Romans chapter eight, and I want to look particularly at verses 15 to 17, but I'll just read from verse 12 to give a bit of context. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. But 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 as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Now this, of course, is a wonderful chapter, as I'm sure we know. And Paul is doing his utmost to encourage us to live lives of holiness. We are debtors, verse 12, we're under obligation, not to the flesh, but to the Lord. And what I want to do just briefly this today is to consider three very simple questions. Really, I've only got one main thing to say, but I'm going to do it under three very simple questions. The first I'm going to deal with very quickly because I trust we are most of us, if not all of us, are in this position. How do I become a child of God? Well, verse 15 says, you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption. And the word that is so important in that passage is the word again. Dr. Lloyd-Jones, in his wonderful commentary on Romans, has seven chapters on this one verse. Now, I'm not going to cover all that in 10 minutes, but wonderful words. And I do encourage you to read what he has to say. By nature, we are under bondage to the devil. That's where we are. We have received the spirit of bondage. That's where we are. A real fear that we are sinners. And when we know that, and when we know something of that fear and that bondage, then We know that we need salvation when we are filled with fear about our sin. That's not the attitude of many people, but when God begins his convicting work by his spirit, that is the case. And it is a common experience of those under conviction. And I wonder sometimes in these days whether we have too casual a sense of the foulness, the dreadfulness of sin But when we come to receive salvation, we find that the spirit of bondage is replaced by the spirit of adoption. We were slaves of sin under bondage to Satan. But now we can say with a hymn writer, my chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed thee. Bunyan's pilgrim leaves the city of destruction and he puts his fingers in his ear as he runs away from the city and he cries life, life, eternal life. We're not merely forgiven, we're adopted and that is a legal process. Now I'm not going to stop with that in great detail now but for those of you who understand anything about theology you will know that justification by faith is a forensic matter, it is a legal matter as well as a spiritual matter. It is the life of God in the soul of a man. We become children of God when the Spirit of God adopts us into his presence. Secondly, how can I know that I am a child of God? Well, verse 15 goes on to say, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father, we cry out. This is the language of deep emotion. It's a heartfelt cry. It is the instinctive cry of a true child to its father. But of course, some people say, and I've heard this, maybe you've heard this, I don't know, but this is baby talk. Well, I think that's nonsense. I don't think that is the point. It is not a flippant word. It's a desperate cry of confidence in the worst of trials. It is the language of Gethsemane. This phrase only comes three times in the New Testament. And the first time is when our Lord speaks in Gethsemane. It is the cry of agony. And the word cry is used each time. It comes from a heart that is greatly moved. We read our Lord as sweat as it were, great drops of blood as he prayed these words. He went a little further, Mark 14. 35 to 36, and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will. It is the language of submission. It is the language of obedience. Abba is the intimate word that the Lord Jesus, God the Son, uses in prayer to his Father. It is the language of identification with God the Son. Literally, it is Father, my Father. It is personal, it is intimate, it is heartfelt, it is real. Now, bless you, my dear friends, I'm not accusing anybody on this prayer call of this, but I sometimes am in prayer meetings And I feel that people who pray are far too flippant and casual. My dear friend, this is not true, this prayer meeting. I'm so thankful for that. But sometimes people come and they're unthinking as they approach our loving heavenly father in prayer. Now, what is the significance of this? Well, slaves were not allowed to call their father Abba. Only the children of Free men were allowed to use this word. Robert Haldane, in his commentary on Romans, page 358 in my Banner of Truth edition, says this. It would rather appear that the apostle alludes to the fact that among the Jews, slaves were not allowed to call a free man Abba, which signified a real father. I cannot help remarking the ignorance of those who have translated this passage, my father, instead of Abba, father, under the pretense that the Syriac, the Aramaic word Abba simply means father. They did not know that St. Paul alluded to a law among the Jews, which forbade slaves to call a free man Abba or a free woman Emma. The apostle meant that we were no more slaves, but freed by Jesus Christ. and consequently that we might call God Abba. In translating the passage then, the word Abba, although it be a Syriac word, an Aramaic word, and unknown in our tongue, must always be preserved, for in this term consists the force of the apostle's reasoning. Now I think that's very wonderful and very precious when you think about it. So thirdly, how does this apply to us? Well, Dr. Lloyd-Jones in his commentary on this verse on page 241 says this, here is a cry, a great heartfelt cry that comes out of the heart of one who realizes that he has been adopted as a child of God. Here is a deep elemental cry. Go to Gethsemane. see our Lord and Savior in His agony as He cries out to His Father. What a privilege. Oh, my friends, what a privilege to come to God, the God of the whole universe, like this. What blessings are ours in Him. We have been freed from bondage to sin. We can call our Heavenly Father Abba because he has made us free and adopted us as his children. We are entitled to use this word. Now Paul develops this word when he writes to the Galatians in Galatians 4 verses 6 to 7. Please forgive me, I'm not trying to advertise but there is a sermon on sermon audio that I have preached on that passage if you want to Listen to this a little bit more, bless you. If you're a true child of God, you're in the family. We are heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. We suffer with him as we face temptation, verse 17. Children then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs in Christ, if indeed we suffer with him. As we face temptation, as we face persecution, as we face affliction, that we may also be glorified together. We share in his sufferings. We share in his glory, his power, his wisdom, his joy. We're heirs of the kingdom. What a privilege to share in his suffering and his glory. What a blessing. There's a wonderful hymn which we sing over here. I don't know if you know it in the States or not, Sovereign Grace or Sin Abounding. And it tells us that in that, that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. And the last verse, when we sing it, we're not allowed to sing in Britain at the moment, but when we sing it often moves me to tears. On such love my soul still ponder. Love so great, so rich, so free, say, while lost in holy wonder. Why? Why, O Lord, such love to me? Hallelujah. Grace shall reign eternally. I think this is incredible. This is wonderful. Let me close by just reading a paragraph from Dr. Lloyd-Jones. He puts it so much better than I could ever manage. Let me just read this. He says this to us as I close. How much do we know of this? This is real Christianity. Is it not extraordinary that so little attention is given to it? The chief explanation is that we are so much interested in our own activities and problems. How can I be delivered from this sin? How can I have guidance? How can I have this and that? Such is the way in which we approach these things. and we miss the most glorious elements. The most glorious truth about us as Christians is our personal relationship to God. But we in our self-centeredness, the curse of the century, he says, have our movements to teach us how to get rid of particular sins or to get rid of our problems and how to obtain nice and pleasant feelings. We search and crave for the Christian secret of a happy life And that so often comes between us and the most wonderful experience of all. The ultimate object of salvation is not merely to keep us from hell, not merely to deliver us from certain sins. It is that we may enjoy adoption and that we may become the children of God and joint heirs with Christ. The summum bonum is this, to see God. And while in this life, to know God intimately as our Father and to cry, cry, Abba, Father. Have you ever known it? This is what is offered us in the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God forbid that any of us should stop at any point short of it. To cry, Abba, Father. is one of the most glorious proofs of sonship, higher than anything we have ever considered before. And yet, writes Lloyd-Jones, blessed be the name of God, it is not the end, there is still more to come. Well, God bless you, let's pray. Almighty and ever blessed God, our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for all that the Lord Jesus Christ went through for us. as he faced Gethsemane and then as he faced the cross, as he died on that cross in our place to take away our sins, so that we could be adopted into the family of God, that we could become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. Help us, our Father, as we pray this afternoon to be taken up with these wonderful, these glorious truths. May our prayers be inspired by the presence of the Holy Spirit, May the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in all his resurrection power rest upon us. Do us good, we pray. And may this time of prayer be as so often these times of prayer have been wonderful times when we know the presence of the Lord our God with us and the blessing of his grace resting upon us. So hear us, we pray, for Jesus' sake, amen.