Well, good morning. Good to see you. If you’ve got a Bible, go ahead and get it out and go with me to Romans chapter eight, we’re going to cover one more verse. Woo hoo. Verse 16, it’s really good. Be excited. The title of this message is right out of the text. It is “The Witness Of The Spirit” (Romans 8:16), “The Witness Of The Spirit”.
Let’s get to it. I’m going to read 14 through 16, just so we’re in context. Pick it up a little bit in terms of review, just going to cover a couple of high points in this verse 14. First of all, what are we trying to do? We’re trying to know what the Bible says, what it means by what it says, and how it applies to our lives and the person and the work of Jesus Christ. It’s always the hermeneutical principle. That’s how you’re going to learn what the scripture actually says. Verse 14 says, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” What does this what does this word “led” mean? This form of the word “led” LED? What does that mean? Does that mean that God gives you the details every morning of what color shirt He wants you to wear? No. Some would have you believe that that’s how they interact with God, but there’s a theological word for that. They are liars. They are trying to act spiritual and posit themselves to something they’re not. This leadership has to do with the direction of your heart. Now it is not about perfection, it’s about the new direction of someone who’s been born again. You have new affections, you have new loves, you have new desires. You also have new hates, right? Have you figured that out? You know when you love something dearly, you also hate anything that threatens that. And so, as it says about Jesus in Hebrews, You loved righteousness, You hated wickedness. It doesn’t mean we hate people, but we hate some of the things that they do, and we hate the spirit that’s behind it, for sure. And so that’s what being led is. It’s an overarching lead through your entire life, He’s committed to your sanctification, making you more and more like the Son, Jesus Christ, which goes into verse 15, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.” What is this talking about? Again, this is talking about someone who has been raised from the dead in Christ, they went through, and if you’re in Christ, you experienced this. You went through a phase where the Lord was showing you, by His Spirit, the conviction of your sin, He was showing you your dire circumstances, that there is a God, you are not Him, and there’s a problem between the two of you, and it is you. It is your sin. And that conviction and that, in some ways a terror of death, because you realize I’m going to face judgment, that is the law, bringing you to the Savior to cry out for mercy. Everybody’s experienced that. But once you’re in Christ, you’re not given a spirit that falls back into that because you’ve been delivered out of it. It doesn’t mean your heart can’t sometimes condemn you and you make it up in your head, right? And we addressed that in a few weeks back. But this is talking about in reality, “You’ve not been given a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received (what?) the spirit of adoption.” The highest privilege of the saint is to be considered in the family, in fact, of God Almighty, Father and Son and Holy Spirit doesn’t make you God, but He brings us into His family. What are all the details about that? I don’t know, but it’s good, and I want it. Right? I know it’s good because that means there was a choice, and adoption is simply the taking of a child by choice. He, in fact, did do that. We’ll cover that in detail as we continue through Romans eight in the years ahead, by which, okay, it’s the spirit “Of adoption by whom we cry. (Here’s this statement. This is the cry of the Spirit) ‘Abba! Father!’” Literally means “Dear Papa.” That’s what that means, “Dear Papa.” That’s a very endearing familial term. It is a statement of what? Love. It’s a statement that says, I know I’m loved and therefore I love you back. Kind of becomes the essence. Then when we go to verse 16, which is our primary text, “The Spirit Himself.” Now, in the Greek the inference here some expositors put “same”. They do their own Greek translations. They’ll put “same” there because it is. It’s talking about the same spirit, right? By which you cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit, the same Spirit Himself and here it is, “He bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” “He bears witness.” Now let me point something out to you. This is not a single fold witness. This is what’s called a concurrent witness. It’s two-fold, and it’s concurrent. The Holy Spirit bears witness with not to but “With our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Now does the Holy Spirit first bear witness that you are a child of God upon regeneration? Well, absolutely, He’s the one that raised you from the dead and gave you eternal life. You’ve been born again, not of flesh and blood, but of the spirit that’s by grace through faith and hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s not of works. You can’t earn it. You don’t qualify for it. God does it. God does that of His sovereign grace. But in that condition of being a believer, the Holy Spirit bears witness with your spirit. Look “our spirit”, concurrent testimony, concurrent witness that we are the children of God. Why can your spirit do that? Well because your spirit is recreated in perfect holiness. Your spirit is ready to go to heaven right now. In fact, nothing would need to be upgraded or transferred or fixed. Unlike your soul, which your mind, is still being renewed, you’re going to be changed in an instant when you see Jesus as He is, and obviously our bodies, we’re going to get a new body. So, you’ve been saved. You’re being saved. And you will be saved. It’s a three-fold right now. This being saved is called sanctification. Romans eight is designed from chapter one all the way to the end of the chapter to give you assurance of your salvation, not false assurance, but true assurance. That’s why we’re getting into the details of it, so that there’s not false assurance. Because this does not apply to everyone, right? We covered this in weeks back, right? If anyone does not have the Spirit of God, or have the Spirit of God in Him, He does not belong to Jesus, that’s just all there is. If you are in Christ, you have His Spirit living inside of you, and your spirit witnesses to this. He bears witness to the fact that you are a child of God. There is a two-fold witness I want you to notice. It’s from the inside out, not from the outside in. Now it comes from the outside in, right? Because the Word of God, it’s external, it’s objective. We hear it, we believe it, and God doesn’t work where? Inside and the inside thus works its way to the outside. That’s the difference between the Holy Spirit being at work through the Word of God and religion hammering on you to for you to somehow get your life together. Okay, that’s not what the gospel is. The gospel is the good news of what Jesus did and how out of love He gave it to us what? Righteousness as He took our sin and therefore, because we love Him, that is what’s transforming our lives, by the Spirit through the Word. That’s good news. You having to do it by yourself. That’s bad news. Now, we do have a role in it, and we cooperate in it, but we get to that in Romans chapter 12, chapter eight is not chapter 12, because math, right? Okay, this is a chapter on assurance, so that we would know, so that we would have confidence to approach the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need, to come boldly before His throne confess our sins, because He’s faithful and He’s just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that when we sin, when we when we stumble, when we struggle, we don’t start backing away like, “Oh, I want to give God a little bit of time to cool off.” It’s a very Catholic kind of mentality there. The Bible knows nothing about that. It knows this “Abba Father”, the child reaching for his or her Father and Daddy and confident, even if they’ve made a mess, the love endures. It’s not a license to sin, but it’s the security that breeds intimacy in the relationship. If you lack security in a relationship, you will not experience much intimacy. God wants to remove that insecurity in the hearts of real believers, so that you run to Him, you run quick, you run immediate, and you even abide. That’s what it’s talking about here. So, when we see 16 that He bears witness, why? Why is a witness needed? Well, let’s look at these. We’re going to look at witness, we’re going to look at love, and we’re going to look at evidence.
So, let’s look at
1. WITNESS
Why does He bear witness? Oh, what does the word mean? What is the word? Let me ask you this, if you’ve ever seen a Court TV program, or maybe some of you have been to court, probably some of you who went some of you who went to jail, but you’ve seen Court TV, right? Perry Mason, some of you are old enough to remember Perry Mason, right? Matlock, right? Some of the other ones, you can’t handle the truth. You know movies like that, right, in the court? What are the witnesses for? The witnesses are there to remove all doubt. They’re there to confirm what’s actually real. What does a witness do? They testify to what they’ve seen, what they’ve heard, what they’ve experienced, what they know, right? That’s what they do. Well, that’s what the Holy Spirit is doing, and that’s what your Spirit is doing inside of you, if you’re a real Christian, there is the affirmation that you are who He says you are, and you have that cry of intimacy when times are great, when times are bad, and you look forward to the return of Jesus. Why? Because your heart cry is “Abba”. You love Him. That’s what the witness is actually doing. It’s clearing up that doubt. That’s why this is written here to build your assurance. Assurance. Okay, this is part of the Spirit’s ministry. It’s a huge part.
In fact, look at John 15:26, Jesus is talking here about the Holy Spirit, He says, “And when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will (what?) He will bear witness about me.” That’s right. That’s what He does. He bears witness. Now, in us, He’s bearing witness that we’re actually children of God. But isn’t even that just an extension of a witness about what Jesus has done, who He is, and what He’s accomplished? Yes, this is the Spirit’s ministry. It’s always Jesus. He’s not talking about Himself. Somewhere, you know, later in the text, He says what He won’t even speak on His own authority. Whatever He hears, that’s what He’ll speak. The Holy Spirit does not show up and go, “Hey, I’m the Holy Spirit. I want to tell you all these wonderful things about Me.” Well, He could, but that’s not what He does. That’s not His ministry, no matter what some false denominations tell you, He’s not a showoff. He wants to glorify Jesus Christ. He wants to exalt Jesus Christ. His goal is always to do this, to bear witness of the Son. 1 Corinthians 2:12 says it this way, “Not that we have received the spirit of the world.” Did you know there’s a “spirit of the world”? There is. It’s called the spirit of antichrist. It is anti-Christ. It is a spirit. It is a spiritual kingdom of Satan and demons and cooperative humans who hate God and follow His sworn enemy, and they follow the spirit of the world. And you see it all the time. It’s in the air we breathe. It’s in the water we drink, so to speak. It’s certainly in the media maybe you consume. It’s everywhere. I’m not trying to put, you know, entertainment down, or anything like that. I’m just letting you know that’s what happens. It’s what advertisement is about. It’s giving you that spirit. We haven’t received that spirit of the world, “but the Spirit who is from God that we might (what? that we might understand) understand (what?) the things freely given us by God.” That is the same assurance. And what has He given us? Well, He’s given us eternal life. He’s given us a new spirit. He’s given us the commitment that He’s going to finish what He started. He’s given us His fatherly attitude that He’ll discipline His children so they can share in His holiness. He’s given us His spirit as an affirmation that we are sealed against the day of redemption, that we are confirmed. He’s given us a down payment of our redemption until the full redemption of our bodies has come. What has He given us? He’s given us promises, wonderful promises. We’ll be rewarded of even if we suffer some loss at the Bema seat of judgment. We’ll never have to face the second death. We’ll live with Him forever. There’s a heaven coming and a new earth, new heaven and a new earth. These are precious promises. What does the Spirit do? He allows us to understand these things.
So, if you’re here, and as we go through the Bible, and as you’re learning scripture, and you’re saying, “You know, I’m understanding these things.” Your mom didn’t give you that. Well, she might have, she might have been a teacher to you, that might be good, but you’re it’s not a heritage that you have. It’s the Spirit of God that is your true teacher. If He doesn’t teach, you get no benefit. I could tell you jokes. I can give you illustrations from my mind. I could tell you all kind of life hacks. Actually, I don’t know that many, but, you know, I’d run out real quick, but it won’t profit you. This Word from God profits you because the Spirit goes to work. That’s His ministry. He’s bearing witness to you, in other words, and allowing you to understand that’s His ministry. And so, when you read in 8:16, and you see that that’s what’s happening. So, here’s number two. Number two is a witness. We understand that that’s what it is Holy Spirit’s doing that. Spirit’s doing that.
2. LOVE
And let number two is love. And you’re going to see why that’s so central here. Let’s look at our text again, just 15 and 16 again, Romans 8:15-16, “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!’” Now, again, “Abba Father” is a term of love. It’s a term of endearment. Crying that out is not something that you would say to any old person, right? You wouldn’t find some guy on the street and go, “Abba Father”. You know you’re crazy. That’s weird. Don’t try that in elevators. Okay? If you do, don’t wear any Sherman Bible swag when you do it. “It’s those guys,” right? No, this is something that you would use because you’ve been loved, and you know it, and therefore you love because you’ve been given love, you can’t give away what you’ve not been given, right? And we’ll see that here a little bit later on. But catch that this is a term of love, so it’s almost the overarching context the Spirit is witnessing to this. Your Spirit knows it. And then again, look at 16, the same Spirit, you can infer, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Okay, so if He does bear witness, how then does He bear witness? That’s how, “Abba Father”, that’s the witness. I’ll say it to you this way, you knowing you’re loved by God is a supernatural gift from the Holy Spirit, and He’s crying that in your heart, and you loving God back as a result of Him loving you is a supernatural response to a supernatural gift. Thus, your heart is crying back to Him, “Abba Father”. And hence, what does it do? It bears witness to you that you’re the child of God. If you love God. And I don’t mean God in general, and I mean the God of the Bible, the God of absolute sound doctrine, the apostles’ doctrine, as recorded in the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, church history notwithstanding, it confirms it, but it can’t establish it. Okay, from the Scripture. Do you love the God of the Bible? Do you love the Jesus of the Bible, the actual Jesus of the Bible, everything from His pre incarnation existence to His incarnation as an infant through a virgin? Do you love the man who was a man of sorrows? Do you love the man who was a man of mercy? Do you love the man who flipped the tables and got angry at the hypocrites? Do you love the man who went to the cross and bore the wrath of God for your sin? Do you love the one that raised from the dead because He was fully righteous and He accomplished what He said He would do so the Father raised Him from the dead? Do you love the one who ascended into heaven? Do you love the one who birthed the church by sending the Spirit? Do you love the one who will one day return and trample down His enemies like grapes in a wine press? Do you love that Jesus? Do you love the Spirit that He’s put inside? Do you love Him? Do you love the ministry of the Spirit, not some kooky insanity, but the one who illuminates and elucidates the Word of God? So thus, you can pray, “Open my eyes and let me behold wonderful things from Your law.” And the answer is “yes”, and you start to see, do you love God? If you do, do you long for Jesus’ return? If you do, that is a witness of what’s happened inside of you. What is that designed to do? Drive you away? No, it’s designed to call you in always on your best day and your worst day, when you feel like you’ve actually grown and you see some progress, or when you stumble and you struggle and you sin and you go back to the mud and you play in it, and you come back again like a messed up kid and go, “Father, forgive me. Forgive me. I confess.” And you live in that, that gospel routine of mercy. Do you long for it? I used to ask, you know, I did college and career ministry for like, 600 years and true, it feels like it. And I remember when I was in college, I got saved as a freshman in college, and then we’d have these conversations with college students, and when I was one, it would be: do you long for the return of Jesus? And it was interesting. The answers we get. Let’s see. Right now, it’s 10:08am. What is your response to this? What if I told you that Jesus was going to return before 10:09? Isn’t that great? Wouldn’t that be great? You’re like, “We don’t have to hear the rest of this sermon. This is awesome, man, amen. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s blast the trumpet.” Wouldn’t it be cool if it happened? You’d be like, “He’s a prophet.” So, we’d ask people that question: would you want Jesus to come back right now? And some of the time, one of the genders, the more female of the two, they would often say something like this, “I kind of want to get married before Jesus comes back.” Right? And I’d be like, “Oh, you know, that makes sense.” But then I got married, and then I realized that’s because they’d never been married to one of us. And then once you’re married long enough, you love the person, but you’re like, “Yeah, now is good. Now is good.” Why am I going into this? Because I have nothing else to say. No, listen, the idea here is that’s evidence of what’s inside of you that you’ve been loved and you’re not dreading it. You’d welcome Him to come back with an open heart and open arms. This is evidence of that love.
Look at first John. A couple of verses in here. Let’s start in verse 14. Look at this, 1 John 3:14, “We know.” So, here’s something we’re going to know. What do we know? “We know that we’ve passed out of death into life.” What’s that a synonymous term for? We know we’ve been regenerate. We know we’ve been born again. We know we’ve been saved. How do we know? We know because we love. Connect it. We know because we love. Do you see it? When you see yourself loved, and we’ll talk about this in some detail. When you see yourself loved, what does it do? It boosts your assurance. This is a subjective knowing, by the way. The objective knowing is your spirit. Your spirit is not learning anything. It knows exactly what’s going on. It’s the mind, the will and the emotions that are in the process of sanctification. Yeah, that’s the struggle we’re talking about, and we know it’s affirmation to us, right? It’s assurance to us when you see yourself, “When we love the brothers” and the sisters, that included. “Whoever does not love abides in death.” And that’s synonymous with saying what? Judgment remains on them. They’re not born again. Now I want you to notice it says, “We love the brothers.” This means you love Christians. It doesn’t mean you like them all. Right? This is a pretty decent sized church. Some people think it’s a big church. It all depends on your background. It’s not a really big church. In the book of Acts, 3000 got saved in one fell swoop, and they immediately had a mega church, deal with it, but that was a lot of people to not get along with. Promise, if you met everybody in here, you’re gonna meet somebody that you kind of go, “Ah, that guy, yeah,” but you can still love him. You can still resonate with the fact that he’s made in the image of God, and he’s your brother in Christ, and here to count him more highly than yourself. When you see that happen. That’s why we need the church. We can’t do this without other people. I’ve had people email me like “I’m part of the online congregation,” and I emailed them back, “we don’t have an online congregation. So no, you’re not.” If you’re in the congregation, you’re in the congregation. Why? So, you can love one another. That’s why online is so popular right now. Because listen to me, everybody’s spiritual when they’re by themselves, you notice that? You notice when you’re by yourself, you got your coffee and your Bible, a fire or a candle, of course, your Instagram post, “Here I am.” You feel so spiritual, feel at peace, then the kids run in and do something stupid and you’re not spiritual, right? That’s the test. This is proof to you when the chips are down, not when everything is easy. Skip down to verses 18 and 19, 1 John 3:18-19, “Little children, let us not (here’s the topic) love. Let us not love in word or in talk, but in (what?) in deed and in truth.” “Let us love.” Love is the is the theme here, and it says, “By this.” Now, what is “this”? “This”? Is this by the love that we see come out of our lives, produced by a root, and we’ll see what the root is. “By this we shall know (what?) that we are of the truth and shall reassure our hearts before Him.” Subjective. It’s subjective to you. It’s objectivity, but it’s subjective to an experience. So, we say it’s subjective confirmation. There is objective confirmation. It’s in the truth and in the resonation of this Holy Spirit and your spirit. But there’s something that’s subjective, and it’s when you see it. There’s no greater confirmation of a true child of God than when they see themselves. Love. It is the pinnacle of discipleship, and we grow in it. I would say this love equates to the witness it does. It equates to it because He loves us. We love Him back. And then we see the fruit come out of that wonderful root. Skip down to verses 23 and 24, 1 John 3:23-24, “And this is his commandment.” Okay, here’s the commandment so you might feel like, “Oh, no, this is going to tell me what I’m going to do.” No, it’s going to show you what you would be doing if that’s real. And this is His command. Here’s the commandment that what? There’s two things that “We believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,” and (what?) love one another, just as He commanded us.” We believe and we love. Look at the next verse, “Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God. And by this, we know that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Okay, so you might ask the question, maybe you’re ahead of me in this and you say, “Well, which is it? Which is it? Is it love, or is it by the Spirit?” What’s the answer? Yes. Because what’s the Spirit ministering? “You’re loved.” And what’s your spirit echo? “Abba, I’m loved.” And from that root comes the fruit, and what’s the fruit? It’s love. It’s love. That is what we’re after. That’s the goal of discipleship, love from a pure heart, a clean conscience and a sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:5, I think, yep, right. That’s the goal. That’s what we’re after, people growing up into this, and that’s what Romans eight is doing. Setting that place for your assurance, thus you can have intimacy. If you’re insecure, you’re not going to be having intimacy. If you’re always dreading, how will God treat you when you approach the throne of grace? You’re not going to have intimacy. You’re going to try and give Him cooling off periods. You’re going to try and back away, and you’ll be drawing back. Let me just give you a guarantee, there are people this weekend who aren’t here in this service or another, or do three services every weekend. And here’s there’s only one reason. It’s because they’re doing this. Right now, they’ll come back, but right now they’re doing this. It’s not because they’re sick, it’s not because of the excuse they give, but it’s because they’ve taken a look at their life this last week, and they don’t like what they see, and they feel like they’re not worthy. And so, they do this instead of realizing you’re not worthy. He is. And it’s His blood that covers us. It’s His robe of righteousness that causes us to come and draw near with to the throne of grace with confidence and boldness. Right? This is what discipleship is supposed to look like you growing in this. Now, people tend to think of discipleship and sanctification as well, “Someday, I’ll stop this behavior. Someday, I’ll start that behavior.” Okay, get it straight, those are going to be fruits of a root. Otherwise, if all it is moralism and you’re cleaning up your life. What is that? That’s simply your own works. And there’s nothing wrong with stopping bad things and starting good things. You should. That’s you applying to your faith moral excellence. That’s awesome. What you got to realize is the transformation is inside out. Man looks at the outward. God looks at the heart. That’s the principle from Samuel on forward, we get that that’s what He’s always going to be about. By this we know that we abide in Him, He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
So, let’s put the two together. Is it Spirit or is it love? Well, I told you the answer, it’s yes. “Okay, is there a succinct text that would demonstrate that to us?” The key answer is “yes”. Romans 5:5, we covered this like eight years ago. What does it say? It says, “And hope does not put us to shame.” I know I’m picking it up mid context, but I want you to catch this. “Hope does not put us to shame because (what?) Because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” That’s the center of the being. That’s the heart. It is the term for the consummate of the Spirit and the soul into our hearts, “Through (who? Through) the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” Is it love, or is it the Holy Spirit? Yes. Yes. So, someone says, “Oh, I’m just full of the Spirit.” And then they turn around and they gossip. And they turn around they backbite. They turn around and they steal from you. They turn around and they lie to you. They turn around and they bear false witness. They turn around and they commit adultery. They turn around. If they’re saying that they’re full of the Spirit, and they say that they know the Spirit that intimately, then what we would ask is, where is the love? Wouldn’t we? Fair question. And if not, then you would say, “Well, I think your testimony is at least false. You may be a believer and you may be stumbling and struggling, but you’re not currently walking in step with Him, because that isn’t love.” You don’t do that against someone who you love. It comes together in this it tends to make it clear to witness the love, and then here will land the plane. And this understanding, the evidence.
3. EVIDENCE
What’s the evidence? What does it look like? You say, “Wait a minute, so you mean Romans eight isn’t just this ethereal posit, positing of truths?” No, it’s not. No, it’s not because you understand the Bible in its proper context, when the analogous nature of Scripture is applied. And what does that mean? We let the Bible teach the Bible, and it does, and it does a great job by the way. The Bible will teach you the Bible. That means you got to read the whole thing, know the whole thing, understand the whole thing, study the whole thing. That’s the deal. It’s just part of it. And when we do that, we can see how it all comes together. It interacts with itself. It’s analogous to itself. So, in evidence. What is the evidence? Let me say it this way. Let’s say you’re here and you’re going, “I mean, do I have grounds for assurance?” Well, I’ve already asked you questions. Do you believe the death? Let me add to this. Do you believe that Jesus died, was buried and rose again from the grave? Do you have the conviction in your heart that the Bible is the Word of God? Do you have these evidences that you are in Christ? Are there any others? Are there any outward things? Yes, there are. There are evidences.
Let’s see 1 John again, chapter two, one through three. If you haven’t guessed, 1 John says a lot about this. In fact, in chapter five, he says, “I’m writing these things to you that you’ll know that you have eternal life.” But this is 1 John 2:1-3. He says, “My little children.” I want you to see the context. Okay? “My little children, I’m writing these things to you so that you may (what?) so that you may not sin.” That’s good. How many of you would agree it’s good for a Christian to not sin? Would you agree? God is very for you not sinning, He is that’s what He wants. But here’s the context. “But if anyone does sin,” so which is it? That’s both. He’s writing it. So, we’ll love the Lord and fear Him in the righteous way and put to death those things. “But if anyone does sin.” That’s a sin, struggle, transgression, iniquity, any of that. “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father (that’s Him making intercession for us, who is it?) Jesus Christ the righteous.” He ever lives to make intercession for us. Therefore, we can go before the throne of grace. We can confess He’s faithful and just to cleanse us and forgive us. If you think that’s a license for sin, you don’t understand love, because love is the change of heart. So, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate,” so understand that the direction is what we’re talking about here. We’re not talking about perfection. Because if you don’t understand these verses, you’re going to take verse three and get it wrong. You’ll see what I mean. That’s verse one. Now look at verse two. “He (that is Jesus) is the propitiation.” That means the payment the one who bore the wrath on the cross, the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. In other words, there’s no other mediator between God and man. If your sin is going to be propitiated, it has to be Jesus. He said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” Yeah, He meant it. So, there’s the context. It’s not talking about somebody who’s perfect, right? It’s not, I write these things so you don’t sin. Anyone who does sin, we have an advocate, and He actually paid for it all. He’s the propitiation. Now look at verse three, “By this we know that we’ve come to know Him (synonymous with regeneration, born again, saved, right by this, we know that we’ve come to know Him, here’s the “if”) if we keep His commandments.” Now I got a question for you, does that mean perfection? Oops. Does it mean perfection? No, it can’t. Why? Because verse one and two came first. But what does it mean? It means the direction of new affections, new heart attitudes, new desires, new loves, new wants, new hates, new things that you that you avoid. Yeah, is it perfect? No, but by this, we know that we keep His commandments. This is interesting, isn’t it? Because now we’ve introduced something that will be what? Evidence based, evidence based, you’ll be able to examine yourself, you’ll be able to look and go, do I qualify for that assurance? Well, is there something of this?
Well, look at what Jesus says in John 14 and verse 15. This gets misunderstood, John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will (if you love you will, if you love Me) you will keep My commandments.” Now, I bet, if we took a poll and we said, how many of you see this statement as a guilt trip? Some of you would say, “Yeah, seems kind of a guilt trip.” Kind of like your mom calling, “You know, if you loved your mother, you’d call her in Tuscaloosa more than once a month.” Right? It’s a guilt trip. That’s kind of a drive by guilt trip, right? Pop, pop, pop, right? Is that what Jesus is doing here? If you love Me, you’ll keep My commandments. You’re like, “Okay, I’ll keep Your commandments.” No, no. You could reverse this language and argue from the lesser to the greater, and it would be “You will keep My commandments if you love Me.” This is not prescriptive. This is descriptive. This if, if there is love, you will, you will. Will you do it perfectly? No, but will you do it? Yes. Will it be your heart’s desire to do it? Yes. Do you see how that works? You have to hold this intention and understand what we covered in Romans chapter seven to be able to go, “Oh my gosh, it’s both.” He’s fully in touch with who He saves. He so knows that we’re still a mess. He so knows that we’re still just clay and dirt. He still knows we stumble. He still knows we doubt. He still knows we’re going to face issues and we’re going to sin. He knows this. He paid for all of that in advance. All of our sins were future tense when He died for them. And what can salvation be but the totality of one’s life, the whole man has to be saved. And if, again, if that gives you a license to go do whatever you want, you don’t understand what love is, because love changes the heart, and now the motive has changed. This is indicative here.
So, what’s the commandment? Well, it’s very clear in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you (guess what it is?) love.” Love. You’re like, “Okay, so we got a witness, we got love, we got evidence.” The evidence is keeping the commandment, and what’s the commandment? To love. Like, “Seems like this just circles back on itself.” I told you that. I warned you. This is the argument through Romans eight. It’s cyclical in nature. It’s very rabbitical way of doing it. Therefore, it contains all of this truth. When you let the other Scriptures speak into it, it circles back on itself, and so it proves this is what it is. Love is the catalyst, and love is the goal, and what you’ve received is the only thing you can give. You can’t bear a fruit that doesn’t have that right root, can you? No, it’s impossible. “That is the commandment that you love, just as I have loved you, you are also, you also are to love one another.” How about this? Let’s compare this analogous, 1 John 5:2-3, “By this, (here we go, we got another “this”, by this) we know that we love the children of God.” How will you know that you love the children of God? When we love God and keep His commandments, which is what? It’s to love the children of God. Because if you love the children of God, you’re going to do what? You’re going to keep all the other commandments. You say, “What about the details of the Ten Commandments?” If you love somebody, love fulfills that law. I didn’t make that up. We’ll get to that. Romans 13. Look at verse three, “For this is the love of God.” Loving God is to say this, “I’m going to keep His commandments.” And what’s His commandment? It’s to love. And then he makes the statement, and this is so wonderful, he says, “And His commandments are not burdensome.” “Burdensome.” What does that mean? It’s not something that feels heavy and horrible and you don’t want to do it. In fact, I’ll say it to you this way. It’s something you want to do. The Christian wants to walk in love. The Christian’s innate desire is to walk in love. Are they going to stumble? Are they going to struggle? Are they going to meet that one person that really tests it right? We called them EGRs back in the day: Extra Grace Required. And if you don’t know one, you’re it. And then, and what you see is that you get God’s heart for them, and you do things like you start praying for the irritant. You pray for the person that bugs you. You pray for your enemy. You pray for the person who gets under your skin. You pray for the person who’s maybe offended you. And you know what you start to do is you start to get God’s heart for them, and what you start doing is not burdensome at all. Have you ever noticed this? It’s easy to do the thing you love. It is, isn’t it? Some of you, men and women, probably play golf. I have no idea why. You’re addicted to frustration. I don’t know what is it? A good walk ruined, yep. But you love it. You love golf. And I’m not the one that’s condemning you, okay? But you love it, I hate it. So, for me to go play golf would be burdensome, but for you, you love it. It’s the same thing. If you love it, it’s not a burden. Love is not a burden. Think of think about this. Think about a young mother with an infant. Now that mother is carrying a tremendous burden. But why does she do it? She does it because love is the catalyst and the motivator to do what normally would be burdensome, but it’s not anymore, because you love somebody, it’s the greatest motivator there is. That’s what this is talking about. Love becomes that motivator. It’s not burdensome. Thus, it fulfills all the law. It doesn’t matter what the commandment is. Now, love sums it up. We have Jesus’ testimony of that.
And here’s the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul Romans 13:8-10. Again, we keep coming back to this. Some of you are figuring out, I’m just preaching the same sermon every week. And as we go through this, it’s really what it is. “Owe no one anything except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (What part? All of it) For the commandments (and here’s just a splattering of them), You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet. And (what?) in any other commandment are summed up in this word (this word, I love it, and then he says seven more words, but what’s the emphasis here?) You shall love (there’s the word) you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Verse 10, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” It’s the keeping of the commandments. If you love Me, you keep my commandment in what way? Well, if you love Him, you love others. See it? See the evidence? Is it perfect? No, but it’s evidence that it’s there. Why do we use the word “evidence”? Because you need the evidence to know what the root is. You need to see the fruit to know what the root is. Is that true? Doesn’t Jesus say this several times?
Let me show you one. Matthew 12:33, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For the tree is (what? it’s) known by its fruit.” Who’s He talking about? Is this a lesson in horticulture? No, He’s talking about people. You know the tree by the fruit. So sometimes I this, and sometimes I that, right? But the overarching narrative of a believer’s life is the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn. It grows brighter and brighter and brighter to the full day where you’re able to look back after a few years and go, “Yeah, He’s at work in me. He’s doing something. He’s changing me.” He gets the glory. You get the joy. And you get the assurance. That’s why, the longer you walk with the Lord, the more your assurance grows, because you’ve been through more of those times peaks and valleys known by its fruit.
Now you probably, some of you could probably recite what the fruit of the Spirit is in Galatians 5:22-23 but I want to show you Galatians 5:14 first. This is verse 14. Before we get to the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence, okay, he says this, “For the whole law (sounds familiar, doesn’t? It sounds like Romans 13) the whole law is fulfilled in one word: (And then he says seven words) You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Into that context, that’s 14 go down to Galatians 5:22-23 and you’ve probably read this before, but I want to point something out to you. He says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.” Okay? Now in English, we use the term “fruit” to mean fruit, plural, like you would say, “Look at all this fruit,” right? Or “I’m going to bring a lot of fruit.” You wouldn’t say, “I’m going to bring fruits,” but in the Greek, you would, and this is singular, why? Because the fruit of the Spirit is love. Period. Love is the evidence. The other eight things listed after it are the implications or the outflow of how love looks. Does that make sense? And, by the way, the list is not extensive. It doesn’t include humility, it doesn’t include prayerfulness, it doesn’t include worship. This is just some of them of the way love works. But I’m telling you, the fruit of the Spirit is love. So, in other words, let me say it to you this way, the evidence, the fruit of the tree of your life is love. And if love is there, the root is the spirit. He’s producing that it’s not of yourself. I’m begging you to understand this. I hope we can catch this, because when you get this, it’s like, “Wait a minute, that’s what I’m looking for.” Yeah, that’s it. It’s actually it. And he goes on, “For the fruit of the Spirit is love (and then he lists this) joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is (what?) no law.” Right? 5:14 Galatians, 13:8-10 of Romans, right? We saw that. That’s why. Now think about that. Do these other eight exist outside of love? No, they do not.
In fact, let me give you a demonstration of it. I know you know where I’m going here 1 Corinthians 13:1-7. I’ll read you one through seven. You tell me what you see. “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love. I’m a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” In other words, it’s all worthless. “And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but I have not love, I am (what? I am) nothing.” It’s all empty without love. “And if I give away all I have and deliver up my body to be burned. But have not love, I gain nothing.” Now watch the description of love. You tell me if you see the other eight outflows of it from chapter five of Galatians, verse 22 and 23. “Love is patient.” Well, there’s the first, there’s another one, “Kindness.” Remember that? Love is patient and kind. “Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.” In other words, not self-willed. “It’s not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.” Joy. Are you getting it? Love is the highest peak of your discipleship, and one day, when you’re in heaven, you’ll be in a world of love, as Jonathan Edwards called it. “Love bears all things. It believes all things. It hopes all things. It endures all things.” In other words, faithfulness, which is another fruit of the Spirit, so to speak, listed in Galatians 5:22-23. It’s all about love. That’s the goal of our instruction. Paul wrote to Timothy. 1 Timothy 1:5. Goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith. That’s what we’re after. That’s it. We exist to glorify God by making disciples, and that’s how we actually do it. 1 John 3:16a, the first part by this, “We know love.” How do we know love? “Because He laid His life down for us.” That’s not a decoration. That’s a reminder. And then 1 John 4:19, “We love (why do we love?) because He first loved us.” You cannot give away what you do not have. Love is the evidence. There’s a witness of the Spirit. Okay, there’s a witness. And what is the witness? It’s love. And what is the evidence that you have it>
Let’s see the text again, just first 15 and 16. Let’s make sure we understand it, Romans 8:15-16. “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!’ The Spirit Himself does this. He bears witness with our spirit (together, right?) that we are children of God.” If you’re understanding this, you’re seeing the progression that the assurance brings. And when we say Church Family, you’re loved, we mean it because He means it. You growing in that assurance is going to grow you in the intimacy, which will grow you more and more into what? More and more love. These are the ways of God, and this is how He sanctifies His church.
KEYWORDS
Holy Spirit, Led, Witness, Romans 8:16, Adoption, Abba Father, Sanctification, Assurance, Love, Commandments, Fruit Of The Spirit, Discipleship, Transformation, Intimacy, Faith, Righteousness, Propitiation, Evidence, Romans, Gospel, Church, Texas Church, Texas, Churches Sherman TX, Non-Denominational Church Sherman TX, Online Sermon
Speaker
Steve LeBlanc