Well, it certainly is my delight
to be with you again. I always look forward to coming
to Danville and worshiping together with you. You know what a special
place in my heart you all hold for me. We did spend some of
the afternoon driving around, showing Jonathan and Stacey sites
that he doesn't remember one bit. He was just two when we
moved. It was nice for me to reminisce about those things.
Very enjoyable, but this hour, this is what I've looked forward
to. I pray the Lord will bless us. If you would, open your Bibles
to Romans chapter eight. The title of the message is The
Children of God. Children of God. At the end of
Romans chapter 7, you know very well how Paul talked about the
civil war that goes on inside of every believer, the flesh
and the spirit warring against one another. And that old man
and that new man are going to war against each other as long
as this flesh is alive. Neither one of them will ever
give. They're going to war against one another. So then in chapter
eight, Paul begins to give some comfort, some encouragement to
God's children. And these are words that we need,
we need them. How often do we get discouraged
in this battle against the flesh? We just heard it sung. How can
I be a child of God if I act this way? How can I be a child
of God if I think this way? Someone as vile as me, how can
I be a child of God? But when that happens, I want
us to remember this. We're not a child of God because
of anything we do or we don't do. Any more than our children
are our children because of what they do or they don't do. Now,
that certainly doesn't excuse bad behavior, does it? And our
children are in the child of God. There's no excuse for it.
But our behavior, good or bad, It doesn't, our good behavior
doesn't make us a child of God and our bad behavior doesn't
stop us from being a child of God. And this evening I want
to give us four comforting words concerning God's children. First
one is this, a child of God is a child by nature. Verse 14 of
Romans chapter eight. For as many as are led by the
spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, how does a sinner,
like you and me, how do we become a child of God in the first place?
Well, it's by the new birth, isn't it? When Paul talks here
about walking in the Spirit or being led of the Spirit, what
that means is I'm led of the Spirit, I walk in the Spirit.
When I look to Christ to be all of my salvation, when I look
to Christ to be all of my justification, I look to Christ to be all of
my sanctification. He's the one who keeps me holy.
He's made me holy. He keeps me holy. I look to Christ
to be all of my salvation without my works entering in there anywhere. That's walking in the Spirit,
being led of the Spirit. If I'm led of the Spirit, I know
this, salvation is by faith. It's by faith in Christ. Not
any of my works, that Christ is all of my salvation. It's
Christ who chose me. It's Christ who cleansed me.
It's Christ who gave me life. It's Christ who keeps me. It's
Christ who will glorify me. It's all Christ. That's being
led of the Spirit. And the only way we can be led
of the Spirit is if God gives us a new nature and a new birth.
The only way I can walk in the Spirit is if Christ has already
been formed in me. Look up here at verse nine. But
you're not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, how important is that, that
the Spirit of God dwell in you? Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. The only way I can walk
in the Spirit is if Christ has been formed in me. I have to
be born again. And if I'm a child of God, I've
been born again, how was I born? Not by my will, not by my actions. A child of God is born by the
will and the purpose of God. His purpose and will that cannot
change. Look back at John chapter one. John one verse 11. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Even to them
that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor
the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. That's how a child of God is
born, born by the will of God. And God's will never changes. His will is always accomplished. So if I've been born again, I'll
never not be a child of God. And the blessing of being a child
of God. Do we talk about that too cavalierly
sometimes? You think of the blessing to
be a child of God. When a person's born again, there's
a new man born. He got a new nature. He got the
nature of his heavenly father. And that new man will always
be like his father. He'll always believe his father.
He'll always love his father because that's his nature. He's
got the nature of his father. That new man will always love
his father. He's got a nature of love. His
father will always love him. And since the father loves his
children, he will always give them good things. What blessings
God has that he gives to his people. Our Lord asked one day,
he said, if you being evil know how to give good things to your
children, how much more will the father give those who ask
him? Oh, he has good things, he gives his people. What are
some of them? Eternal life. The father gives
his children life that can never be lost, eternal life. He gives
them faith in Christ. Galatians 3, 26, for you are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, by God-given
faith. He gives his people a heart of
love. Every child of God can say this with absolute certainty. I love him because he first loved
me, because he gave me that heart of love. He gives his children
righteousness. He gives them the forgiveness
of sin. He gives them peace with God.
He gives them every good and perfect gift. And how a child
of God just thrills with all those blessings. The Apostle
John said, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us. that we should be called the
sons of God. What love, what a love that God's
children just rejoice in. Now look here in Luke chapter
10. Here's a blessing for us. God only reveals himself to his
children. He reveals himself to his children
and only his children. Luke chapter 10, verse 21. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent
and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for it seemed
good in Thy sight. The father reveals himself to
his children. Now that's salvation, to know
God. He reveals himself to his children.
And the father is gonna protect his children. He's gonna preserve
them, he's gonna keep them, he's gonna ultimately glorify them,
and he will take vengeance on those that hurt his children.
Our Lord said, it's better that a millstone be hanged around
a man's neck and he be dropped in the depths of the sea than
he harm one of these little ones, one of these little ones that
belong to me. So none of God's children will ever be lost, ever. And in glory, Christ is gonna
say to the father, Behold, Father, I and the children that thou
hast given me, you count, not one of them's missing. I've brought
them all here to be glorified, to be made like Christ, made
just like the son, our big brother, because he's given us a new nature,
a nature that's just like him. A child of God is a child by
nature. But secondly, a child of God
is a child by adoption. Look back in our text, Romans
8, verse 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. Now remember the
civil war that the apostle told us about, that every believer
is constantly fighting within himself, the flesh and the spirit
warring against each other. And in that war, I can tell you
what the flesh is trying to do. The flesh is constantly trying
to get us to look back to the law, to keep some laws. The flesh
whispers in our ear, you keep just a few of these laws. You
do a few good things in order to earn God's favor and he'll
accept you. He'll accept you more readily
than someone else. And all that brings us to is bondage and death. It just puts us under the bondage
of constant fear. Now we need to remember this,
a child does not have to earn his keep. A child is a child
and he's never a slave, ever. A child of God doesn't do something
because we're required to do it. We don't do something because
if we don't do it, our father will punish us. No, a child of
God serves our father because we're a child, a child who loves
our father, who wants to please our father. And a child doesn't
call on a master. A child calls on our father. You know, a master, he audibly
hears, but maybe he will hear us and maybe he won't. We don't
know. And if a master does hear us, he's certainly not gonna
hear us in love and pity, is he? But a father will always
hear the cry of his child. because they have a father-child
relationship. He hears his children out of
love. So a child of God cries, Abba,
father. This is such a sweet, sweet term. Abba is the word that the Jews
use that means my father. They would never allow a slave
to use this term, Abba. It means my father. In our language,
in central Kentucky, we'd say my daddy. That's my daddy. My
daddy. That's a term that's used by
a child that has a close, intimate relationship with their daddy.
It's a sweet term, isn't it? It's a term of endearment. One
of the men there at the congregation of Hurricane Road, Dan Morgan.
Dan doesn't have any children, but he enjoys children. He watches
children. This is what he has determined.
The most powerful word in the English language is daddy. Most powerful word. I watched
this, this is a true story. I watched this happen a few weeks
ago. There's a couple of mothers and their children after service
and they were talking together and they decided, you know, we
really would like to go out for ice cream tonight after service. Well, two mothers were there,
and they each had two sons. So there are two sons standing
there. But there's a daughter standing there. So you know what
the rest of the six of them did? They sent that daughter to her
daddy. She goes up and says, daddy, can we go out for ice
cream? You know where they all went
when they left the parking lot? That's a powerful word, isn't
it? Abba. That's a term the child uses. who trusts His Father completely. It's a term of dependence upon
the Father. Look at Mark 14. This is a term
our Lord Himself used in prayer to His Father. Mark 14, verse
36. And He said, All things are possible unto
thee. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless, not what I
will, but what thou will. That's why I was talking about
that dependence, the sweet term of endearment and dependence
upon the Father. All things are possible with
thee. Take away this cup from me, nevertheless, in complete
dependence upon his Father, not as I will, but as thou will. And the only reason a child of
God like you and me can cry, Abba, Father, is it's because
it's the spirit himself who dwells in us that cries, Abba, Father. I'll show you that in Galatians
chapter four. The only reason we can cry, Abba,
Father, is it's the spirit who dwells in us cries, Abba, Father. Galatians four, verse four. But
when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because you're sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of
his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou
art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. That's why we cry, Abba, Father,
because it's the Spirit who dwells in us cries, I have a father,
my daddy. And then this word father that
Paul uses is the Greek word for father. He's showing us that
God is the father of both Jews and Greeks, of people from every
tribe, from every nation, from every tongue. God is our father
in Christ, whether we're Jew or Greek, because it's in Christ,
where Christ is all in all. And the point of all this is
this. that God is the father of his people in such a relationship
that God is our daddy with all the sweetness and dependence
and love that that term represents. Now that's a blessing. But here's
the problem that we make for ourselves. We know that we're
born with Adam's nature. Now there's no denying that we
were born into this world, we're born with Adam's nature. Adam
was our first father and he gave us his nature of flesh. And a
believer's been born again. We know there's a new nature
in us, but this is what we're afraid of. We're afraid that
that old nature is ultimately gonna show itself, is ultimately
somehow gonna win out and be so ugly and so depraved and so
vile and so rebellious and so sinful that our Heavenly Father's
gonna cast us out. That's what we're afraid of.
And Paul tells us here, that can never happen. It's just not
gonna happen. That can't happen. You who believe,
you're children of God. God's adopted you into his family. That adoption is legal, that
adoption is binding, that adoption was made by the choice of Almighty
God, who never changes his mind. Now let me give you an example.
Imagine a young couple. They got married and it was their
dream to start a family, but they couldn't have children.
And oh, how they wanted children. Well, they decided they're going
to adopt a child. They go down to the orphanage. There are all
the children there in the orphanage. There are lots of them. Every
one of them needs a good home. Every one of them has been abandoned.
And they look over all those children. You can imagine how
it is. The children all got their best
clothes on. They come out there to present themselves in the
best possible light. Back here in the corner, there's
a little, scrawny, sickly little boy. He didn't bother trying
to dress up. He won't even bother looking
up at this young couple coming to select a child, because he
knows they're never going to choose him. Never will they choose
him. But their heart goes out to that
little fella. And they go scoop him up in their arms. And they
tell him, we're going to take you home. We've got a good home
for you. We've got a nice bedroom ready
for you. We've got a big backyard for you to play in. We've got
a nice school for you to go to. This woman, she's going to be
your mama. She's a good cook. She's going to make sure you
have good, healthy food to eat every day. And we can promise
you, you're going to grow up living in a home that's filled
with love. And they take that little boy home. And you know
what they do. They pour everything they've
got into that little fellow. He's their child. He's their
boy. And they love him. And he thrives under their loving
care. Now that child gets to be a teenager.
He does what teenagers do. You reckon they're going to kick
him out? That boy didn't get to be their child. by chance,
just like, oh, this is the one, you know, we got. No, they chose
that boy to be their son. He's their son. He's their only
son. He's their only heir. He bears
their name. His children are going to bear
their name. Those parents are always going to love that boy
and they'll never cast him out. They're family. Well, that's
exactly how Almighty God chose his children so that he'd be
their father. He looked down over Adam's race
and he chose the worst of the lot. He didn't choose some that
were just sickly that, you know, might could get better if they
had a little chance. No, he chose those who were dead in sin. He chose the homeless. He chose
the helpless. He chose rebels. He didn't choose
somebody just had a little bit of need of some help. No, He
chose the dead. He chose somebody that needed
somebody to do everything else for them. He set His love on
those dead, helpless, depraved children to make them His. They're
the children of God, and they're the children of God by God's
choice. And God's not gonna cast them
out because He's not gonna go back on His word. God chose those
people for His purpose. His purpose for the glory of
His Son. And He's not gonna allow that
purpose to be tainted. Look at Ephesians chapter one.
He chose them according to His purpose. Well, His purpose is
not gonna fail. They're not gonna ultimately
out send the blood of Christ and God have to kick them out.
No, His purpose is not gonna fail. Ephesians one verse four. According as He has chosen us
in Him, in Christ before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. God chose His people for His
purpose according to the riches of His grace. And He's never
gonna go back on it. But now, when we think of adoption,
what comes into our mind is human adoption, the way we would adopt
a child. But you can't compare God's adoption
of His children to human adoption. Paul says we've received the
Spirit The spirit of adoption. I want you to listen to me. Salvation
is a whole lot more than a legal document a child receives when
he's been adopted by new parents. You who believe God didn't give
you a legal document of adoption when he adopted you, did he?
He didn't give you a legal piece of paper. Salvation is not some
bureaucrat in heaven shuffling paper around on a desk somewhere.
Salvation is union with Christ. Salvation is receiving life from
Christ. You who believe received the
spirit of adoption. God adopted you into his family
and he gave you a new spirit. He gave you a new nature, the
nature of your new father. Now, human beings, you and I
can't do that if we'd adopt a child, but God can. And that's exactly
what he's done for his people. And it's never gonna turn out
badly, ever. You know, I've known children,
I've known this to happen a number of times. A child has been adopted
into a very, very good family. They just had, this child had
wonderful parents. The child grows up as well-taught,
well-behaved, well-educated. Everybody just looks at these
kids and thinks, that's a model child. And everybody's so thankful. All the friends and family and
neighbors, they're all thankful. The parents are thankful. The
child's thankful. What a wonderful thing. They've
adopted this child, this model child. And that child gets into
their teens, early 20s. It just becomes a different person. They just go off the deep end. And you think, what happened? You're just bum-fuzzled. Until
you meet the birth mother. And she tells you, you know I
did that. I did that exact same thing when
I was their age. Matter of fact, I still do it. Oh, now I understand. The child is acting on its nature. That's the worry a child of God
has. That I'm gonna go off the deep
end with this Adam's nature I got in me. But a child of God's not
gonna do it. Because we've received the spirit
of adoption. When God adopts a child into
his family, it's not just a document that he gives them. He gives
them a new nature. And he will not let his child
leave him. ever. And that child's not going
to leave his father because he's got a new nature that won't leave
him. We're children by adoption. All right. How do I know if I'm
a child of God or not? Can I know if I'm a child of
God? How can I know if God's given me this new nature? Well,
here's the third word. A child of God has communion
with his father. Verse 16, Romans 8. The spirit
himself, that's not a itself, the spirit's a him, the spirit
himself, beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. Now how do I know I'm a child
of God? It's because the Holy Spirit
tells me I'm a child of God. Now how does he do that? Well,
I can tell you. It's not an audible thing, it
comes in a dream or something. It's through the preaching of
the gospel. When you hear the gospel preached, when you hear
Christ exalted in the preaching of his word, and you find your
heart just thrilled and you rejoice, and you say, that's it, that's
the blessing, that's my hope, that's what I need. That blesses
my soul. That's the spirit himself bearing
witness that you're a child of God. And I give you a good example
of it. Marvin Stoniker, come here Sunday.
Couple months ago, Marvin and I were talking on the phone,
doing what preachers do. Marvin, what are you preaching
on Sunday? Frank, what are you preaching on Sunday? And I told him, I
said, Marvin, I'm working on this first. I've done a lot of
reading, the commentaries and things on it. And I'm sure they
missed it. This is why I'm going to preach
this first. And I told him. And Marvin said, Frank, that's
got to be what that verse means. Because when you tell me that,
my spirit bears witness. That's the Savior. That's Christ. That's His glory. When you say
that, that makes me need Christ. I want to hear of Him. My spirit,
that's my spirit bearing witness that I'm a child of God. Because
I rejoice when I hear Christ preached. Our Heavenly Father
speaks to the hearts of His children, just like we speak to our children.
I don't get let very long go by until I speak to my children.
Well, our Father speaks to His children, He speaks to the heart.
And the way He does it is through the gospel of His Son, telling
us more about Christ, telling us more how salvation and forgiveness
of sins and righteousness and peace is sure and certain in
our Lord Jesus Christ. The father is the one who speaks
to our heart and tells us, now you ignore that flesh. Just ignore
the flesh. Don't look to the law. Don't
go try to keep a few laws and do some good moral things to
earn my love and do something that you think the law requires.
You're my child because I chose you. You're my child because
I sent my son to redeem you. You're my child because I gave
my son a ransom for your soul. I sent my spirit to give you
life. Now you come to me in Christ.
You come to me in love. You come to me right now, just
like you came to me the first time. Completely and utterly
dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to what he
says. Weak, fearful, sinful child of
God. The father says, you come to
me boldly. boldly, confidently in the Lord
Jesus Christ to find grace to help in time of need. He says,
don't come to me by the works of the law. Come to me in love. Come to me in faith. Come to
me in my love for you and your love for me. Oh, a child of God
hears that and rejoices, don't we? That's the spirit himself
bearing witness that you're a child of God. And then the fourth word
is this. A child of God has a glorious
inheritance, verse 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
children of God are heirs of God. Now what's an heir? Well, an heir is an heir because
of who they're related to. They're, you know, they're related
to their parents or they got a rich uncle or something because of
who they're related to. And an heir has an inheritance
because somebody else earned it and decided to give it to
them freely. That's an heir. Well, that's
salvation, isn't it? Children of God have salvation
because somebody else earned it for them. The Lord Jesus Christ
earned it for them, and by His grace, He decided to give it
to them freely. That's how they're an heir. Now,
Christ is the heir of God, and He's the heir. Hebrews 1, verse
2 says, God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,
whom He hath appointed heir of all things. Christ is the heir
of everything. There's a movie I like. If I'm
channel surfing around, I see this movie and I stop and watch
it. I think the title of it is Paper Lions or something. Anyway,
these two old brothers, these two old fellas, they take in
this little boy when he's very little. He'd been abandoned by
his mother. And they take that boy and they
raise him. They teach him how to be a man.
This is what a man does, how a man conducts himself, how a
man works. They educate him. They teach
him everything it takes to be a man. He gets to be a young
man, and he goes off to the big city, and he's so successful. He's just doing so wonderfully
because of everything these two old birds taught him. One day,
he gets a phone call. They both died. He goes back
to the farm for the funeral, and while he's there, they say
they're gonna have the reading of the will. He's in a big hurry
to get back to his big job, you know, in the big city, but he
says, okay, I'll stay for the reading of the will. And this
is the will, the entirety of the will. The kid gets it all. Well, what about the tractor?
The kid gets it all. What about the paintings in the
house? The kid gets it all. What about that piece of property?
The kid gets it all. The kid gets it all. Christ gets
it all. Everything belongs to Him. He's
the Son. And what's more, He's earned
it. And the Father's given all things into His hand. So we who
believe are joint heirs with Christ. We get everything. We get everything Christ gets.
Everything. If you believe on God, Everything
God has is yours through Christ. Now, why is it yours? It's not
because we earned it by our law keeping. It's not because we
earned it by our morality. It's not because we earned it
because of all our religious doings. We receive that glorious
inheritance freely as a gift of God through union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that inheritance is a whole
lot better than an earthly inheritance. We might tend to not value an
inheritance as much as we ought, because how often is an earthly
inheritance lost? You know, in the times that Paul
was writing, only the firstborn was there. The firstborn had
the birthright. In Christ, every child has the
birthright. And we have that inheritance
through union with Christ. Paul says if we suffer with Christ,
we'll be glorified together with Him. Now remember, we've been
talking about union with Christ. When He suffered, His people
suffered in Him. So they're justified. When Christ
obeyed the law, they obeyed it in Him. So through union with
Him, so they're righteous in Christ. In an exact same way,
they're gonna be glorified together with Christ. And they will have
the inheritance we expect to receive. Now here on earth, you
know, people lose an inheritance, don't they? Their parents, you
know, go out and go wild and spend it all, or the stock market
crashes, or, you know, some swindler comes in and steals it, or, you
know, the government taxes it to death. Just don't even get
me started. But whatever happens, Somebody
stole it and there's nothing left. Child of God, don't you ever
worry about that. First Peter chapter one. First Peter one, verse three. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. That inheritance can never be
lost because it's reserved in heaven for you. You who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. It'll be revealed
in the last time. That's the nature of every child
of God. That's the end of every child
of God. I hope that the Lord bless that
to his glory and our comfort and our good.