with that. You know, I've got pride put
down. I don't have to worry about that anymore. Now I can go next
to the list. Absolutely not. The Amplified Version actually
says this mortify is continually subduing, habitually subduing,
just constantly pushing it down. And the person who continually
mortifies the deeds and the attitudes of the flesh, they give evidence
that they have spiritual life. The only person who has any desire
to even mortify those deeds of the flesh are the person in whom
the Spirit of God dwells. The person who is in Christ right
now. One day we'll live with Christ
in glory. And while we're in this flesh,
we are in Christ, we will continually, habitually be subduing the deeds
of the flesh. And I know it doesn't get easier. It's not like, well, you know,
you get older and all this stuff and you become decent. It gets
harder. I know it's harder from when
I was in my twenties to now that I'm in my forties, And people
who are in their 70s and 80s tell me it's harder now than
when I was your age. It gets harder. It's not a once-for-all
thing. It's a habitual mortifying of
the deeds of the flesh. Now, verse 14. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The
evidence that a person is a son of God, that they have union
with Christ, the evidence that the Holy Spirit dwells in us,
is we're led by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is only
going to lead sons and daughters. And He leads us like a parent
leads a small child. My children aren't so little
anymore. But when they were, I see you all have got these
little 2, 3, 4, 5 year olds. We pull up out of here and that
door opens up onto the street. I notice before that door opens,
every parent's got a hold of their child. They've either got
them by the hand or they've got them in the arms. It's hard telling
what that kid will do if you open the door. He'll run right
out in the street. So you hold him by the hand and you lead
him out. And wherever you're parked, across the street or
down the sidewalk, you lead him to safety. That's the way the
Spirit leads us. To safety. And a child is as
content as they can ever be when their daddy is gone by the hand.
When their daddy's holding them in his arms. That child doesn't
have a care in this world. My daddy's got me, leading me.
It's alright. And that's the way it is for
a child of God. We ought not have a care in this
world being led by the Spirit of God, by the hand. He's not
going to let us go. Thank God He's not going to let
us go the way we go. It's hard telling. It's like
these kids that run right out in the street. We'd run right
smack in the middle of danger. if God didn't lead us. And He
leads His people by the hand. He leads us like a captain leads
the soldiers into battle. We go confidently into battle
because we're following the captain of our salvation. He's going
to fight the battle. We'll go with Him. He leads us
away from self, away from sin, away from this world. And He
leads us to dependence on Christ. Total dependence on Christ. We're
led to depend on His righteousness. Not my filthy rags of righteousness,
but His righteousness. We're led to depend on His blood,
His sacrifice. Not something I've given up for
God. Big deal if I mortify the deeds of this flesh and give
up something that bring this flesh pleasure. Our confidence
is in His sacrifice. He leads us to dependence on
His love for us. Not my puny excuse for love for
Him, although I do love Him. We're to depend on His love for
us. We're led to depend on His power to keep us. Not any power
of our own. Part of growing in grace is becoming
weaker and weaker and weaker in our own eyes so that we depend
more and more and more on our Lord, on His power. We're led
to depend on His faithfulness, not on our faithfulness. He leads
us in paths of righteousness for His namesake. He leads us
like a good shepherd leads his sheep. into the green pastures
of his word. That's why our Lord said, the
good shepherd leads his sheep. And he said, I'm the door, in
me they go in and out and find pasture. That's why he leads
us. And every step of the way, our Lord leads and he supplies
every need along the way. The songwriter says he leads
some through the waters, some through the floods, some through
the fire, but all through his blood. He supplies every need
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song in the night
season and all the day long. He'll lead. So just be like that
child who takes his daddy's hand and be led. Everything's all
right. Now, verse 15, for we have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we've received
the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, this
spirit of bondage, That's the fear, the attitude that a slave
lives with. Now, I think about in our country,
the time we had slavery. I can just imagine, I've read
books and seen things on TV, the fear that a slave had being
owned by a cruel master. The suffering, the beating, the
whipping that they'd always be afraid of for just Any misdeed
they might do, in that case, their master has a bad day, they're
going to take it out on them. Fear. That's the way Israel must
have lived under the law. Always full of fear. When the
law was given on Sinai, the mountains dark. Dark clouds, thunders,
and lightnings, and the people saw that and were afraid. The
people were scared. They were hung up bail in the
temple. People of great skill made that beautiful veil and
hung in the temple. Behind that veil was the presence
of God, the Shekinah glory of God. And I tell you, to be on
this side of that veil had to bring a person fear. You go on
the other side of that veil, God will kill you. And only the
high priest could go, and just once a year, not without blood.
And they were still afraid when the priest went in. They hung
bells on the bottom of his garments, so they'd know if he's still
moving around, God hadn't killed him. If there was silence, God
killed him in there. Fear. But that's not the way
a child feels. A child doesn't have fear of
their loving Father. We don't have to be afraid to
come into the presence of our Father. We come with respect,
don't we? but not fear. You know, one of
the difficulties of public prayer is leading a group. Jason, in
prayer, led this group before the throne of God, but not with
fear. Out of reverence, but not fear.
This is the throne of our Father. I never was afraid to come talk
to my Father. He's sitting in his lazy boy
when he comes home to eat, his feet propped up. I'm never afraid
to come talk to Him. I love to. That's the spirit
of adoption. The way a son feels towards a
loving father. And a child who loves and respects
and trusts his father is a happy child. And that's the way it
ought to be naturally. A child ought to learn the love
of his father and to respect his father, to trust his father.
That child will live a happy life. I saw a thing on TV, a
famous, famous couple being interviewed. They got three or four kids.
The oldest child is a daughter. And the father said, she is a
strong young girl. Sixteen years old, she's strong.
He said, I check out her boyfriends. He said, they come over to the
house, I check them out. He said, if they're not strong,
she'll run over them. I mean, he said, I might warn
them away because for their own good, she will run over them.
With the interview rolled on, I found out why that girl is
so strong. He takes her, that girl, everywhere He goes. Goes fishing with her. She is
confident in her daddy's love. And she loves Him. She trusts
Him. She respects Him. He's given
her a good base so she can flourish. That man is a sinner. What about
our Father? All the love He has for His children.
It's unspeakable. The trust that we can have in
our Father happy children. He's given us a strong base.
Not a fear, but a sense of belonging. A sense of peace with our Father.
Now that's the way it ought to be naturally. That's the way
it is spiritually. And He's given us a spirit of
adoption. Now I've spent a lot of time thinking about this this
week. Adoption. And this is a wonderful thing
in our world. I know several families who've
adopted children. And I had no doubt that that
child was given a much better life with its adoptive parents
than it would have otherwise had. But it's hard for a human being,
I would suspect, and I've heard people say, well, I don't love
that one like I love my own, you know, stepchildren and so
forth. It's hard to love a child that didn't come out of your
own body the same way you love one that came out of your own
body, that child that has your DNA. It ought not be if that
is a weakness of our sinful flesh and our nature. But that's not
the way it works when God adopts a child into His family. He adopts
us into His family and He gives us His DNA. We're born from above,
from the incorruptible seed, the Word of God. John Gill said
this, Adoption makes men children of God. Regeneration makes them
appears to be so, by giving them the nature of children. God adopts
us into his family and gives us his very nature. Adoption
is a work of grace for us. Regeneration is the work of grace
in us. And when God adopts children
in his family, he does both. Makes us members of his family
and gives us his nature. So that we cry, Abba, Father. I did a lot of reading on this
word Abba. There's a lot of opinions about
this word Abba. Most all of them are good. I
do know this from what I've read. Abba is a term of endearment. It's a term only a natural child
could use. A servant could never use this
word Abba. Servants sometimes would call
their master father or some term like that, but they could never
use the word Abba. It's a term of endearment. Abba,
Father, the Father that I love. I'm the son of His love and He's
the Father of my love. Some say this is the Greek word.
Abba is the Greek word for Father and the word translated Father
here is the Hebrew word for Father, showing us that Christ is the
Savior of the whole world, Jew and Greek. In Him, in Christ,
there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither
bond nor free, all are one in Christ Jesus. It's a term of
endearment for all of His people. And we cry, Abba, Father. I remember when our girls were
babies. The only way they could communicate at that time was
crying. And parents will learn quick. Oh, that's a hurt cry. They hear that cry. That's a
hurt cry. That's a hungry cry. That's a dirty diaper cry. That's
a dirty diaper cry. And you tell your wife, you better
go check on the baby. Because you know that cry. Or maybe that's
a lonely cry. Or that's a fake cry. I'm going
to get out of my crib. That's a fake cry. Well, we cry. Sometimes you can't even put
into words the cry of your heart. And we cry, Abba, Father. My Father. And He understands
our cries. He hears our cries. And He has
the wisdom and the compassion to answer the cries of His children.
It's good to be a child of the King, isn't it? Verse 16. The Spirit Himself. If you haven't
already done so, you cross out that word itself. The spirit's
not an it, it's a him. The spirit himself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. My good friend
Jim Meadows used to tell me, he said, I can tell you when
a man's preaching the gospel. He said, I can't always tell
you exactly why. I can't tell you, it's not because
he uses certain words or he says something, you know, the same
way that Herb Ellis does. He said, I know when he's preaching
the gospel. His spirit beareth witness with
my spirit. Jim said, Spirit's not going to contradict himself.
Same Spirit's in him, same in me. He's going to say the same
thing. But here, the witness of the Holy Spirit is to the
children of God. Telling us, assuring us that
we are sons of God. And we need to be reassured of
this now because of what an awesome, unspeakable blessing it is to
be called a son, a daughter of God. That's too good to be true. If you didn't read it in God's
Word, it wouldn't be believable. But the Spirit comes and assures
us, reassures us, we are children of God. And we need to be reassured
because we see something of how sinful we are, how unworthy we
are. We think, oh, no child of God
would think that. No child of God would do that.
How could I have been adopted into God's family? It's so wretched. And the testimony of the Spirit
comes and says, yes, you're a sinner. But Christ came to save sinners.
Even the chief of sinners. Yes, you're sinful. But all of
our sin has been put away under the blood of Christ. He reassures
us, yes, you're unworthy in yourself, but you're not accepted in yourself.
You're accepted in the Beloved. That's the testimony of the Spirit.
And His testimony always agrees with God's Word. of the Word. You can't contradict the Spirit
in the believer. It's the same Spirit. That's
why we study the Word. That's why I encourage you to
read the Word. Study the Word. The testimony
of the Spirit is in the Word. And this testimony to God's people
is an inward testimony. It's not to our eyes or to our
ears. It's to our heart, to the inward man. Actually, the Spirit
is testifying to Himself. He dwells in us to Himself. And this is not a testimony for
other people to see. This is not so somebody else
can know the Lord saved you. He's not going to let you speak
in tongues and work miracles and do crazy things. This testimony
is to our souls, to my heart, to know we have assurance and
rest in Christ. Now, verse 17. 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, I can't hardly think of a more clear illustration of
the effect of God's grace than this. That sinners like you and
me are called heirs of God, made to be an heir of God. You know,
children are the heirs of everything that their parents have. Now,
sometimes you inherit junk, good stuff, sometimes a mixture. When
my wife's grandparents died, those three children, those three
children inherited everything they had. And they rented this
huge dumpster put outside the house because they filled that
dumpster up with stuff they inherited that just had to be thrown away.
And Jen saw that dumpster. I mean, it was a huge one. And
she said, we're not going to do that. Well, we have good intentions,
but I'm afraid to tell you that you're going to have to rent
a dumpster. Because you're just going to inherit some junk. And
there's some good stuff. There's a lot of stuff that has
sentimental value and things. God's children are heirs of no
junk. Good things. Perfect things in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Everything we've inherited is
because of our Lord Jesus Christ. We've been made joint heirs with
Him. The Father's given everything into His hand. And we have everything
in Him. Everything He has, we have. You
know, everything I'd ever inherit or everything that ever belonged
to me would belong to Janet, too, because we're one. Everything
I have belongs to her. Well, the believer is joined
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything he has, everything
he is, is ours. Everything he's done, we've done.
And we inherit everything that God has. Well, what is that? It's everything. I mean, if you
can think it, God made it. He's given it to His Son. We
inherit everything. Our inheritance is given to us
through the Lord Jesus Christ because we're joint heirs with
Him. And like Abraham of old, He is our inheritance. Abram,
I invite thee in great reward. And this inheritance is not just
for the firstborn. In the Old Testament, the firstborn
had the birthright. The firstborn inherited everything. Every child of God inherits everything. Members of the church of the
firstborn, we inherit everything in Christ. We have everything
because we have union with Christ. We have everything in our inheritance.
We have everything in glory because of union with Christ. And we'll
have union with Him in suffering on this earth, too. The state
of the church on earth will always be afflicted because there's
no peaceful place here. It may be for a while. but not
for long, because sin is going to ruin it. But those who suffer
with Christ, for the sake of Christ, those who suffer loss
because they won't go after the way of the world, they follow
their Lord. One day they'll reign with Christ, just like the men
who suffered with David in the caves. When he was on the run
with Saul, those men that stayed loyal to David, they suffered
with him. But when David took the throne, they reigned with
him. And that's the way it will be for the believer. are referred to as suffering.
How can the heir of everything suffer so much? Well, Matthew
Henry said this, the believer's present state is a state of education
and preparation for the inheritance. We've got to be prepared. We're
underage heirs now, being prepared to inherit the glory that's prepared
for us. And I'll give you this. I've
gone too long, but let me give you this. This is comforting.
When we suffer, And we will suffer. We're not going to suffer alone.
He goes with us. He suffers with us. Our Lord called our afflictions
his afflictions. When Saul was persecuting the
church and the Lord threw him down in the dust, he didn't say,
Saul, why are you persecuting the people that I died for, the
people that I love? He said, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? Their suffering, their afflictions
are my afflictions. Whatever you do to the body,
you do to the head. And our Lord feels every affliction. And He sympathizes. His sympathizing
is different from my sympathizing. I sympathize with you and your
sufferings. I'm so sorry, but He goes with
you. I'll come visit you in the hospital,
and I've got to go back home. They turn out the lights, and
like Scott Richards would say, he's chained there to that bedpost,
that IV. The Lord is with His people.
And He'll give strength and comfort in our sufferings. All right. The Lord bless you.