“The Spirit Of Adoption” (Romans 8:15)

Happy Easter to you, just to let you know a little bit different this morning, we’ve prepared an Easter pageant for you, as is our custom, and so sure you’re part of it. And it goes like this, all throughout Christian’s history, the history of the Church, as well as the geography of the church. That’s all times and in all places, there’s been a universal greeting that has existed among Christians, and not just for the Lord’s day, and not just for Resurrection Sunday, but for every day. But it’s appropriate, specifically for Easter, because we celebrate the resurrection. We do that every day, but particularly on this Sunday. And it goes like this. It is a greeting where one person calls out to the other, either the person or the group, and says this, “Christ is risen.” And then the person or people respond back and say, “He is risen indeed.” And so, “Christ is risen.” “He is risen indeed.” So, let’s do that. I’m going to do that with you: “Christ is risen.” Good job. That concludes our Easter pageant.

If you’ve got a Bible, go with me to Romans chapter eight. We’re going to continue our series through this wonderful book. And the title of this message is “The Spirit Of Adoption” (Romans 8:15). “The Spirit of adoption.” This is taken directly from the text of Romans 8:15, and we’ll get to that here in a moment. But in case you’re new, I’m going to do a little bit of a jet tour to catch you up on what we’re doing in this particular chapter, because when we come to Romans chapter eight, the chapter is all about one main thing, and it is this. It is the assurance that a believer in Christ has, that He will finish the work that He started, and that they therefore can rest in His person and His work and in His commitment to them come death or life, hell or high water. And that’s what we see all the way from the very beginning of the chapter. In fact, this is verse one. It sets the tone of the context. It says, “There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” So, what do we mean by “condemnation”? Well, that term would be synonymous basically with damnation. That would mean eternal, damnatory, separation and punishment. That’s what that’s referring to. There’s none of that for someone who is in Christ Jesus. So, if it’s in Christ Jesus that that applies to that means that this is a conditional promise. It means there are some who actually have this. They don’t just profess it, they possess it. And it is those that are in Christ Jesus. There’s no condemnation waiting for them at the judgment seat one day when they stand before God. How is that exactly accomplished? That’s very pertinent for our study here. And in case they’re new, we want to bring you up to speed, lest we teach you something that’s not yours yet. Our prayer is that you hear the Gospel, repent and believe. But until that time, that’s not the case. There actually is condemnation.

According to John. Look at John 3:36, it says this, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” That’s the condition. Now we’ll explain what that means. But whoever has the Son has eternal life. If you believe in Him, to believe in Jesus, has eternal life. “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Now, what is that? That’s eternal, damnatory condemnation. That’s what that is. It’s a synonymous term with condemnation. That’s for those who do not obey the Son. But obey the Son, how? By believing in Him. That’s it. There’s not a work that saves you, there’s not a magic prayer, there’s no trinkets, and you don’t need an earthly priest. It’s faith in the person and the finished work of the actual Jesus of the Bible. So, if we have to continue this line of thought, we have to say this, well, if there’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ, and being in Christ is by believing in Christ. Well, what does it really mean to believe? Does that just mean you just say, “Okay, fine. I believe. Okay, I’ll slip up my hand.” Maybe you’ve been to those meetings before, where every head bowed, every eye closed, right? And then they pick your pocket. No. And they say, “Slip up that hand,” right? The guy’s like, “I see that hand. I see that.” That’s not salvation. It’s something inside, not outside. It’s something God does. Man responds to the salvation of the Holy Spirit.

But what does it actually look like? This is 1 Corinthians 15, two verses with three words, very concise understanding of what it actually means. When you say you believe in Jesus, you believe at least these three things. Here he is, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of (what?) first importance.” These three things are that important? Here they are, “What I also received that Christ died for our sins.” That’s the first one that He died for our sins. Not just that He died, because historians know that’s true. There was a historical man named Jesus Christ, or at least that’s what He was referred to as Jesus of Nazareth. He was the carpenter’s son, born kind of scrupulous like you know, circumstances surrounding was He? Was she pregnant? How’d she get that way? Right? They know there was a historical Jesus. This belief is believing that He died specifically for our sins, in that He is the fulfillment of the Lamb of God from Exodus, right? The book of Exodus, the Passover lamb. And He’s the lamb as John the Baptist called “Him who takes away the sin.” Thus, when He was hung on the tree, the sin of all of His people that He would save was put on the lamb, that He died for our sins. How do we know that? Well, it’s “In accordance with the Scriptures.” Now maybe you’re here and you say, “Well, hey buddy, I don’t believe it. I don’t believe the Bible.” Okay? “And you know, you’ll never convince me.” Okay, I won’t try. My job is not to convince you of the Bible. My job is to teach the Bible to an audience of One. You just get in on it. I’m here to please the Chief Shepherd. That’s really what I’m here to do. And if you say, “Well, I don’t believe the Bible, so therefore that doesn’t apply to me.” It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe the Bible. I have a great statement for you. God doesn’t believe in atheists. Do you know that? Everybody knows there’s a God. You have to suppress that. That we covered this way about years ago in Roman one. You have to suppress the truth in righteousness, to convince yourself that complex order and design and glory came out of an explosion, you got to be somewhat delusional. In other words, you have to be saying, “I’m going to believe this, because the alternative is, there’s actually a God, and I’m accountable to Him one day, I’ll answer to Him.” See that’s the danger. It’s “In accordance with the Scripture.” You know, you can’t do it. You can’t convince somebody that the Bible is true. The Holy Spirit has to do that. It’s actually a miracle. And so here, I don’t try to defend the Bible. I love what Charles Spurgeon said, you know, 200 years ago, he said, “When you have the Bible, it’s like having a lion on a leash. You don’t have to defend a lion. You simply unleash the lion. The lion will defend itself.” And that’s what we do here, week in, week out, in D-groups, throughout the week, we unleash the scripture on people, and it takes care of itself. The Holy Spirit doesn’t just inspire the scripture in its original languages, but He also enforces it in the lives of His people. So that’s the first thing, and we know that from the Bible, Jesus died in accordance with the Scriptures for our sins.

Here’s the next two in verse four “That He was buried.” This is number two, why is that important? Because He truly died. He didn’t faint. He didn’t swoon. It wasn’t a magic trick. He was fully dead. This is a historical fact. In fact, all of His enemies called Him dead. They said, “Yes, He’s dead.” They ran a spear up through His side. It pierced His heart. Out came blood and water. That’s a medical situation. He is dead, and they laid Him in the tomb, fully dead, but though He paid for our sins and went in the grave, because that’s what we deserve more than that, eternally to be punished. Death could not hold Him, the grave could not keep Him. And the Father raised Him from the dead that He was raised on the third day. Why? Because He was who He said He was and He did what He said He was going to do. And when the Father raised Him, proved that His sacrifice, His atonement for our sin, was enough. It had been paid. And Him, being fully human, represented the human race, but being fully God, He could actually endure the wrath of God for our sin and survive because it wasn’t His own sin. He was raised again on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures. And there again, you say, “Well, I don’t know about the Bible.” Doesn’t matter. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. That’s what Romans 10:17, says. So, you’re going to hear a lot of Scripture, and now you know why you don’t need the concepts from a human being. You need the Word of God exposed to you. And that’s how the Holy Spirit changes hearts inside out, not outside in.

And Jesus says it this way in John 5:24, “Truly, truly. I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” In other words, we would say there’s no condemnation. It’s the same saying as Romans 8:1 it’s by hearing and believing His Word. And even that is a supernatural thing. If we’re here to celebrate the resurrection of someone who died 2000 years ago, the only way that’s going to be made a reality in your heart is if the Spirit does it, He does it through the Scripture. And you recognize this when you’re a Christian, it’s the first thing the Holy Spirit does. He opens your eyes to recognize the authority and the sufficiency and the inerrancy of the Scripture. He has to do that no one else will do. Otherwise, we remain blind to it again. We can’t convince you, but the Holy Spirit actually can.

When you understand that, now back to Romans 8:1 you understand what it means. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Holy Spirit’s open your eyes. You see what the Word of God is. And if you’re here, by the way, and you recognize the Bible is the Word of God, you didn’t get that from your mama. You got that from the Holy Spirit, because otherwise you would be blind to it in your initial depraved condition. “For those that are in Christ Jesus,” this is great. We just put an “A” assurance. That’s the assurance that sets the context for the whole chapter. That’s what the whole chapter is talking about, from verse one all the way to the very end. Neither death nor life or any other thing can separate you from the love of God that’s in Christ Jesus and everything in between is a pacific ocean of the treatise of God’s truth. That’s what this is doing. If you’re getting this, you’re actually understanding Romans 8:1, even if you’re here and you’re like, “I don’t believe it,” you’re still at least understanding it literal, historical and grammatically. And that can be to your benefit, even eternally, in that context of assurance. Let’s skip down to verse nine. He says this Romans 8:9, “You”. Again, this is talking about who those that are in Christ. This is distinctive in language. “You, however, are not in the flesh.” That is synonymous with “unsaved” or “unregenerate”. “You (as a Christian) are not in the flesh.” You’re not unregenerate. You’ve been regenerated by the Spirit. You’re not in the flesh. “But the spirit (here’s the “if” that matters, if it’s conditional) if, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you.” That word “dwell” means tabernacle, or makes His tent inside of you. Listen to me. There are, in fact, two kinds of people. I get it, there’s every tribe, tongue and nation under heaven. There are different races. There are all those things, but there’s two kinds of people. There are people who have the Holy Spirit living in them. There are people who don’t. And in the end, those two separate groups will go to two separate places. That’s how simple it actually is. And to be a real Christian. This is the only thing that is distinctive at heart. You have the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you. You can go to a church all day, but going to a church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger. Thank you. Keith Green, and if you don’t know who that is, your music’s terrible. You don’t become a Christian by helping an old lady across the street. You don’t become a Christian by finally, you know, cutting back on some, that’s not what it is. It is not a moralistic adjustment. It is a new heart, a new spirit. What Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter three, “You must be born again.” So how do I do it? Well, you don’t, the Spirit does it, and you find yourself believing. And when He gives you that faith, what’s the first thing a real believer will do? A new believer, they will repent of their sin. They will fall and follow their Savior in faith, repent and believe. It’s that process. He goes on in the same verse. “Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.” This is the distinction. There are those who have the Spirit. There are those who do not. If you are one here who has the Holy Spirit living inside of you, you’ve trusted Christ from the heart, you recognize He is King of kings, Lord of lords. You long for His return. You love the God of the Bible. You love the Jesus of the Bible. Are you sinlessly perfect? No, we covered all that in Romans chapter seven. But this assurance is for you. If that doesn’t describe you, this assurance is not for you.

Prayerfully yet, we pray that Spirit would open your eyes, but this is what it’s referring to, which brings us to our main text. That was the introduction. You’re welcome. So, it’s verse 15, but I’m going to read verse 14 first, so we’re staying in context for all. Romans 8:14-15, “All (all) who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” Now we have to answer this question, what does it mean to be “Led by the Spirit of God”? Now, if you take this verse out of context, you can air drop it in and just kind of cherry pick it. You’ll misunderstand this. You’ll think that being led by the Spirit means every morning, when you wake up, the Holy Spirit tells you what shirt to wear, right? Well, He doesn’t need to, man, if you have a wife, she does that for you. So that’s not what it’s talking about. It doesn’t mean that if your Google Maps quits while you’re on the road, that suddenly, you know He shows up to lead you, “Take a left”. No, that’s not it. This leadership is of the heart, led by the Spirit of God. That means you’ve experienced a change of direction where you now have new affections, new desires, new inclinations, new tendencies. Do you still struggle with things from the past? Do you still stumble and fall and sin? Yes, you do. There’s nobody perfect this side of heaven, but your heart desire is to please God. It’s to know God. It’s to know the Bible. It’s to draw close to Him. You love the people of God, not perfectly, because not all of them are really easy to love if we’re honest. I’m not talking about me, of course, but your heart has experienced a change. You’re being led that way. It’s likely you’re either that person because it drew you here, or you were kidnapped by your grandmother and put in her inordinately large trunk. Either way, I’ll take it, right? The Holy Spirit can break the hardest hearts. He can pierce you right through your bullet proof, and He’s here to do that. But this is how we know led by the Spirit of God, that means something has changed, new affections. Therefore, look at verse 15, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.” We covered this in details two weeks ago. You can go online, you go on the app, and you can listen to that talk about what this means.

But let me give you a synopsis. This means people who once experienced what it was like to dread death and the judgment subsequent to death by a holy, righteous judge God. That’s what this means. And every single person who comes to Christ, every man who’s ever saved, goes through a period of recognizing there is a God and I’m not Him, and there’s a problem between me and Him. I’ve broken His law. I’m accountable to Him, and one day I’ll stand naked before Him and give an account for my life, and you’re well aware at that moment, it will not go well, because on your own merit, you deserve to be cursed. That’s what this talking about, that when someone is born again, you’ve not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into that. That doesn’t mean you might not experience times of stress and doubt, but we covered that. What that looks like. You’ve not fallen back into that. You’ve not been given that, “But you have received (look) the spirit of adoption.” “The Spirit of adoption.” Now, look, this is a big deal. This is a big deal. This means that not only is the sinner forgiven of his sin based upon what Jesus has done in His life, death and resurrection. But he’s not just brought to a neutral place of innocence, like Adam, but that he’s been given active righteousness from Jesus Himself. He gives us His righteousness, and it doesn’t stop there. He actually adopts into His family. Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s way better than just standing innocent. You’re brought in with all rights and privileges and ownership of the father of the house. In other words, here’s the keys to the house. Come on in. That’s what adoption truly speaks of. Now I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but this is second service, so some of you are probably quite evil. Is there one person who would admit with me that you’ve been to jail? Has anybody ever been to jail? I know you’re in church. You don’t want to admit it. It’s not that kind of church. Nobody has been to jail. Thank you. I knew I recognized you. Do you remember the best thing about getting out of jail? You were out of jail. It didn’t matter what you did, it didn’t matter where you went to eat. Everything smelled better. The air was cleaner. The sun was brighter. The birds were singing because you were out of jail. Listen, it would have been enough to have your sin washed away, wouldn’t it? You not go to hell and pay for your own sin. That would have been enough. I would be content to be a doorkeeper in the house of God than be anything anywhere else for 1000s of years. I’d much rather do that. But He didn’t stop there. He adopted me. And if you’re in Christ, He adopted you. That’s a bigger blessing than just missing out on judgment. And I would argue it’s a bigger blessing even of what we would call natural birth. If you had kids, you’ll know what I’m talking about. My wife and I, we raised four. They’re all four married now, but when you have kids naturally, you just kind of get what you get. I mean, I’m not complaining, but I’m not. I love it. First time parents, “We’re pregnant.” I’m like, “Well, she is,” and they’re like, “Oh, we hope it’s a this. We hope it’s a that.” I’m like, “Buckle up buttercup, because you just don’t know, hold on.” But adoption is different. Adoption means there’s a father who chose you, who looked out and said, “You. I choose you.” Now that’s a special thing, because when He chose you, He already knew all that you were. He already knew what you would do, because He chose you from eternity past. That’s what the Bible clearly teaches. He adopted you in His heart from eternity past, brought into His family. And if that’s you, look at what happens, “Receive the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry (what do we cry?) ‘Abba, Father.’” That means the Spirit in a real believer has a cry out to God of this term. And it’s a very rarely used term. In fact, it’s used only in the New Testament in this fulfilled sense. Why? Because it means this. It means, “Dear Papa,” that’s what it means. It means that the inside a true believer in Christ, someone who’s been adopted, there is the Spirit of God crying with their spirit this, “Dear Daddy, dear Papa.” This is the same as you dads when you’ve come home from work, if you raise little kids, remember when they were, you know, just young enough to still run and meet you at the door. And they come running. Their arms are in the air, “Daddy!” Remember that? It doesn’t matter what happened that day and how bad work was. You pick them up and you grab them and boy, everything is just right with the world. That’s the heart attitude of a little child crying out to the Father, “Dear Papa, Abba Father.”

I got to see this, an illustration of this really live and in person. It was 2005 I was in Israel. I ended up going there on a vacation, but I took my oldest daughter there in 2005 she was about to turn 12, and I had told my kids that when they turn 12, they get a daddy trip. They get to go on a daddy trip. And I made the mistake, I think maybe because I said this, “You can go anywhere in the world.” And I’m thinking like, you know, El Paso, and my daughter said, “I want to go to Israel.” Like, “Oh, wow.” And shock her. At the time, there was military conflict happening. And I came to realize, if I’m ever going to see it, I got to just go do it. So, I did. I took her over there, and we spent two weeks. And during that time, we went to the Wailing Wall. The Wailing Wall is an amazing place. It’s the foundation stones of the old temple that sits below the dome of the rock right there, right? It’s not necessarily exactly there, but it’s the foundation stones, and they’re enormous, and this is where the Jews go to pray. And they go there, where they’re Hasidic, Orthodox or other and they stand in front of that, you’ve probably seen pictures, and they rock back and forth. The guys, the Hasidics, have all black on right? They have the wide rim black hat and the curly hair and the angry look on their face always, because I guess they’re holy, that’s what law does to you. And they go like this, and they rock, and then they take that prayer and they stuff it in the wall, and the wall is filled up. And I’m probably, I’m in the courtyard halfway back. It’s enormous, probably 75 yards from the wall, and just looking at it, taking it all in. And behind me, to my left, I hear a little girl’s voice yell, “Abba!”, just like that, because this is a common term in Israel. And I turn around, and when I turn around to my right is a little girl, probably about seven years old, running this direction, and she’s got, like, what looks like a Catholic school, you know, in my experience, uniform on, you know, the little plaid skirts about to the knee, and then the button down, blue oxford right, short sleeve. She’s got a little book, patent leather shoes, and she’s running. And she yells again, “Abba!”, and I look over and there is this big dude. He’s a Hasidic Jew. He’s the guy I just described, and he’s got a face like stone. And they walk like this. I mean, they just look like they’re mad at everybody. And she comes running, and he hears her on that second, “Abba”, and his whole face changes. His countenance softens. He gets like this. He comes down. She runs into his arm as he picks her up, and I’m like, “I’m not crying, you are.” And I realized and remembered 8:15, that’s me. I can run to my Father like that. And the father wasn’t judging her. He wasn’t asking her, “Have you done your homework?” He wasn’t asking, “How was your day?” He was simply saying, “Oh, it’s my daughter.” That’s the word here. That’s the relationship we are to have, running like that to Abba, our Father. This is not the only place. This is in the Bible, by the way.

Let me show you one other. This is Galatians 4:4-6. Paul writes, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son (that’s Jesus) born of woman, born under the law.” Do you know He was born under the law? He had to keep the law perfectly in order for Him to fulfill all righteousness and impart to us the righteousness of His act of obedience. “Born under the law.” Why did He do it? He did it “To redeem”. The word literally means to buy out of the slave market, “To redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive (there it is again), adoption as sons.” Not just forgiveness, not just imputation of righteousness, not just the missing of hell and the gaining of pearly gates and streets of gold, but the gaining access into the personhood of who God is in His family. What closer union could there ever be so that we receive the adoption of sons. And watch verse six, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son (I love that) into our hearts, crying (what?) ‘Abba Father.’”

Now, why does it say “The Spirit of His Son”? Here’s why, because Jesus cried the same phrase. He cried the exact same phrase, “Abba Father.” And some of you are probably ahead of me, because you remember when He said it. He said it in the Garden of Gethsemane. And what is that? That’s the place where Him and the disciples went to pray the night before He would be arrested. Remember that? They left the upper room, they crossed Kidron, they go up the Mount of Olives, and they go in the Garden of Gethsemane, and there they are praying. And you remember what Jesus was praying? He’s praying this. Look at here’s one instance He prayed this three times, Mark 14:36, “And He (that’s Jesus) He said, ‘Abba Father.’” There’s the term no human being had ever been able to speak that before. You couldn’t call God, “Dear Papa”. You came near the ark, He’d kill you. There were cherubim there to say, what? “Stay back.” But Jesus is doing what? He’s going to lay His life down so that the veil is torn top to bottom, and access is made to the presence of God. And He prays, “‘Abba Father (and what does He ask? He says) All things are possible for You. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what You will.’” And what was the cup that He wanted removed? It was the wrath of God that would be poured out upon Him. Some people think, “Oh, Jesus was He wanted the cup of a fake trial or accusations be removed. He wanted the whipping, the scourge of the cat of nine tails on His back that opened Him up and He bled. He wanted the removing of the crown of thorns. He wanted the removing of the carrying of the cross. He wanted the removing of the crucifixion. None of those things are true. He wanted the removing of the separation of Him from the Father. He prayed it three times, and then what did He do? He surrendered to it and said this, He’s on the tree. And what does He cry out? He cries out, what? “Behold, I thirst.” What is He thirsting for? He’s thirsting for this cup. He’s saying, “Bring it on.”

And this is where it actually happens. Matthew 27:46 on the cross. “And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli Lema sabachthani,’ which it means, translates, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” Now why had God forsaken Him? Well, it’s very clear because the Lamb was put on the cross and the sin of His people was put on the Lamb, and God, the Father, the righteous Judge of the universe, looked at His Son bearing the sin, and He saw the sin which excited His wrath, and He poured out the judgment for every one of His people upon His own Son. He made Him to be sin. He made Him to be sin, and then He cursed Him, and thus He died. You say, “Is that in the Bible?” Absolutely, it’s in the Bible. I’m going to show you what becomes clear is this, He drank the cup of wrath so we could drink the cup of blessing. He was forsaken so that we would never be forsaken. He was rejected so we would be accepted. He was thrown out so that we could be brought near. This is the mediatorial work of the mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. This is Him actually doing this 2 Corinthians 5:21 makes it explicitly clear, “For our sake, (watch) He (that’s God the Father) made Him (that’s God the Son) to (what? to) be sin who knew no sin.” Look at that “to be sin.” He was as good as sin because He bore was it His sin? No, it wasn’t His sin. It wasn’t His sin. It was our sin. If He’d had any sin, He would have to die for His sin. But because He had no sin, He could take away our sin and lay His life down for us, blood for the life, so that, what? “So that in Him, (here’s that term again) we might become the righteousness of God.” That’s the good news of the gospel. He makes Him to be sin.

And then, what does He do? He curses Him on the tree. This is Galatians 3:13-14. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.” Now, what is the curse of the law? It’s very simple. “The soul that sins will surely die.” “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.” How did He do it? “By becoming a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” The Father has Him hanged on the tree through the Romans, right? He puts the sin on Him. He sees that He makes Him to be sin by putting that sin on Him, and then He curses Him, and He dies. He lays His life down. Verse 14 says, “So that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham, might come to the Gentiles (that’s us) so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” And when we do Abba Father is what it cries out, and thus inside out, that’s what we cry out.

Now here is a question then, because we have to diagnose this in light of actual experience of believers. If that’s the case, and it is that because of His finished life and work that we’ve been given the Spirit and real believers cry out, “Abba Father.” Then why do we ebb and flow up and down, sometimes feeling closer, sometimes feeling further, sometimes being enraptured in the love that God has for us, and sometimes shrinking back and being fearful. “Am I safe? Is there assurance? Am I the real thing?” Why does that happen? Wouldn’t you think that from the moment the Spirit is inside of you, crying, “Abba Father,” and you recognize that God’s Your heavenly Father, and you’re now at peace with God Romans 5:1 says. That you know now no longer have any dread of God, because all that sin has been removed. You’ve been washed. You’ve been cleansed. You’ve been forgiven. Your name is in the book of life. Your eternity is secure. And Romans eight is telling you time and time again you’re secure. Why would you ever lack that assurance? I want to illustrate it a way that I usually don’t. I want to give you a little story. I don’t like, stories about me, this is but it’s not about me doing anything worth noting. I remember Christmas Eve of 1978 and some of you don’t. I was 11 years old. I was born in 67 and Christmas Eve of 1978 was significant to me, because after five other times of me and my sister being removed from my parents’ house. Child Protective Services on Christmas Eve night came to our house and removed me and my sister from our abusive parents. They took us, and that was the last time they would do it. We would be orphans after that, and so I was 11 years old, and they drove us in police cars to the child welfare shelter on Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas. It was right next to the detention center, and the thing was, I hadn’t committed a crime, and so I couldn’t go to the detention center, but there was nowhere for me to go to sleep inside the Welfare Shelter. All the beds were full, which tells you the holiday seasons aren’t really pleasant for everybody, right? And so, what they did was they brought me into the lobby, they opened the doors, and we got there about one o’clock in the morning, and they took me into one of the side lobbies, I’ll never forget it. And they said, “You’re gonna have to sleep here. We might be able to process you tomorrow.” And it was this orange couch. It was a plastic couch. I’m not kidding three, if you can call them, cushions, and I’ll never forget it, because it wasn’t even as wide as my 11 year old shoulders. And they put a sheet down, and then they gave me a sheet, and they gave me a blanket and a pillow and covered me up, and I’m laying there on this couch. They turn the lights off Christmas Eve, actually, I guess technically, it would have been Christmas. And I laid there at 11 years old. And my lucid thought, my lucid thought, was this, “I’m never going to know love because I don’t have a family.” True story, God’s my witness. “I’ll never know love because I don’t have a family.” And you know, I deeply believe that now, for the next many years, I was too old to adopt. If you’re 11 years old and you act like a thug, nobody wants to adopt you. Yeah shocker. But you know that progressed through you know welfare shelters, foster homes and state schools, and I ended up being able to graduate high school, and I got invited to a church in September of 1986 I was invited on the 26th I went on the 27th 1986 I heard the gospel clearly. Understood it. I was raised Catholic, so I never understood the gospel. Never understood what they were talking about. The mass was in Latin. Didn’t help. I heard the gospel. I found myself believing. And that day, God saved me. My pastor became the person who would disciple me, and he told me, “Well, let’s start here. You need to read Romans 100 times.” So, I didn’t know any better. 19 years old, I said, “Okay,” so I started reading Romans, and I’d always get to verse 15. I’d be like, I’ve been adopted. And I want to promise you something, Christmas Eve of 1986 was completely different than Christmas Eve of 1978 because I’ll never forget that Christmas Eve either, because I laid on a different bed and I realized “I would know love because I did now know love because I had been adopted into a family, and I knew I didn’t deserve it.” I came to the clear, the crystal clear understanding of what David said in Psalm 27:10, what does it say? I memorized the King James version back then. It was my first month in Christ. “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” I’ve never forgotten that, and you would think someone with that kind of contrast would never doubt his salvation, would always cry out “Abba Father”, would somehow float in holiness. Yeah, if I said that, I would be a liar. I struggled just as much as anybody else, even though it’s been deep contrast, and I want to tell you from Scripture why that happens. Because if you’re in Christ and you’re missing out on that assurance, you’re missing out on the fire of that cry to God, if you have that little bit of that hesitation before you can go to Him in prayer, when you stumble and you struggle and you think, “Oh, I’m going to give God time to cool off.” Christian, that is not reality. That’s your own heart condemning you, not Him. There’s no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

I want to show you what causes that through two easy passages and what I’ve seen in my own life. These were the reasons why, even after that radical experience, I could find myself withdrawing from the God who I now called “Abba Father”. Let me give you these two here’s the first. It’s just two words. It’s Ephesians 4:30. And it says this. It says, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed to the day of redemption.” Don’t grieve Him. We grieve the Holy Spirit. How? We grieve the Holy Spirit when we go against what He says in the Word of God to do or not to do. This is what grieving the Spirit is. And if you understand what the word “grief” means, what does the word “grief’ actually mean? Well, the best definition you’ll probably ever hear is this, “Grief is the loss of intimacy hoped for.” That’s why we grieve when someone dies that we love, because we’d hoped for longer times with them. We’d hope for more, you know, card games and hugs and Christmases. And that’s why when a young person dies, it hurts even more, because there’s so much more of an expectation, right? That’s what grief is. And when we grieve the Holy Spirit, what are we actually doing? We’re pushing Him away and saying, “I don’t want to stay in step with You. I want to do this my way, and we go our own way.” Thus, He’s grieved. Now listen to me. Does that mean He leaves? Never. He’ll never leave you. He’ll never forsake you. But what does it do? It causes you to feel like the coldness is there. It’s not Him, it’s us. It feels like there’s a distance there. It’s not Him, it’s us. He’s never going to move. And I’m going to tell you this, if you’ve run for a million steps away from God, you turn around. It’s one step back. He’s tracking you down because He’s faithful in his love. It’s steadfast, not because of you, because of Him that’s grieving the Holy Spirit. When we say what we know is wrong, we do what we know is wrong. And yeah, will a real Christian be convicted? Yeah. But I’m telling you, this is the struggle here.

Here’s the second word this 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit.” What does “quench” mean? Well, grieve, we would say would be a sin of commission. Something you commit. Quench would be more of a sin of omission. I’m not going to try and spell “omission”. I’m afraid of public spelling. This is when the Holy Spirit is pressing on your life, on your conscience, that there’s something you need to do and you quench Him. It’s the same as if you took a bucket of water and dumped it on a campfire. You put out that. You kind of push that away because you don’t want to do what He’s making obvious in your life is your next, which is what gospel-centered mission is.

And I’ll give you an example. More times than I want to admit, I’ve been awake in the morning, and I get my Bible, I go to my chair and I open it to read. I pray Psalm 119:18, “Lord, open my eyes. I can behold wonderful things from Your law.” And then I go about reading, but I can’t quite read because something’s nagging my conscience, and it’s this, “You were a jerk to Kelly.” Kelly’s my wife, by the way, and I’ve been like, “Oh, okay, yeah, well, I’ll talk to her later.” What is that? That’s quenching the Holy Spirit. What does He want me to do? He wants me to deal with it then. Oh, well, I’m going to do a word study first. Oh, let me pray. Let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about that. “No, go confess to Kelly. You were a jerk to Kelly.” Now I know you find that to be a shocker, that I could ever be a jerk unless you’re married to a man. And so, what am I to do? I can either submit to what the Holy Spirit is pressing me to do, or I can quench Him. And if I quench Him. You know what the rest of my day is going to look like? A lack of intimacy with the Spirit. So, what am I to do? Whether it’s commission or omission, whether it’s I’ve grieved the Spirit or I’ve quenched the Spirit, what is it that I’m to do? I am to do this 1 John 1:9. is written to Christians, “If we confess (there’s the word, if we confess our sins first to Him and then as needed to others, if we confess our sins) He (that is God) is (two things) He is faithful (meaning He always will) and He is just (meaning He can forgive because the payment for that sin went on the tree on Christ, He’s faithful and just) to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” So, I recognize I was a jerk to Kelly. What do I need to do? “Lord, forgive me. Thank You for Your mercy. Thank You for Your love for me. I confess.” This word “confess” in the Greek is it simply means to say the same thing. That’s all it means. Homologeo is the word. “Homo” means same. “Logos” means word. It means to say the same word. So, it’s like if the Holy Spirit is impressing in my conscience this, “You were a jerk to Kelly.” I say this, “I was a jerk to Kelly. Forgive me, Lord, I see it.” And I get up, I go to her, “Sweetie. I’m sorry I was a jerk to you. Please forgive me.” Now, what have I done? I’ve confessed. Now some of you husbands, you’re getting an elbow. Hey, take some hints. Look, if you’ve got a man who the Spirit of God lives in, count yourself blessed, because those the only men who truly repent. And then what does God do? He cleanses and He forgives, because He’s faithful and He’s just, and then what is restored the condition of your heart. Now your heart becomes tender again, and now you begin to sense what has always been there and never moved away once, this convention, this convincing of us to do this, is not from our own moral standard. It’s not from our nobility. It is from the fact that we remember well that we’re loved.

I want to end with this. This is 1 John 4:16-19. John writes, “So we (that’s believers, watch this, this looks familiar) so we have come to know and to believe (believe what?) the love that God has for us.” There’s the context, we’ve come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. In other words, no condemnation all that He’s done, paying for our sins, giving us His righteousness, calling us not just out of darkness and into light, but bringing us, adopting us into His family and giving us His spirit as a down payment for the future resurrection. We’ve come to know and believe this, “Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.” Verse 17, “By this (by what?) by knowing and believing that by this is love perfected.” This word is “teleos” in the Greek, it means matured. There’s nobody that loves perfectly yet. You won’t love perfectly until you see love face to face, and then you will, one day, we’ll see Him as He is, and we will be like Him. But by this, His love matured with us, “So that we may have (what? assurance) confidence for (what?) the day of judgment.” That’s basic Romans 8:1, no condemnation for the day of judgment. “Because as he (that’s Jesus) is so also are we in this world.” In other words, we’re what? We’re righteous because of Him, but it’s all centered around love. Keep going, “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with (what? it has to do with) punishment.” This is why people shrink back. This is why true believers, when they stumble, struggle and sin, they have a tendency to do this, “I’m going to wait till God cools off a little bit. I’m going to go back here, and then I’m going to get my act together. And then when I have some good works and I feel like I can perform better, I’ll come and show Him.” No, no, no, no, no. You’ve put your father’s mask on Your Father, God. Your Father God’s not like that. You can run freely to the throne of grace. That’s not a license to sin. That’s a license to believe that you’re loved. That He disciplines those who are His kids, every single one of them. “And whoever fears has not been (matured) (teleos again) in love.” See if you say, “Well, I’m game, man. I want this. How do I get in on this? I want to love better.” Let me tell you how you don’t love better. By the way, love is the pinnacle of maturing discipleship. It’s the pinnacle. You can know all things. You can have all knowledge. You can have all wisdom. You can give your body to be burned, right? You can understand all mysteries. You can give away all your stuff to the poor. This is basic 1 Corinthians 13. It profits you nothing if you have not love. How do we get love? Do we just try harder? “Well, I came to church and I made a vow.” Please don’t do that. The Jews proved that is unfruitful. What are we to do? Make a strong vow? No, we’re to make a weak confession of this. “I can’t do it, but You can. I need Your grace,” and then we come boldly with confidence before the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need. 4:16 of Hebrews. And then, where does the love come from? It comes from verse 19. “We love because He first.” Romans eight is simply a chapter designed my illustration, not God’s, to take you by the hair and stick your head under the water of the love of God and hold you there till you drown, until you hear these words, “you are loved”. And you go, “I am loved”. Because the more you recognize His love, the more you will love, the more you’re taught of His love, the more your love begins to move toward Him. That’s why gospel-centered teaching moves to gospel-centered worship. And the more you love Him, the more you’ll love others, because you can’t fill up that fountain without it spilling over on other people. You say, “I want to love my wife better.” Good, good. Learn the Word of God. Learn more about how He loves you, learn more about what He did, learn more about who He is and how awesome He is, and what a joy and privilege it is to be His servant and His child. And your doxology will come from your theology. It’ll spill over into the community. If you’re understanding this, you’re understanding Romans eight, you’re understanding the spirit of adoption.

And I know I said I’d finish with that, but I won’t. I’ll read two more verses Romans 8:15-16. You now understand this verse, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you’ve received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, ‘Abba Father’. (Look at the next verse we will cover this next week) The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are, in fact, the children of God.” That’s the great assurance of the believer.

KEYWORDS

Easter, Gospel, Christ Is Risen, Spirit Of Adoption, Romans 8:15, Love, Assurance, Condemnation, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Abba Father, Adoption, Adopt, Righteousness, Love, Fear, Matured, Perfected, Wailing Wall, Grief, Quench, Grieving The Spirit, Quenching The Spirit, Dwell, Tabernacle, Sin, Confess, Commission, Omission, Curse, Cup, Online Easter Services, Resurrection, Cross, Redeem, Teleos, Homologeo, Bible Church, Audio Sermon, Churches In Grayson County, Churches In Texas

Speaker

Steve LeBlanc