Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter
8 with me this morning, if you'd like to follow along in my text. I just have one verse of Scripture.
Lord's willing, I want to begin this message today and maybe
finish it next Sunday. Romans chapter 8 and verse 15. Romans chapter 8 and verse 15.
If you have a few Bibles, you'll find it on page 1200. and thirty. Just one verse. 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. And my subject this morning is
spirit of bondage and spirit of fear. Spirit of bondage and
spirit of fear. And I want us to look Just for
a few minutes, first of all, in general, at what's taught
here in the first portion of my text, you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. And this tells us that
the origin of fear is not in our hearts. Fear must come from
outside of us. That seems to be what our text
is teaching us here. In general, you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. Fear is something that's
received. By nature, we don't fear anything.
That may be an awful statement. And if it's true, it is awful,
isn't it? that the origin of everything we feel is fear is
not within us. It doesn't come from within us,
but fear is caused by something from without us. In other words,
men don't fear any danger until, first of all, that danger is
represented to their minds, the fear. Fear is not natural to
the heart. The cause of fear is received. I have heard of toddlers. I heard
about a little toddler, just a, I think a, maybe a two-year-old
toddler playing down south on a poisonous snake's nest. There were baby copperheads in
this nest and a little toddler was actually playing on that
nest and had no fear about it whatsoever. And why was that? Because Those snakes had never
been represented to that little fella's mind. He'd had no fear
of those snakes. There are terrible pits, no doubt,
that men walk over all the time with just a thin layer of crust. But nobody fears them until they
see the pit, until the pit is represented to their minds, and
then they fear. I had a sister just a year or
two older than I was, and when she and I was very young, she
almost got burned to death. If my dad hadn't been there that
day, she would have burned to death. But she had no regard
for fire. She would play in the fire, and
my dad was burning the brush pile, and she was playing, and
he had turned his head, and she caught on fire. Because she had
no fear, no awareness of the danger of fire. But I tell you,
after she got caught on fire, she feared it then. But the general,
I think the general thing that, first of all, I just wanted to
say in this text here, as amazing as it may seem, we don't fear
anything. The natural heart does not fear.
Don't you imagine this is one reason a lot of people, especially
teenagers, get themselves into all kinds of trouble. It's because
they don't fear. They don't fear. I think there's
an old proverb that says something to the effect that the foolish
pass on and are punished. It's the wise that fear and deliver
themselves. But we won't fear, will we? Until
the object of that fear is represented to our minds. You know, I don't
fear cancer this morning. Leanne was telling us about her
dear mother. Now she's got some awful news about her cancer has
come back with a vengeance. You know, I go on this morning
and I don't fear cancer. I just don't fear it. But let
the doctor look me in the eye and say, Bruce, you're eat up
with it. See how I react then. So we don't
fear by nature. That's the Apostle Paul telling
us this. But here, he's speaking of fear
in a spiritual realm. Now, it's bad enough if we consider
that we don't fear anything in the natural realm. But I tell
you, it's devastated when we apply this to the spiritual realm.
Not to fear a poisonous snake is bad enough. But for a man
not to fear his sin against God, for a man not to fear death,
for a man not to fear the judgment to come, for a man not to fear
his loss and helpless condition before God, that's worse than
ever, isn't it? And yet that's the spiritual
lesson that the Apostle Paul is teaching us here. You have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. How many people,
brothers and sisters, I wonder, is in this dark world this morning,
and they have no fear about them at all, about their dangerous
condition that they're in. And it's because we cannot know
it until our condition, our danger is represented to our minds,
and then only we can fear. You have not received It's something
received, isn't it? And I guess it comes right down
to this. It shows how desperately deceitful
a man's heart is. That he could live in such danger. A danger that could overwhelm
him at just any time in the day. He's held by this brittle thread
of life. And yet if that life is snapped,
what happens to him? He goes down into the pit. He
suffers forever under the wrath of God for his sins. And yet
he has no fear. He doesn't fear that. He's skating
over thin ice, over a bottomless pit, and he's like a light-hearted
child that's playing on the playground, running from one pleasure to
the next. And he never will fear his awful,
dreadful spiritual condition until he is presented with that
to his mind. He cannot fear and he will not
fear. You know it shows the deceitfulness
of the heart, doesn't it? The Bible says the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. And I don't know What we could say about a man's
heart, how desperately wicked it is that it would deceive him
about so critical an issue. For the heart to deceive other
people is bad enough. For my heart to deceive me about
my perishing state, that's the height of wickedness, is it?
For not letting me see that I can lose my precious soul. And you
know, this is not about temporal loss. If it was about a loss
of a man's job, if I was going to lose my job next week and
I didn't know that, somebody had deceived me about that, or
I was going to lose my house, or even my health, or my family,
that would be bad enough. But you know, this is not about
loss of temporal things. It's not about the loss of things.
It's about the eternal loss of a man's soul, and yet he doesn't
fear. What would a man give in exchange
for his soul? If he gained the world and loses
his soul, what is a man's property? You've got that hanging on your
wall, don't you, Shannon, there in the garage. What would a man
give in exchange for his soul? And you know what he'll give
in exchange for his soul? A little pleasure, a little lust. whatever he's content with in
this world. And why is that? Because the heart has deceived
him. The heart has deceived him about
this most, most important matter. And you know he never will fear
his danger until his danger is represented to him by some outside
source. Now it's incredible to think
that what awaits a lost man. It's absolutely incredible to
think what awaits. If this Bible is true, it's absolutely
incredible to think what faces a lost man when he takes his
last breath. And yet, he doesn't fear it. And never will fear it until
some outside source represents that danger to it. We're never
told that the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell until he
got there. He never lifted up his eyes.
He never said while he was here, have mercy on me. He never feared
while he was here. That's amazing, isn't it? He
never feared until hell lit his conscience with its flames. Then
he feared. Why didn't he fear here? One
of two reasons. Either this, hell, the danger
that he was in, never was represented to his mind. Nobody ever told
him. God never told him. Or somebody
told him. And he hardened his heart against
that fear. I don't know which one it was. But he never lifted
up his eyes until the flames of hell licked his conscience. So our text is telling us here
the necessity of the convicting work of the blessed Holy Spirit. We're all by nature lost in sin
without a saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. We all stand in immediate danger
of losing ourselves and going down to the pit under the awful
wrath of God. And yet, unless the Holy Spirit
represents this danger to our minds, presents it to our minds,
we will never fear. This spirit of bondage is the
Holy Spirit. It's the spirit of conviction
confronting us with our awful state that we're in. That's the first half of our
text. I want you to hold that and turn with me. to what the
Lord Jesus said about this subject over into John's Gospel, Chapter
16. John's Gospel, Chapter 16. Here's
the way the Lord Jesus talked about it. Paul talked about it
as a spirit of bondage. And here the Lord Jesus talks
about it when the Holy Spirit has come and how He will convince
us of our need of salvation, our need of the Lord Jesus. And
look what he says here in John chapter 16. And look what he
says in verse 7. I tell you the truth. It is expedient,
it's advantageous, it's profitable for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter,
the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you. But if I depart, I
will send him unto you. But notice this. He's not first
a spirit of comfort. He's first a spirit of conviction. Look what he says in verse 8.
And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin and
righteousness and judgment to come. That word reprove, it means
that He'll convince. He convicts of sin. He proves
the guilt of our sin. He convinces of sin. He shows
us the sin, and when He does, He leaves us without doubt concerning
our sin. In verse 9, "...of sin, because
they believe not on Me." Now, He can be saying here that when
the Holy Spirit has come, He convinces us of unbelief. Because
we believe not on Jesus Christ? Or he could be saying here he
convicts us of sin because we do not believe on Christ. If
we believed on Christ, he wouldn't convict us of our sin. But in
other ways, however you way to look at it, he convicts us and
convinces us, first of all, of sin. Isn't it amazing that we
live with sin in us and sin all around us? Sin above us and sin
below us and we don't know anything about it. It goes back to the deceitfulness
of the heart, doesn't it? When the Holy Spirit is come,
He convinces us of the evil nature of sin. That's the first thing
He convinces us of. It's against God, so it must
be evil. And it's not only against a just
God, but it's against a good God, isn't it? David said, Against
thee and thee only have I done this evil in your sight. What is sin? It's evil against
God. He secondly convinces us of the
guilt of sin. I tell you, every man is without
excuse, isn't he? Because everybody is guilty of
sin. We got the creation that proves
it. We got our Bibles to read that
proves it. We've got preachers. We've got
our conscience. I tell you, when push comes to
shove, I don't have any excuse for my sin. I'm guilty. I'm responsible for my sin. And
the Holy Spirit tells us that. He teaches us this. He convinces
us this. The end of sin, the wages of
sin is what? Death. Sin, when it's finished,
bringeth forth death. He convinces us of that. He convinces
us of this, the need of a sacrifice to atone for sin. Without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission for sin. When the Holy
Spirit has come, He not only teaches us of the evil of sin,
but that a sacrifice has been made for sin, the death of the
Son of God. We can't believe on Jesus Christ
as the Saviour of our soul until the Spirit of God teaches us
that. And as He teaches us that, how shall they believe on Him
in whom they have not heard? Thirdly, fourthly, He convinces
us of our need of forgiveness of sins. Through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. Aren't you glad the
day that you was awakened and begin to realize your need of
forgiveness? You've sinned against God, you're guilty, there's a
sacrifice for sin, but you don't care because you didn't even
know your need of forgiveness. But when He has come, when He
has come, He brings this to our minds, sin. And then the second
thing the Lord Jesus said about him in verse 10, of righteousness. He convinces the world. He convicts
of righteousness. And notice this, because I go
to my Father, I've often wondered what this means. I think it simply
means two things. The Jews were calling the Lord
Jesus Samaritan. They called Him a devil. They
called Him a liar. They called Him a deceiver. They
said, He's a sinner, didn't they? And the Lord Jesus said, Listen,
I'm none of those things. I'm righteous. And when the Holy
Spirit comes, He's going to convince you, I'm righteous, because I
go to my Father. Where is He this morning? He's
with the Father. Would He be there if He was a
sinner? Would He sit there if He wasn't a righteous man? He
was the righteous one, wasn't He? And I tell you, people use
the name... There was a lady who called me
the other day and her heart was just broken. She said it would
just run through all of her family, using the Lord Jesus' name in
vain. Just talking awful, using His name in vain. And you know
what? When the Holy Spirit comes, He'll
put a stop to that. Boy, they'll start thinking different
about Jesus Christ. They won't use His name like
that. Why? Because He's the Righteous One.
He's the Righteous One. And this also has to be here
when He has come, He will prove to us our need of righteousness. We need a righteousness. God
has provided a righteousness. And that righteousness is received
by faith. You know that, don't you? How
did you learn that? The Spirit of God has taught
you, hasn't He? He's taught you. And look at this, of judgment.
In the next verse, Verse 11, When the Holy Spirit is come,
he will convince of sin, righteousness, and of judgment, because the
prince of this world is judged. Now what in the world does he
mean there? Well, Satan is a great prince. He was the prince of
the angels, and God judged him. Judged him because he found sin
in him. And the Lord Jesus said, I saw him as lightning fall from
heaven. And listen, if God judged him,
that mighty creature, and cast him down, how's the rest of our
poor creatures? How are we going to fare before
God? We cannot, can we? If Satan was
judged, how much more poor sinners like us will be judged? And you
know something, we're already judged, don't we? We're not waiting
to see if we're guilty. He that believeth not is guilty
already, isn't he? He's condemned already. He's
already judged. I remember one of the first things,
looking back now, I didn't know it then when I was just a little
kid, about the size of these children that was up here singing
this morning, out in front of an old log house, looking up
at the sky, and it was red and roaring, and I looked up at the
sky, and I'm telling you, my conscience was smitten within
me that I was guilty before God. It wasn't that, boy, you're coming
to judgment and you're going to have to stand there and be
weighed in the balance. I was already weighed. And I was judged. And I'm guilty. And the Holy
Spirit taught me that. And He teaches us that. We were judged in Adam, weren't
we? And judged because of our own sin. We're judged. And this
is the work of the Holy Spirit. And when He begins His work,
what kind of work is it? When He begins it. It's the spirit
of bondage. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. Now what does this tell us? Let's
advance this just a little bit. If this spirit of bondage is
indeed the Holy Spirit and He comes first in a way of convicting
us, convincing us and making us fear, what does this tell
us? Well, it tells us this. The Holy
Spirit has to be sovereign in His work, because nobody is going
to receive a spirit that makes them afraid. Nobody is going
to sit and let somebody bring them into bondage. They're going
to run from it, aren't they? When the Holy Spirit first comes
to us, if He just comes and suggests my sins, if He just comes and
suggests, you might be headed for the judgment. But He doesn't
do that. He comes and shows us and convinces
us of our lostness, the danger that we're in. And He overwhelms
the conscience. He makes us feel the bondage,
the weight, the heaviness of it. And He does it irresistibly. And otherwise, if He didn't,
we'd never receive such a Spirit, would we? No way that we'd receive
that Spirit of bondage. Holy Spirit of conviction is
as foreign to the natural mind as light is from darkness. And
we have people today to tell us, let the Lord do this, let
the Lord do that. A lost man ain't going to let
God do nothing if He can stop him. And right here is a prime
example of that. If you fell into a rattlesnake's
den, what would you do? You'd run like the dickens, wouldn't
you? You'd tear something up getting out of that nest. That's
nothing compared to this. when the Holy Spirit appears
to the conscience and brings this bondage of fear. I remember
how I resisted it. I remember how I resisted Him,
and I remember if He wasn't sovereign, I'd have resisted Him to my own
damnation. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. John said fear has torment, didn't
he? Our forefathers used to say, about this conviction and the
necessity of this spirit of bondage, they used to say this, or Joseph
Hart used to say this. He says it's a dangerous thing
to be found before we're lost. He says it's a dangerous thing
to be healed before we're wounded. And it's a dangerous thing to
have life before we've first been killed. And this is the
necessity of our text. For the Holy Spirit to come as
a spirit of bondage and teach us the danger we're in and make
us afraid. Make us afraid. What does our
text tell us? Not only that conviction of our
lostness is received by the spirit of bondage, but also that this
bondage will continue until it gives way. unto another spirit
which is also received." And what is that? The spirit of adoption. Whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. So what does our
text teach? That the Holy Spirit first comes
to us and represents to us, teaches us, convicts us, convinces us
the danger we're in and our need. And by this He brings us into
the bondage of fear. And this in God's time. In God's
time. Now with me, it was a long time. With you, it may have been a
very short time. As you look in the New Testament,
it was usually a short time. I went for years and the Lord
convicted me and breaking me. Why He chose that way with me,
I don't know. That's His business, isn't it?
Most usually in the New Testament, though, you find people like
the jailer. The Lord came to him that night and he began to
cry out, Men and brethren, I'm lost! I'm lost! What is that? That's the spirit of bondage,
isn't it? But that night, the Lord let him find rest for his
burdened soul in Jesus Christ. That night the spirit of adoption
came to him, crying, Father, Father, So that's the teaching of our
text. That's the principle that's taught
here. Without Holy Spirit conviction, there's no salvation, brothers
and sisters. There is not. No man can come to Me except
My Father draw him. It's written in the Prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. This is another way of saying
this. They shall all be brought under bondage in their conscience. And then what happens? They come
to Me. They come to me and find rest. They come quick or they're
prolonged in their coming, but they come to me. That's what
our text teaches. Now, let me give you four or
five reasons for this. Why is this necessary? Why is
it necessary that we have this spirit of bondage to fear? First of all, it's this, because
the heart of a sinner is deceived. It's blind. It's hard. It's willing to continue on in
its sin without seriously considering the consequences. The heart of
sinners is like little light-hearted children, aren't they? Just playing, going from one
toy to the next, playing, laughing, having a very good time. How does the Holy Spirit remedy
this flatness? But by weighing the heart down
with fear. I tell you, fear is a heavy thing.
Boy, it will grip you like nothing else. There's times when you
can't get anybody's attention, but by making them afraid. And
that's one of the first things God does to get our attention.
When He's ready to set a heart in tune with Himself. I don't
know how some of you brethren tune your instrument. But you
know how God, when He tunes His instrument, He starts with that
heavy string. When the piano man came to tune her piano, I
was sitting here and listening to him, and he started with a
heavy string. I said, why do you start with
a heavy string? He said, most people do. God does, doesn't
He? God brings down the heart with
heaviness. That's the way to get its attention.
You turn the lightness into heaviness. Sinners are skating over hell
and their feet's ready to slide. And they're not even serious
about it. They don't realize how heavy they are until the
blessed Holy Spirit brings their need, their danger. Then they're
so heavy and then they're afraid. That's the first reason. The
second reason is this. Lost sinners are satisfied in
their sins, are they not? They want more of it. They want
more of self. They want more of pleasures.
They want more of the world. I'll tear down my barns and build
greater barns. The Jews got down in Egypt and,
man, they loved it down there. They sat by their flesh pots
ready to eat the beef. They loved their garlics. They
loved their leeks. They loved their cucumbers. They
were satisfied down in the land of Ramsey. They loved it until
God put them in bondage. Until God made slaves out of
them by the Egyptians. Then what did they do? In their
bondage they sighed unto God. Have mercy and deliver us out
of this bondage. Men are the same way. They are
satisfied with the life that they have. They just want more
sin. Until the Lord comes and smacks
their heart with His fear and makes them heavy. And then out
of the bondage they begin to see and cry and groan. Have mercy upon me. Deliver me,
save me. Thirdly is this. This is why
this conviction of sin, this heaviness, this bondage is necessary. Christ never gives Himself, save
and lead to the sinner until He first makes him feel his need
of Him. Christ is no cheap Savior. Men
can't have Him if they don't need Him. He doesn't give Himself
to anybody until the Holy Spirit, first of all, teaches us our
need of Him. He healed those who had need
of being healed. I tell you, the Lord Jesus, you
follow Him through the Gospel, He's always healing somebody.
But you know something? He never healed a well man. He
was always a sick person. Always a sick man. Why did Barnabas
cry, Jesus have mercy upon me? Nobody else could give him sight
but Jesus of Nazareth. He was a blind man. Why did the
woman with an issue of blood press through that crowd and
touch the hem of his garment? She had need of him to stop her
bleeding. Why aren't we seeing multitudes
this morning flocking to Jesus Christ? Why are some of our neighbors
still in the bed this morning? Why are they sleeping sound?
Why haven't they given themselves up to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Why don't they love Him? Why don't they believe Him? Why
don't they follow Him? There's one good reason. They
don't need Him. They can live without Him. And
they'll die without Him until the Holy Spirit come and present
to their minds the danger they're in. And then and then only will
they seek a Savior. to save their souls. The Holy Spirit puts us longing
after freedom, doesn't He? He brings us into bondage. And
He puts us longing and sighing for freedom. And this is the
freedom that Jesus Christ gives. Fourthly, it's necessary because
of this. Faith is usually, if not always,
born out of desperation. It's born out of desperation.
We're not born with faith. We can't muster faith up. It's
born in us. And it's usually born out of
desperation. Why did that woman come to the Lord Jesus Christ?
And when did she come? Only after she had tried every
other physician. It was only after she had spent
everything she had and rather grew worse. That out of her desperation,
she said, only He can heal me. Only He can heal me. Why do we hear many today, brothers
and sisters, who are willing to walk a church aisle down to
some mourner's bench and be satisfied with that? Why do we hear so
many today saying that they made a decision for Christ and they're
satisfied with that? Why do we hear of people reading
or repeating a sinner's prayer after somebody and they're satisfied
with that? Or they have a catechism or they're
baptized in water or do religious works and they're satisfied with
that for salvation. Why is that? Because they're
not desperate. They're just not desperate. Their
souls have never been made vital to them. Jesus Christ has not
been presented to them as the only Savior of miserable, hell-deserving
sinners. They're not desperate! And I
tell you, when the Holy Spirit comes as a spirit of bondage,
we get desperate. We get desperate. Let the heart be truly made heavy
with this bondage. Let it feel its hunger. Let it
feel its thirst. or freedom and then nothing will
satisfy that person but the broken body and the shed blood of the
dear Savior. Now that's the truth. That's
the truth. The soul will never appreciate
rest until it's carried the load. The captain will never value
the quiet haven until he's faced the churning of the stormy sea. The sailor will never know the
surety of the anchor until he's been tossed by the violence of
the waves. Oh, it's only the filthy, those
who are aware of their filth, that glory is in the blood of
Jesus Christ. It's only those who have been
made aware of the shame of their nakedness that truly rejoices
in the garments of salvation. It's those who are aware of their
deadness and sins who glory in the life that Jesus Christ gives. And it's only those who feel
like I'm a brand that's been plucked out of the burning who
will one day bask in the glory of heaven. Why is it necessary
that the Holy Spirit be first of all a spirit of bondage to
fear? Because our condition, our condition,
we're unaware of it, of our need and the remedy. Fifthly, the fifth reason that
we must be taught by the Holy Spirit and He must become a spirit
of bondage, fifthly is this. The principle taught in our text
is necessary because God has purpose to get Jesus Christ a
great name and glory as the Savior for sinners. That's God's purpose. If somebody asked me what God's
purpose was, I'd say this. He set His heart on getting His
Son a great name. He set His heart on bringing
all the glory to His Son. That's His purpose. And the Holy
Spirit has come down from heaven to accomplish that purpose. And
that's why He's come, as He has, to bring sinners into bondage
that He may then bring sinners to glory in Jesus Christ. Brother
Donnie preached a message one time about 1 Timothy 1.15, Jesus Christ, this
is a faithful saying, Jesus Christ came into this world to save
sinners of whom I am chief. And Brother Donnie was preaching
to this end, he said, there's two things that will never get
over as believers. These two things will only increase
in this life as we grow in grace. One is, Jesus Christ is the Savior. And the second is, I'm the sinner. And we never get over that. Not
only do we never get over it, but we learn more about it, don't
we? Some of you here, I know Clarence
was at the meeting where this preacher got up to preach and
said, we've got to get beyond Christ. You remember that? We've
got to get beyond Christ. Well, when the Holy Spirit comes
to do His work, He remedies such foolishness of that. Get beyond
Christ. No, the Holy Spirit said, I'm
going to teach you. As you grow in grace, I'm going
to teach you more of your sinfulness and more of Christ's saving merit. It only increases, doesn't it?
It doesn't diminish. And I tell you, brothers and
sisters up in heaven, it's going to consummate, if that could
be said. I doubt it will ever consummate.
Consummate seems to be when you reach the high. I mean, in heaven
we are not going to reach the height of Jesus Christ and His
glory. They are going to be like the
Niagara Falls, the Bible tells us. They are going to be as the
sound of many Niagara's, all of them in one united voice up
in heaven. They are going to say, Thou art
worthy, O Lamb, to take the book and to open the seals, for Thou
wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood. There
is glory in Christ in heaven. More than we do here. And what's
it about? We're poor sinners, and He's
the Savior. We're nothing at all, and He's
our all in all. That's why it's necessary for
the Holy Spirit to begin a Word. Oh, men are professing Christ
all over the place, aren't they? They're professing Christ. Everybody's
got a profession of Christ. And you won't run into one in
a thousand that would give you a dime for Christ if they had
it. And why is that? Why is that? We know why it is,
don't we? Don't know it. Don't know themselves underneath.
Therefore, the necessity. Oh, come, blessed Holy Spirit.
Do your work. Do your work. Come as a spirit
of bondage. Bring men into fear. Make them
afraid. Bring them to Christ. And let
that spirit of fear then become a spirit of adoption, whereby
they cry, Father, Father. In conclusion, here's two things.
Our text seems to strongly imply, at least imply, back over in
our text, ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear. Now what does this teach us but
this? Once we've been saved by this new birth, we'll never be
lost again. Our adoption will never be made
void. We will never be disowned as
children of God. The Holy Spirit has sealed us
and we will never become unsealed. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again, and you never will. You'll never be lost again. The Sovereign Holy Spirit now
is a spirit of adoption, and He never will reverse that and
become a spirit of fear to us again. You have not received
the spirit of bondage. How did the Apostle know this?
Did he know this by experience? Did he know these people at Rome?
Did he say, well boy, I've watched you and I know how faithful you
are and I just believe that you're going to continue in the faith
and you're going to die in the faith. Therefore, I know that
you'll never receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. It
had nothing to do with that. He didn't even know these people,
never seen them. He received this truth because
the Holy Spirit taught him that. The Holy Spirit was working in
his mind and said, Paul, listen, you be careful to write this
down. This is comfort for my children. Once I've come to them
as a spirit of adoption, I will never, never convict them of
their lost estate again because they'll never be lost. If somebody
comes and says, oh, Paul, I'm lost again. I'm lost. I was saved. I was just sure
that it didn't work, but I'm lost again. What would Paul say
to them? Never again. That's not the Holy
Spirit convincing you of that. You may have fallen into some
great doubt because of your carelessness, because you've not been sober
and careful and prayerful. You may have fallen into fear
and doubt, and the devil may take advantage of that. But the
Holy Spirit will never convict you again of your lostness, because
you'll never be lost again. Secondly and lastly is this,
and this strongly suggests this to our minds. You have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the
spirit of adoption whereby we cry out of the Father. It suggests
this to our minds that the Father in heaven who has begun this
sweet work of communion between Himself and us, He is not willing
that this sweet communion should ever be broken or even interrupted. You have not received the spirit
of bondage, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby
you always, you continually cry, Father, Father. And when you
have sinned and your Father lays the rod upon your back, He is
not willing that this sweet communion should be broken. Isn't it wonderful that we can
look in these passages and we can see the heart of God toward
you? And here's what He's saying to us. My child, I have whipped
you sore. I have laid the flesh open on
your legs like my father used to be when I was a kid. They'd
have him in jail if he did that way today. But He was still my
Father. And our Father comes to us and
He says, though I chasten you sore, don't you refuse Me. Don't you disown Me. Don't you
be afraid to address Me as your Father, because I am continually,
everlastingly your Father. And that sweet communion, this
is the most amazing thing. You see it here in this verse
and you see it in other places in the Scriptures. You have not
received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received
the Spirit. Who is that? That's the third
person of the Sacred Trinity, isn't it? You have received the
Spirit of adoption. Whereby we cry, Father, Father,
who is that? That's the first person of the
Blessed Trinity. Galatians chapter 4 verse 6 and 7 says, God has
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart. Who's the Son? He's the second
person of the Sacred Trinity. So here with our spirits, we
have sweet union and communion with this trial of God. The Father,
the first person, has sent the Spirit, the third person, of
His Son, the second person, in His heart. And we're crying,
Father, Father, communion. with this trial in God, union,
brothers and sisters. I can't even take that in. But
I certainly enjoy it, don't you? Haven't you found so much comfort
and strength of soul? Sometimes when you bow and you
just say, Father, Father, my Father, my Father. And these heaven-born sons, if
they've just been born again this morning, they have nothing
to fear. but God Himself. Be thou in the
fear of the Lord all the day long, for God has not given you
the spirit of bondage to fear, but of adoption.