This evening, brothers and sisters, I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the Romans. to a very familiar chapter, I'm sure, to all of you, to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I will be reading the first 17 verses, but take as our text verses 12 through 17. The Apostle Paul writes, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemns sin in the flesh. in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, Although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. And now our text for this evening. 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 you live 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 God, congregation. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever. May I encourage you and plead with you to keep your Bibles open tonight. We're going to follow this very carefully from verses 12 through 17. May the Lord bless this to our hearts. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, our text for this evening, verses 12 through 17, answers one of the most important questions that you and I will ever have to face. It's maybe a question so obvious that you haven't thought about it maybe thoroughly or you haven't thought about it frequently. But the question is, who are you? Really now? Or who do you think you are? That's the question answered by our text tonight. Who do you think you are? Now, the way we answer that question says a lot about us, doesn't it? You may give your name, but what is telling someone your name really tell you about yourself? You say, well, he's a Karsten. And we know something about the Carson's. He's an Ipema. We know something about the Ipema's. But really, when you tell someone your name, you're not telling all that much. You're not revealing much about yourself. Ask your average man, who are you? And you often will get an answer related to your vocation. Who am I? I'm a pastor. I'm a realtor. I'm a farmer. I'm a mechanic. But the problem with that, as I've witnessed as a pastor over the years, is that when a man reaches the age of retirement and his life is no longer governed by his vocation, he loses his sense of identity. What do I do now that I don't have to go to work, that I'm no longer engaged in this sort of work? Who am I, really? We may enjoy retirement for a short season, but I've often seen men who really struggle to understand their own identity because for so many years their identity was wrapped up with their vocation. Ask a typical woman, who are you? And a woman will most likely tell you who she is based upon her relationships. I'm a wife. I'm a mother. I'm a grandmother. But you think about mothers who, for years, nurture, care for their children, only to see their children leave the house. And now you have an empty nest. Have you seen mothers who at that stage say, well, who am I now? For so many years, I was so-and-so's mother. I did this for them. I did that for them. My whole schedule for the day revolved around their activities. Now that's all gone. Sometimes an identity is known or it is remembered because of one event. I gave the example last Sunday in Kansas City of an event that people in Chicago are very familiar with. If I mention the name Steve Bartman, I wonder how many of you are familiar or remember the name Steve Bartman. Maybe not. But if you're a Chicago Cubs fan, you remember that name. He was the fan in the stadium in Wrigley Field who, trying to catch a foul ball interfered with the left fielder and may have prevented the Cubs ultimately from going to the World Series in 2003. You say, well, so what? Now, imagine if your only claim to fame, your only identity to the world is that you were that guy that interfered with that foul ball. Let me tell you, it was so bad for that young man that he had to leave Chicago. He was under death threats, believe it or not, from angry fans. He may have even changed his identity. But he was known for that one event. Well, the point that I'm making here tonight is that our identity is to be understood, the apostle Paul says, in terms of the gospel, specifically in terms of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, we're all very familiar, are we not, with the second half of Romans 8. How many times haven't you heard that read, for example, at a funeral? I often read that second half at funeral services. I did recently this past spring for a former parishioner who passed away at the age of 94. It's a source of great comfort. But understand that the second half of Romans 8, with all of its promises that nothing will separate us from God's love, rests upon the foundation spelled out in verses 1 through 17. And do you know what the focus of verses 1 through 17 is? If you were listening carefully during the reading of the word, verses 1 through 17 speak about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us our identity. The Holy Spirit defines who you and I are. The Holy Spirit is the one, John Calvin said, who takes the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and applies it to us. Calvin liked to use the illustration of a well in the middle of a desert. Your throat is parched. You want so badly on a daylight today when it's in the 90s or hotter, and you just want a drink of water. You come to a well. You look down. You see there's water, fresh water in there. But you have no way of accessing that. Calvin said, it's like that in terms of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who appropriates the work of Jesus Christ to us. He is the one like that bucket that you lower down into the water and retrieve that water so you can drink the water and be refreshed. The Holy Spirit, by the way, in the Bible, his work, his ministry is often defined in terms of drawing attention away from himself and focusing upon the glory of the Father and the Son. Maybe you've heard the expression, some theologians, some preachers and teachers like to use the expression that the Holy Spirit is the shy member of the Trinity. Maybe you've heard that expression. But I think the more appropriate phrase or description of the Holy Spirit is that he is the deferential member of the Holy Trinity. Well, what do I mean by that? What does it mean to be deferential? To be deferential means you draw attention, again, away from yourself. The focus is not on you, but you want others to focus on someone else. The Holy Spirit's ministry is to magnify the glory of the Father and the Son. So that when we speak of the ministry of the Holy Spirit from a biblical perspective, our first interest is not in spectacular signs and wonders, speaking in tongues, having this revelation from heaven. That's not how the Bible speaks primarily. How did Jesus speak about the ministry of the Holy Spirit when he met with Nicodemus at night? He said, He said the Holy Spirit is like the wind. The wind blows where it wills, meaning you cannot manipulate the wind. Try as you might, you can't do that. Neither can you manipulate the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. He works powerfully. He works mysteriously. But he also works, as it were, behind the scenes. Now our text tonight is going to spell out for us in greater detail what exactly the Holy Spirit does in terms of drawing our attention to the Father and the Son in our relationship. And so we're going to answer the question, who are we? First of all, Paul says, we are debtors. I think it's very clear in the text and how that's spelled out. We are debtors, first of all. Secondly, we are sons, or I'll say sons and daughters, of God the Father. And thirdly, if we are sons and daughters, then we are also Heirs. That's very clear from the text tonight. That's who you and I are. We are debtors. We are sons and daughters. We are heirs. So let's look at that this evening. First of all, in verse 12. So then, that tells you what? Paul is pointing back to the previous verses. There's a connection there. So then, in terms of the work of the Holy Spirit, what has the Holy Spirit done? Briefly, in the preceding verses, Paul is saying the Holy Spirit enables us to do what we could not do in our own power. By nature, we are hostile to the law of God. By nature, we do not want to do the law of God. One of the most important things that we have to understand in terms of the Christian faith. It's one of the things that I emphasize early on in my teaching ministry in prison, for example, when I talk to the students about why is it that we do evil things? Does doing evil things give us a sinful nature? Or do we do evil things because we have a sinful nature? Now, I'm not going to ask for an answer from the audience tonight, but I think you know the answer, right? We commit sinful deeds because we have a sinful nature, which we've inherited, remember, from Adam and from Eve. We're born. We're conceived and born in sin. So imagine, put yourself in my shoes when I'm teaching this, trying to impress upon men who have lived lives of rebellion against God. The real issue is not simply that we do sinful things, but that we have a sinful nature, which then defines how salvation takes place. Salvation takes place not just in terms of the forgiveness of those wrong deeds, but the transformation of our nature. The gospel's about change, about radical change of the very heart. Not just our outward deeds, but the change of heart. And if the Holy Spirit is the one who is responsible for that, we call that what? We call that regeneration, we call that conversion. If that's true, says Paul, we are then debtors. But notice, there are some words here that we need to understand carefully because It may be confusing if you're not familiar with Paul's terminology. He says, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. What does that word flesh mean? If you have an NIV Bible, they give us a translation of not just a translation, but an interpretation of that. That's what the NIV often does. It doesn't give us simply a literal translation. It gives us often an interpretation. But in this case, I think they're right. Flesh here does not simply mean this stuff that covers my bones. Flesh here means my sinful nature. We are not debtors. We are not indebted to the sinful nature to live according to the sinful nature. In fact, the Bible says over and over again that that's exactly the problem. is that man walks in ways that are consistent with a sinful nature. That's what we read this morning from Ephesians chapter 4. We don't walk like the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking. They live by the deceitfulness of the desires of the sinful nature. Notice the warning here. For if you live according to the flesh, If you live, if your manner of life, that's what he's talking about here, if your manner of life is governed, if the pattern of life that people see in your life is governed by the sinful nature, you will die. But wait a minute, you say. We know that even Christians die. You have been to funerals. I've been to funerals. I've conducted many funerals. What does this mean here? In this case, Paul is saying not simply physical death, but what he's talking about is death in that ultimate sense of eternal judgment. So I ask you, are you listening carefully to the warning here? Paul is not playing fast and loose with sin. Oh, it's just sin. Oh, it's God's business to forgive. Some people are very flippant about that. But Paul says, if you live your life governed by the sinful nature, you will spend eternity in hell. Did you know that no one spoke about hell more in the Bible than Jesus? Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. You hear many people talk about how compassionate Jesus was, how he befriended the outcasts, all of which is true. But no one spoke about the horrors of hell more than Jesus. If you live according to that nature, you will die. But if you live, but if by the spirit rather, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Notice, it's by the spirit that we live a life entirely different than the sinful nature. The question is, do you take it seriously? In other words, let me be very frank with you tonight. What Paul is talking about is, do you hate the sin that you see in your own heart, in your own life? Does it disgust you? Does it disgust you enough to do something about it? Do you hate your sins more than you hate the sins of other people? That's the question you have to ask. Because if you're honest, and I'll be honest with you, I find it's much easier for me to be disgusted with the sins of other people than with my own sins. Oh, I can't believe what so and so did. Did you hear? Do you know about this person? I can't believe they did that. What a horrible thing. We can be so blind to our own sin, but the spirit of God brings about that conviction of sin so that we see we cannot live our lives that way. The problem is that for many, if not most of us, if not all of us, we love our sins too much to let them go. Do you believe me when I say that? That we love our sins too much to let them go. I'm always reminded in this respect of the story of St. Augustine. I know it's always a dangerous thing to recommend books from the pulpit, but a book that really was transformational in my life was St. Augustine's Confessions. I've told many people over the years, that's a book that ought to be on your bucket list of things to do before you die. You ought to read the Confessions of St. Augustine. It's the account of his life up to his early adulthood. It's a story about his conversion from paganism. It's a story about how his mother, Monica, pleaded for him before God pleaded for his conversion. And the Lord finally answered that prayer. But there's a point in that book, The Confessions, where Augustine is contemplating putting his past behind him and walking in newness of life, as the Bible describes it. And for him, it was a real struggle, particularly sins of a sexual nature. And he said, as I was contemplating putting that behind me, I kept hearing that voice, the voice of sin saying to me, sweetly whispering, are you willing, are you ready, are you prepared to give us up forever? And isn't that really the question that sin poses every day? Are you willing to give that up? forever, to go to war against it, not just to acknowledge its presence, we can all do that, but to fight against it, to wage war against it. How does Jesus speak about this? You remember what he said, if your right hand causes you to sin, you lop it off. If your right eye causes you to sin, you pluck it out. I used to love asking the younger children in catechism if Jesus meant that literally. And they'd look around and wonder, well, maybe, maybe. Is that what he's talking about? So I explained to them that what Jesus is saying here by means of, I call it hyperbole, Jesus is saying that you and I have to be ruthless in dealing with sin in our lives. And the good news of the gospel is that the spirit of God has been poured out so that we can do just that. But are you prepared to be ruthless in the battle against sin? John Piper tells a story in one of his books about an unfortunate man out in the woods cutting down a tree all by himself. Nobody for miles around. He cuts the tree, and through some accident, the tree lands upon his leg, crushing him, pinning him down, and he's bleeding profusely. And unless he gets out from under that tree, he's going to bleed to death. He pulls out a pocket knife, and he cuts off his leg, makes a tourniquet, and is able to drive, believe it or not, his own pickup to safety. But the question is, would you be willing to do that to spare your body? You give up the limb in order to spare the body. We tend to nibble around the edges of sin. We flirt with sin. Oh, it can't be so bad. It's relatively harmless. What harm can it do? What pain can it cause? What does the catechism say in terms of defining conversion? It is the putting to death of the old man of sin. Well, what is the putting to death of the old man of sin? It is to hate it more and more, to flee from it. We don't like to flee from sin. We think only silly people do that. Flee from it. Run. Run for your life if you have to, says the Apostle Paul here. and more and more you fight against it. And it's putting on positively the new man of righteousness. Paul describes it in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 as putting off dirty garments, filthy garments, and putting on clean garments. We are debtors then. We are debtors to the spirit because the spirit is the one who enables us by his taking residence in our hearts. to go to battle against our own sins so that we are no longer enslaved to that sinful nature. We still sin. We know that from Romans chapter 7, don't we, from the previous chapter. But the point he's saying is sin will no longer be your master. Sin is no longer in control. The Spirit is the one who is now in control. You are debtors. The Christian life, as one person said, is not like a moonwalk. You remember the astronauts walking on the moon, and because of the difference in gravity, they take one step and they leap feet up in the air. Some people think, oh, that's what the Christian life must be like. No. But neither is it like a dead fish going downstream in the river, where we're just passive, let go and let God, the expression goes. No. You do battle. But the difference between simply exerting oneself, pulling up one's resources, is that we do so in the power of the spirits. That's why we are debtors. But notice secondly, and I need to move on here, notice secondly the imagery of who we are. Paul says we are children of God. We are sons and daughters. For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. How do you identify a son of God, a child of God? They're the ones who are led by the Spirit. Now, being led by the Spirit doesn't mean in this context, well, where does the Lord want me to work? Whom does the Lord want me to marry? Does he want me to buy this house or this house? No, being led by the Spirit means those who go to war against the sinful nature. That is what identifies us as children of God. Notice verse 15, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Notice the contrast. But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons. Think for a moment of the contrast between the attitude of a slave and the attitude of a son. How does the slave act? The slave cringes. The slave is fearful. The slave is always wondering, is the master going to whip me today? Is the master going to get rid of me today? Is the master going to punish me somehow? And there's always this cringing attitude because you never know if you're at the mercy of the master. But the son says, like the prodigal son, when he's at the pig trough, he says, I know that at least I can go back to my father's house and he'll receive me. I can at least work for him. But not only does the father receive him back, the father runs to greet him, remember, puts new clothes on him, puts a ring on his finger, throws a party for him. We call that grace. That is the attitude. That is the mindset of a son, a daughter. Paul's using that term in both senses. You have received the spirit of adoption as sons. Again, another book that I highly recommend, I'm sure that many of you have read it, is J.I. Packer's book, Knowing God. It's a favorite of mine. And my favorite chapter in the book is a chapter entitled, Sons of God. And he begins that chapter by talking about how do you define a biblical Christian? What is the most concise way of describing who a Christian is? Again, matters of identity. And he says, the most biblical answer you can give, he says, I think the richest answer you could give is the Christian is one who has God as his father. And I think he's exactly right. In fact, Packard calls it the highest privilege of the gospel. In our own tradition, we don't tend to emphasize very strongly that aspect of salvation. That salvation is not just the forgiveness of sins. It's not just the work of sanctification. It is also the Spirit of God working in us so that we are assured of our status as children of God. Notice in verse 15, he says, the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba, Father. Now maybe over the years you've heard various pastors talking about what that word Abahir means. Sometimes pastors say, well, it means daddy. That's not quite accurate. Really, it's meant to be a very intimate expression of fellowship with the father. It means dearest father. And I want to flesh that out by giving you a scenario. Think about a situation where a son who has been estranged from his father for many years, he's run away from his father. He's now in the hospital bed, the son is, and he's dying. And his father comes to visit. And what he says as he cries out, father, dearest father, he longs to have his father receive him again. And that's really what the apostle Paul is talking about. He says we cry out. That word of the original Greek is a word that's used in the Old Testament, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to describe prayer of a psalmist in particular who's in distress. And when he's in distress, the one he can turn to, he knows he can turn to when everybody else deserts him. Think of Psalm 27. Even if my father and my mother forsake me, God will not forsake me. That's what he's talking about. Now, maybe you've never thought about that. But when you think about what the Holy Spirit does as he takes residence in our heart, the Holy Spirit works in us in such a way that we have this profound, powerful, overwhelming sense that God is our Father for Jesus' sake. He's not simply some distant deity who's pushing buttons and pulling levers. He's not some disinterested despot. He's not a dictator. He is your father. In fact, I don't know that I can do justice to the fullness of what Paul is expressing here. But what Paul is trying to get at is that the Christian faith is much more, it must be much more, then you and I simply say we agree with this, we agree with that, we know this, we know that, we have all of our doctrines in a row. Perhaps the most basic question we have to ask is the question that we ask our little children. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you love God as your father? Paul is saying here that the very essence of the Spirit's work is to confirm to us that you may be assured beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is for you, that God loves you. And for the sake of Jesus Christ, he will never let you go. That's what he's talking about here in verse 15. And I think so much more. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. I originally preached this sermon some time ago on Pentecost Sunday. Again, when we think about what is the role of the spirit in the life of the believer and the life of the church, is your first thought, well, the Holy Spirit confirms my identity as a child of God? I suspect we probably don't think that. Or perhaps we feel a bit guilty because we're told that, well, because we don't emphasize speaking in tongues, miraculous signs and wonders, direct revelation from God that we have no appreciation for the Holy Spirit. Let no one tell you that. Go back to the scriptures. Romans 8 is a beautiful example of what the Holy Spirit does in our lives, in the lives of all who believe in Jesus Christ. And then finally, thirdly, what does the Apostle Paul say is our identity? We're not just debtors. We're not just sons and daughters of the father, but we are heirs, verse 17. Now notice the language here. He says, and if children, then heirs. The if there is not meant to raise doubts, but he's simply talking about the logical sequence. In other words, if this is true, then this must be true. If we are children of God, then it means that we are also heirs. heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. One can say that whatever we have as our inheritance is because of the saving work of Jesus Christ. That's what he means, especially by saying we're co-heirs with Jesus Christ. But I want us to think about that. Paul here is describing a future hope and an expectation. What is your expectation? What is the inheritance you long for? What is the fullness of salvation that God has promised you? We talked a little bit, some of us did, this weekend about how we speak of that even at funeral services. I have been at funeral services where a supposedly Christian pastor describes heaven as the place where you do your favorite activity for all eternity. I was at one where The woman who passed away at a good old age, she loved to fish for trout in Idaho. Well, heaven's going to be the place where you fish for trout. And every time you cast your rod, you get a bite. You'll catch your walleye for eternity, Sid. That's heaven. Or golf. You'll golf for eternity. And I remember leaving that service thinking, Is that the message we give to people in the face of death, that what we long for is an eternity doing those things, just those things? No, our inheritance is far more glorious. It's far richer than that. We are heirs of all that God has promised, the new heavens, the new earth, the home of righteousness. where there will be no more effect from sin, no more sorrow, no more weeping, no more frailty and brokenness. There will be perfect blessedness, as the catechism says, in which we will enjoy God forever. Again, I think of John Piper asking the question, what makes heaven heaven? What is it about heaven that you're looking forward to? And if your answer is anything other than to be in the presence of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you had better rethink your answer. What makes heaven a glorious thing is that we see our Savior face to face, behold Him in glory, and we are made like Him in terms of His glorified body. But notice, there is a beautiful expression of hope and glory but something very painful maybe even something very scary for you tonight we are heirs and co-heirs fellow heirs with Christ provided provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified him this is spelled out further in the remaining part of Romans chapter 8 in that middle section the Apostle Paul describes what somebody has said is both the groaning and the glory of our Christian existence. While we live on this earth, while we await the consummation, isn't it true that we can describe our existence as on the one hand groaning? I talked about the young people this morning and about dealing with the reality of the brevity of life. I suspect that for most young people we don't think about that groaning part. You don't think about it yet. It's not a prevalent theme. But as you grow older, and I'm not just talking about our physical existence, I'm talking about the experiences of life. I'm talking about when friends and family members begin to die, when we face disappointment and hardship, pain and suffering, there is that groaning. The whole creation groans as in the pangs of birth. But then there's also that glory. Those two exist side by side until Jesus Christ returns. Was this not one of the most difficult things for the disciples to learn as they followed Jesus, as they sought to understand what it meant to be a disciple? Here they were fighting amongst themselves about who is the greatest. Can you imagine? Jesus overhears this. I'm the greatest. No, I'm the greatest. No, I'm the greatest. Or the mother of James and John coming up to Jesus and saying, hey, Jesus, Jesus, when you enter into your glory, can I have one boy on one side and one boy on the other side when you enter into your kingdom, your glory, your throne room? She had visions of glory. Remember well the words of Jesus to that woman. He said, you have no idea what you're asking for. Can you undergo the baptism that I have to undergo? Can you drink the cup that I have to drink? What they still had not learned was the path to glory brought them to suffering, the cross. It's the cross first, then glory. Think of Jesus talking to the travelers to Emmaus. So dejected. We had thought that the Messiah had come. But he died. He was crucified. And Jesus turning to the scriptures. Imagine what a sermon that was. From the law and the prophets going through the scriptures, Jesus explained how the Son of Man must first suffer and then enter into his glory. So yes, we are heirs. We are heirs. But bear in mind that you will not receive the fullness of that inheritance until you first pass through that suffering and then enter into glory. The Spirit of God is the one who strengthens us, who enables us to persevere through that. Imagine traveling a long distance to receive an inheritance and a mile before your destination, your car breaks down. Your car breaks down. What would you do? Would you stop and cry and feel sorry for yourself and say, oh, it's been a waste of time? No, you persevere to the end. And that's exactly what the Apostle Paul is describing here. You see the encouragement. the gift of the Holy Spirit. He's been given to you so that you may remember your debt to his ministry. He's been given to you to confirm in your heart tonight that you are not just some nameless individual on his database. You are his child. And the Spirit has been poured out upon you so that you would know that an inheritance await you, incorruptible, says Peter, undefiled, preserved in heaven for you. Praise God for the glory of the gospel. Praise God for the gift of his spirit, who dwells not only among us, but within us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do thank you that in the fullness of time, you not only sent your son, but in the fullness of time, you poured out your spirit as you promised to the prophet so many years ago. And in the pouring out of your spirit, he would write the law upon the tablets of our hearts.