Abba! Father!

Please remain standing now for the reading of

God's word.

We're continuing in Paul's letter to the Romans

and we are going through verse

12

to verse 17 today. Romans chapter 8

Romans 8:12

verse 12

to verse 17. And I'll tell you right

now, we're really gonna focus on the first

half of verse 17.

Next week, we're gonna do verses 17 18

and we'll pick it up in the second

half of verse 17 just so so you

know already.

Alright, Romans chapter 8 verses 12 to 17

Romans 8:12–17

please listen to the reading of God's word.

So then brothers,

we are debtors,

not to the flesh, to live according to

the flesh

For if you live according to the flesh,

you will die.

But if by the spirit, you put to

death the deeds of the body,

you will live.

For all who are led by the spirit

of God

are sons of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of

slavery

to fall back into fear

but you have received the spirit of adoption

as sons

by whom we cry Abba,

father.

The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit

that we are children of God.

And if children then heirs

heirs of God

and fellow heirs with Christ

provided we suffer with him in order that

we may also

be glorified with him. This is the word

of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

In 1st century Rome,

it was not uncommon

for powerful men to adopt

grown men, adults,

whom they believe could be worthy heirs

to steward their estate with shrewdness

and especially to carry on the honor of

their family name.

In 44 BC,

after Julius Caesar's assassination, it was revealed that

he had adopted

Gaius Octavius,

and named him as his heir.

At the his adoption,

Octavius took the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavius

bearing the name

of his adopted father.

This adoption not only legitimized

Octavius status

but also provided him with the political capital

and name recognition

necessary

to ascend in Roman politics.

When he became Emperor, he took the name

Augustus Caesar

preserving Caesar's name

and status.

Today we're looking at Romans chapter 8 verses

Romans 8:12–17

12 to 17, a text that invites us

to consider

the life altering implications

of being adopted

into the household of God.

Next Sunday, we will look at verse 17

again and at verse 18

where we will see that being part of

God's household

implies a sobering responsibility.

But this week I want you to focus

on the great blessing

of your adoption.

In fact, the main point I want you

to remember this morning is this,

because God has adopted you,

you are blessed

with great privilege and status.

Because God has adopted you, you are blessed

with great privilege

and status.

And we will consider this truth as we

divide this sermon into 2 headings.

1st, the fear of the flesh

and second,

the assurance of adoption.

Just consider the first heading, the fear of

the flesh. Look at verses 12 and 13

again with me.

So then brothers,

we are debtors

not to the flesh to live according to

the flesh

for if you live according to the flesh

you will die,

but if by the spirit you put to

death the deeds of the body

you will live.

Notice that Paul writes that Christians are not

debtors to the flesh

to live according to the flesh.

In other words, Christians are no longer

under legal obligation

to serve the flesh.

The flesh is no longer our master.

Now I remind you once again that Paul

often uses this word, the flesh,

as a technical term that refers to fallen

humanity's nature.

As such, Paul writes that fallen human beings

are in bondage to sin

resulting inevitably in their death.

For example,

in Romans 6,

Paul calls human beings slaves of sin

and in Romans 7, Paul writes that before

being born again, Christians were in the flesh

and that our sinful passions were at work

in us

to bear fruit

for death.

The governing metaphor Paul uses is that fallen

human beings

are in bondage to their fleshly nature,

a master which demands sin from them

and who in return

pays their wage for their labor,

death.

Paul summarizes this transaction in Romans 623

where he writes that the wages of sin

is death.

In the flesh,

we labor for our master

producing sin

and he pays us

with death.

This is consistent with what Paul writes here

in verse 13

where he warns, if you live according to

the flesh,

you will die.

Some of you may recall my sermon from

Romans 623

Actually, who am I kidding? Right? Nobody recalls

my sermon from Romans 623. So let me

remind you. Okay?

At that time, I said that sin or

the flesh

is most certainly a harsh taskmaster,

but it's always it always pays its slaves

the wages that they earn.

And again,

the rightly earned wage

is death.

They can count on their payment,

They can count on it in full

and they don't have to wait for the

day of judgment.

The disbursements have already begun.

They're always on time.

Payments always run

according to schedule.

You see the Greek word that Paul uses

for wages in Romans 6/23

refers primarily to the daily rations

or the daily provisions of food

that a Roman soldier would receive.

They would typically be paid in cooked meat

usually fish.

So too sin

or the flesh pays the soldiers in its

army

with daily rations.

It pays with food

that never satisfies.

It pays with rations

that never fill.

It pays with provisions

that leave its soldiers

more poor,

more weak,

and more dependent

than before.

And though it would be unjust for soldiers

to not receive their wages,

one can be sure that the flesh always

follows the letter of the law.

It always pays its subjects wages

to the last penny.

And the rotten rations we receive when we

sin

do not leave us the same.

They change us.

They change us from that first moment that

we ingest them.

Sin continues to work its rot

in us,

consuming us from within,

decimating God's image in us, and making us

in a sense

less and less human.

Perhaps you're experiencing this cancerous metastasis within your

soul

believing that you can continue to partake of

the rot,

that you can continue to indulge

that sinful

appetite,

that you have it under control,

that no one will notice.

You think that you are sin's sovereign

when you're actually sin's slave.

You think your path is pleasure

when your destiny

is death.

You think no one will notice

when your every action is always before the

righteous judge

who sees all things.

Is that you this morning?

If you're honest with yourself, are you in

bondage

to the spirit of slavery?

If so, your wages will become like a

chain around your neck

that gets thicker and thicker

and its burden heavier

and heavier.

Perhaps you're quick to dismiss such thoughts

thinking to yourself that you work hard to

obey God's law,

priding yourself

in the firm belief that you are more

disciplined than others,

that your heart is less corrupt,

that your deeds deserve

God's favor.

Dear friend, if that is you,

although your discipline and obedience

will keep you away from some turmoil,

your pride might prove a different kind of

chain around your neck.

A chain that is just as thick

and just as heavy and that is engraved

with the same master's name.

That pharisaical

notion that one is capable of earning God's

favor with his own works

is a lie.

It's a lie that comes straight from the

pit of hell

from the father of lies himself.

Such delusion

results in either

a heart that is stone cold and frozen

to God's grace

without sensitivity to its own sin

and therefore to its own need of repentance?

Or as Paul writes in verse 15,

a heart that is paralyzed by fear

seeing God as a tyrant whose favor

is not the result of fatherly love

but the wages from a temporary contractual obligation

always subject to change,

always

under threat of not being renewed.

The spirit of slavery

never results in fellowship with God

or in fellowship with God's people.

It never leads to an abiding love for

God,

for his word,

or for his church.

It always ends in paralyzing fear,

in dehumanizing

isolation,

and in

certain and tragic

death.

This is what Paul writes in verses 12

and 13 about those who walk according to

the flesh, those who are debtors

to the flesh, those who are living

in the fear

of the flesh.

But in verse 12,

Paul writes that Christians are no longer debtors

to the flesh

which brings us to our second heading,

the assurance of adoption.

Look at verses 13 and 14 again.

For if you live according to the flesh,

you will die,

but if by the spirit you put to

death the deeds of the body, you will

live.

For all who are led by the spirit

of God

are sons of God.

In verse 9, we learn that Christians are

indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

That's what distinguishes or marks you as a

Christian. The fact that the Holy Spirit dwells

within you.

Here

in verse 14, Paul writes that the Holy

Spirit leads

or guides those who are sons of God.

There's a couple things I want you to

note about this assertion.

First,

notice that the Holy Spirit is not passive

within believers.

If you're a Christian the Holy Spirit leads

you in your walk.

A path has been prepared for you and

it is God's spirit

dwelling within you

who is taking you by the hand as

it were and leading you to the destination

your heavenly father has already laid out for

you.

At a time when so many people seem

content

to live aimless lives,

obsessed with what other people are doing,

with what people they dislike

are doing,

with what people they like and admire are

doing,

with what friends are doing on social media,

with what youtubers

are posting,

with what men playing games in costumes for

1,000,000 of dollars

are doing,

with what Joe Biden or Donald Trump or

Vladimir Putin are doing,

with what world markets

and bank accounts are doing,

Christians

can actually live for a purpose

that comes from God himself.

That is a great gift to you, dear

Christian.

Your life has a purpose

that is greater than you.

Whether you're a young child

still in elementary school

or you're getting ready to go to college

or you're looking for a new job,

God has a meaningful purpose for your life

and for each and every day.

Look at what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2:8–10

2 verses 8 to 10.

He writes, for by grace you have been

saved through faith

and this is not your own doing, it

is a gift from God, not a result

of works so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship

created in Christ Jesus for good works which

God prepared beforehand

that we should walk in them. Before

you were even born,

God prepared good works for you to walk

in.

That is the path that God has laid

out before you and that is the path

on which the Holy Spirit leads you.

When you were in bondage to the flesh

your destiny was death

but now

being guided by the spirit your destiny is

life

and peace

and joy.

You are

to live

walking on a path

of good works.

The law of God provides the signposts

that indicate what direction you must take on

this journey.

It tells you the right path

and it also shows you the path that

you shouldn't walk on,

but the law of God on its own

does not act,

it's passive.

However, when the Holy Spirit is within you,

he is active

and he leads you in the way that

you should go.

Instead of being passive,

the Holy Spirit causes the law of God

to become living and active within you

persuading you according to your new

redeemed

born again nature

to walk in the good works that God

prepared beforehand.

And with each step that you take according

to the leading of the Holy Spirit,

you move further and further away

from the deathly deathly path

of spiritual death

and you move further and further along

on that path to life,

to peace,

to joy,

to glory.

Children,

money,

fame,

electronic devices,

none of these things will give you enduring

joy.

Just like toys make you happy when you

first get them, when you receive them, when

you first play with them,

but then after a while you stop playing

with them, sometimes you even forget you have

them and you need some other toy, something

new, something else to entertain you,

so too,

the things of this world cannot satisfy you

as you think they can.

Just ask your parents.

Some of the saddest people on earth

are people who can have everything

that you can imagine.

But becoming more like Jesus as the Holy

Spirit leads you to study the Bible,

to obey it,

to worship God with your thoughts,

with your words,

with your actions,

that is the way to find joy

that joy and that peace

and even that fun that you long for,

that you long to experience,

and the way that you will become a

blessing to those around you. If the Holy

Spirit dwells within you

when the choice to sin or not to

sin is before you, he will enable you

to recognize what you are to do in

that moment.

The quote Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 10

verse 13.

With the tempt with the temptation or with

the test,

God will also provide

the way of escape.

The Holy Spirit is active within you.

Let him lead your thinking,

let him lead your steps.

The second thing I want you to notice

in verse 14

is that those who have the Holy Spirit,

those who are led by him

are sons of God.

Now in verses 16 17, Paul writes that

those with the Holy Spirit are children

of God.

So the expression sons of God is not

in opposition to daughters of God, for example.

It's not about gender.

It's about status

and privilege.

In ancient Israel, like in most cultures in

antiquity, the oldest son was the principal heir

of the family

often receiving a double portion of the inheritance.

When Paul writes that those who are led

by the spirit are sons of God,

what he means to say is is that

if you're a Christian,

whether you are male or female,

you legally

enjoy

the privileged status of the principal heir

in God's household.

This is what Paul goes on to affirm

in verse 17

where he writes that Christians are heirs of

God and fellow heirs with Christ.

Please think about what an astonishing statement this

is. What a great honor

this is for the Christian.

Some people like to say

that God is everyone's father,

that every human being is a child of

God.

Now it is true

that God is everyone's creator

and that therefore

everyone in a sense belongs to God.

And even that God gives good things to

all people

by causing it, for example, to reign and

to to reign both on the righteous and

the unrighteous.

That is a gift from God

and it's indiscriminate.

In that sense, God gives grace

and even love

to everyone.

He sustains

all of our lives, he gives us every

breath that we take

But our legal

or covenantal relationship to God at the moment

we are conceived

is that we are rebellious lawbreakers.

We are his enemies.

We are guilty of transgressing his commandments

and we are justly

deserving a punishment.

That's our legal status

before God.

Look at how Paul describes

this wretched condition in Ephesians chapter 2 verses

Ephesians 2:1–3

1 to 3.

He writes,

and you were dead

in the trespasses

and sins in which you once walked,

following the course of this world,

following the prince of the power of the

air,

the spirit that is now at work in

the sons of disobedience,

among whom we all once lived in the

passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and

the mind and were by nature

children of wrath

like the rest of mankind.

Everyone in this room,

all of us

at some point

were and some still might be

sons of disobedience

instead

of sons of God

and children of wrath

instead of children of God.

So by what mechanism then?

Does one go from that cursed estate

to enjoying the legal status

of a child of God,

of the heir

of God's household?

Paul answers this question for us in verses

15

through 17.

Look at what it says there,

for you did not receive the spirit of

slavery

to fall back into fear,

but you have received the spirit of adoption

as sons

by whom we cry, Abba,

father.

The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit

that we are children of God and if

children then heirs heirs of God

and fellow heirs with Christ.

The thing that changes everything for the Christian

is that he or she is legally

adopted into God's family.

When a Christian is indwelled by the Holy

Spirit,

that Christian receives the spirit of adoption.

The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the

legal seal that marks the Christian as belonging

to God's household

with all the privileges and responsibilities

that that entails.

If you're a Christian,

this amazing grace

has been extended to you.

You really are a child of God.

You legally enjoy the status of the heir

of the most important

household.

No worldly prince or princess,

no billionaire

son or daughter

enjoys a more significant,

a more important,

a more privileged status than you do if

you are a Christian.

There is no universal fatherhood of God

but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is

the royal seal that indicates

that God really is your father.

So what are the privileges of your adoption

into God's family?

Well,

if you're a Christian

you no longer have to exhibit a spirit

of fear.

This means that first of all

you don't have you don't have to fear

being found out.

God knows everything about you

and he still loves you.

This is why you have the privilege of

confessing your sin corporately

and individually as part of this body

and as a child of God.

Secondly,

you don't have to fear

not being good enough.

Through adoption Christ has become your older brother.

He is more than good enough,

he is perfect,

and he gives you the right to put

on his righteous robe.

He's not the older brother who jealously guards

what is his,

He's the older brother

who joyously

delights in giving you

what is his.

He takes the his double portion

and he says, complete my joy

by sharing it with me.

Thirdly,

you don't have to fear losing your membership

in God's family,

that is to say losing your salvation.

You didn't choose him.

He chose to adopt you.

And he doesn't make mistakes

and he doesn't change his mind.

He bound himself to you as your father

when he gave you his name in the

public ceremony of baptism.

He said, I will be to you a

father

and you will be to me a son.

He said, I will never leave you nor

forsake you.

He said, my mercies to you will be

new every morning.

Fourthly,

you don't have to fear death.

You have a new birth certificate

with a new name.

Your name is written in heaven with the

indelible blood of your redeemer.

It is a name that never wears out.

It is a name

that death cannot erase.

It is a name that will not be

forgotten.

It is the name

of the immortal King of glory and he

gave it to you.

And when he calls your name, you will

rise just like he did,

and he will take you by the hand

and lead you to fullness of joy.

Listen, the love of God for you is

steadfast.

But you say, I'm not worthy.

In Isaiah 43, your father answers, do not

fear

for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name.

You are mine.

But I'm a sinner, you say.

The father answers, you are mine.

But I'm not always faithful to you, you

say.

Your father answers,

you are mine.

But I'm not always

but I don't always,

obey your voice. In fact, I often ignore

you, you say.

Your father answers,

you're mine.

But often doubt your word.

Your father answers,

you are mine.

But I sometimes prioritize over other things over

you.

Your father answers, you are mine.

But I don't always honor you as my

father.

Your father answers you, you're

mine. But I don't keep my promises, you

say.

Your father answers,

do not fear,

for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by my name.

You are

mine.

Listen. Because you have been saved by faith

and sealed

by the Holy Spirit,

you can enjoy the assurance of adoption.

Paul writes in verse 16 that the Holy

Spirit testifies to your spirit that you are

His.

This doesn't mean that life is always easy

for you

or that things always go the way that

you want.

But it does mean that your loving heavenly

father

always has your best interest in mind.

If this is true

of earthly parents,

despite our imperfect and finite love for our

children, how much more is it true

of your heavenly father with his perfect

and infinite love for you?

So when things don't go as you want,

instead of believing the devil's lie that God

doesn't love you,

He doesn't care for you,

He doesn't care about your plans,

Instead of believing that,

trust your Heavenly Father.

Trust his loving letter for you.

When Romans 828 he writes that, under his

care

all things

work together

for your good.

Sometimes our children don't understand why we deny

them what they want

but we know

and want what is best for them

because we love them.

Do you believe that you love your children

more than your heavenly Father loves you?

And if you do everything in your power

to bless your children

even if it means disappointing them sometimes,

do you not think that God has the

love

and the power

and the will to do the same?

As a child of God, therefore you have

the privilege

of having a heavenly father who is willing

to tell you no sometimes

and of knowing

that it is always for your good.

Another benefit of having the spirit of adoption

is that you have a heavenly Father who

is not only willing to tell you no

sometimes

but who is also willing to discipline you

when you go astray.

Look at what the author of Hebrews writes

in Hebrews 12 as he quotes liberally from

the Old Testament.

He writes,

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses

you as sons?

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline

of the Lord

nor be weary when reproved by him,

for the Lord disciplines

the one he loves

and chastises every son whom he receives.

It is for discipline that you have to

endure.

God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father

does not discipline?

If you're left without discipline in which all

have participated, then you are illegitimate children

and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who

disciplined us

and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to

the father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time

as it seemed best to them,

but he disciplines us for our good

that we may share his holiness.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather

than pleasant,

but later it yields the fruit,

the peaceful fruit of righteousness

to those who have been trained by it.

Sometimes, we as parents fail to discipline our

children

because the last thing that we want,

our least favorite thing to do

is to cause them any pain or disappointment.

But we know that if we fail to

discipline our children,

we're actually failing to love them well

because we're permitting their inherent principle of sin

to shape them,

to form vices in them, vices that will

make them love themselves

more than they love God and

more than they love others.

And part of what makes it hard for

us to discipline our children

is the fact that they don't always understand

what we are doing.

They don't know why we're denying them things.

They don't know why we are

disciplining them.

And we don't want them to think

that we don't love them.

Well even though we don't they don't even

though we don't always understand why God disciplines

us,

because of his perfect love for us he

never forsakes his responsibility.

This is why in Romans 813

we read that through the spirit of adoption

we can put to death the deeds of

the body.

The Holy Spirit helps to discipline us

so we can put sin to death and

he enables us

more and more to love God,

to love his law,

and to obey it.

What great assurance

adoption provides us

knowing that God is committed to disciplining us

so our lives can yield the fruit

of righteousness.

In 1st century

Rome, since it was a matter of honor

when a powerful man adopted someone,

he would not only make his adopted son

the legal heir of all his estate,

but the father would also legally assume all

the debt

of his adopted son as if the debt

had been his own all along.

From his own possessions,

he would fully satisfy the debt

of his adopted heir.

You have been adopted

into God's family

to be co heirs with Christ.

The father already had the perfect heir.

But because of his great love for you,

he made you to be his.

So, your older brother

paid your debt in full.

He gave his life for you

that you might live and reign with him.

In Matthew 22,

we read that when the Pharisees and the

scribes asked Jesus about paying taxes,

he asked them to show him a coin

and to tell him whose likeness and inscription

was in that coin.

They said, Caesar's.

So Jesus answered, then render to Caesar the

things that are Caesar's

and render to God

the thing that are God's.

The coin used to pay the tax was

a denarius

which had the image of Tiberius Caesar on

it,

Emperor of Rome at the time of Jesus.

And it had an inscription that identified Tiberius

as the divine son.

So

as Jesus

who is the authentic image of the invisible

God

and is the only begotten Son of God

held in his hand a coin

with a counterfeit counterfeit image

of a counterfeit divine son,

Jesus was affirming

that his privilege and status as the Son

of God,

as the heir

of God's household

means that he is in no one's debt.

And because you are an heir in his

household

neither are you.

Your great blessing is that God calls you

my daughter.

Your great blessing is that God calls you

my son.

Your great privilege

is that through your adoption

God has given you the right

to call him Abba.

Father,

won't you do that? Let's pray.