Do you think much about your relationship to God? You're here at a family conference to hear sermon after sermon. It would be assumed that you think about such things. But do you? Do you think about the nature of your relationship with God? What do you understand the nature of your relationship to God as being? Do you see yourself primarily as God's creature, or perhaps as God's servant? Or maybe for some of you, you see yourself as God's enemy. Or perhaps you see yourself as God's friend, or maybe you see yourself as God's child. How do you feel? How do you respond emotionally to your relationship with God? What does it do for you psychologically? What does it do for your mood to think about your relationship with God? Let me state the question from a different angle. Do you think much about God's relationship to you? How God relates to you? How do you understand God's relationship to you personally? Some of you may see that as a non-entity. As far as you're concerned, God isn't related to you. Well, you're terribly wrong about that. In him, you live and move and have your being. He made you to him you must give an account. But that may be your perception. Or perhaps you simply see God as your creator, your providential sustainer, perhaps your judge, perhaps your enemy. Perhaps you see God as your savior. Maybe you see God as your father. What is your understanding of God's relationship to you, what does that do for you emotionally, in terms of your mood, in terms of your psyche? How does it impact your mental and emotional outlook on life? Does it have any impact on the way you live every day, the way you began this day? Your answers to these rather simple questions will enable you to understand a great deal about your own emotional life. But more importantly, your honest answers to these questions will reveal some rather substantial indications of the true spiritual condition of your heart. And therefore, it will reveal something of your eternal destiny. One crucial factor in discerning that we do indeed have a place in heaven is to determine if there is sufficient evidence to prove that we are the children of God. Our perceptions of God, our perceptions of God's relationship with us, these things are helpful. in determining if indeed we are the sons of God. Children of God have a peculiar disposition with respect to God. Well, please open your Bibles again to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. As I announced our plan yesterday, I said we would be dipping into this marvelous text at certain points to taste the sweetness and to get a glimpse of the glory with the hope that you would be stimulated to do a much more thorough study on your own. So we are dipping into another part of the text. Look at verse 13, first of all. That's not our passage, but I want to begin by referring you to that text. I said yesterday there are no imperatives in Romans 8. There are no commands. Verse 13 perhaps comes closest to having the spirit of a command, even though it is not. 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. Now there's something rather surprising in this verse. Paul connects eternal life with the mortification of sin. He says, if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. You will have life everlasting. Now does that mean that the moral endeavor to put away sin earns for us eternal life. Now that would be a very difficult thing for us to embrace. God has said, here is my son. In my son is life eternal. Believe on him and you will never perish, but you will have everlasting life. Now for God to say, put your sins to death and you will have everlasting life. Those are two very different things. And if that is what is being said here in verse 13 of Romans 8, it would appear to contradict all that we have understood the Bible to teach about salvation, about the gracious nature of salvation. But on the surface, that seems to be what verse 13 is teaching us. So we have a problem. And the solution to this apparent problem comes from reading on in the text. Reading the verses that surround verse 13 and not simply isolating verse 13. And by the way, that is almost always the solution to supposed problems in the Bible. Just read some more. Now through a careful consideration of verse 13 through verse 17, we learn that eternal life is in fact part of that inheritance that belongs to the children of God. We also learn that one distinguishing feature of the children of God is that their lives are being led or directed by the Holy Spirit. Verse 14, it's a remarkable statement. As many as are being led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And again, that doesn't tell us to seek the leading of the Spirit, to do certain things to gain the leading of the Spirit. It's a statement of fact. The Spirit of God is leading everyone who is a child of God. We also learn from these verses that one very predictable result of the Spirit's leading is an ongoing effort to mortify sin. So you put all of that together and this is the conclusion. Eternal life is a gracious gift of God to His children. His children can be identified by the Holy Spirit's direction upon their lives. And part of that direction inevitably involves them in the effort to put away sin. Now the part of this chapter with which we are concerned this morning has more to say about the dual themes children of God and the Holy Spirit so follow as I read now verses 15 through 17 of Romans 8 for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out 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 joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. As I have endeavored to understand, particularly verses 15 and 16, I've concluded that each of these verses presents a major change of perception and disposition. Change is wrought in those who believe in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Verse 15 presents a change of fundamental disposition toward God. The Holy Spirit enables us to think of God in ways that otherwise we would not. Verse 16 represents a change of disposition toward ourselves. The Holy Spirit moves us to think about ourselves in ways that we would not. Our concern for this hour is simply verse 15. a change of fundamental perception and disposition toward God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. There are two very simple divisions to our study, pretty obvious. First of all, there is a statement in verse 15 regarding that which the Holy Spirit does not do, what the Spirit of God does not do in believing hearts. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. Now note in this statement, and especially in the second half of verse 15, the apostle is assuming that his readers have received the Holy Spirit. You did not receive the spirit of bondage, but you received the spirit of adoption. The word received is in the Aorist. It speaks of that which has happened in the past, something that has already taken place. The glorified Christ gives the Holy Spirit to believers at the very moment that they believe in Him. The Holy Spirit genuinely and personally and graciously indwells every soul that believes. And He resides in every believer. as his own personal helper and comforter and companion. He is our paraclete. And this indwelling occurs at the point of conversion and at last, without interruption, until Christ takes believers out of this world. Now, Paul, by expressing the assumption that these people had received the Holy Spirit, he is thereby also expressing his confidence in the genuineness of their professed faith. That confidence didn't prevent him from challenging them at certain points to make sure to examine themselves, but it did speak of his perception of them He did not write with these conscious doubts about them. They profess to be believers in Christ, and he believed that profession to be genuine. And he believed that as believers, they had received the Holy Spirit. We need to have that presumed favor of attitude toward each other. We need to carry that. the confidence that our brethren who profess to be believers in Christ with all of their warts and inconsistencies, that they are genuine and that the Spirit of God dwells in them. And if we profess faith in Christ with all of our weaknesses and all of our inconsistencies and all the things that break our hearts about ourselves, if we sincerely trust in Christ, unless we know that our professed faith is insincere and we don't mean it, then we must assume this of ourselves, that the very spirit of Christ dwells in us. For as Paul says, previous to this in verse 9, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. If you're a Christian, if you believe in Christ, you do have the Holy Spirit, You have received him. Our text as a whole is constructed upon that foundational doctrine, that from Pentecost until the end of time, Jesus Christ gives the Holy Spirit to his people at the moment that they first believe, that every believer has received the Holy Spirit. Now that assumption brings us then to the statement as to what the Holy Spirit does not do wherever he goes. You have not received the spirit of bondage. The commentators have long debated the point of reference meant by the phrase spirit of bondage, as well as the phrase in the second half of verse 15, spirit of adoption. Both of those phrases have been the subject to long and intricate debates. Do both phrases point to the human spirit? Does one phrase refer to the human spirit and the other phrase to the Holy Spirit? Do both phrases refer to the Holy Spirit? Well, I will not confuse you further by stating the various arguments supporting each interpretation. Instead, I will simply state what I believe to be the best understanding of what Paul is saying. Paul is laboring to bring the members of the Roman congregation and believers of every church in every century to recognize one major effect, not the only, but one major effect of the Holy Spirit's presence in every regenerate heart. Every believer has a holy spirit and wherever the holy spirit goes He does the particular thing that paul is describing in this text and he wants us to understand that and recognize that But in order to establish that truth in the way that is most effective and beneficial to us the reader paul declares what the effect of the spirit's work is not And then he declares what it is And so I take Paul's words in the first half of verse 15 to mean this. The Holy Spirit has not entered your soul as the spirit of bondage. The Holy Spirit who indwells you is not there to engender an abiding sense of enslavement or painful restriction as though you were confined by some sort of invisible, unbreakable shackles. The Spirit of God does not do that. Do you know anyone who views Christianity as bondage? Perhaps some of you dear young people. That's why you have no intention of being a Christian. to you to give yourself to Christ would be to relegate the rest of your days in this world to this oppressive bondage. You have no intention of doing that. You may even know some professing Christians who seem to feel themselves to be in some kind of bondage, perhaps in bondage to a way of life to standards and expectations that they don't like and they don't want. And thus they feel oppressed. Perhaps you know of professed believers who feel themselves in bondage to continual feelings of guilt on account of their often failures and sins. And they somehow imagine that this sense of bondage is an essential element of experimental religion, that this is part of sanctification. It is part of Christianity. It's part of being what you ought to be, that you feel in bondage, under restriction, and pressed down. And they very much reflect that to others. Their spirit about the things of Christ is a spirit that lets you know that this is no fun. It's hard work. It is arduous work. It's not something that you smile. It's not something that makes you happy. But it's something you do. You have to do it. The spirit of bondage. Well, beloved Paul is saying in very clear, unmistakable words, That feeling of bondage doesn't come from the Holy Spirit. That is not the work of the indwelling Christ. You did not receive the spirit of bondage when you received the Holy Spirit. In another context, wherein the Apostle Paul discussed the ministry of the Holy Spirit, he said this, and I'm referring to 2 Corinthians 3.17, He said, now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, not bondage. There is liberty. There is freedom. And with freedom and liberty, there is a sense of gladness, a sense of being in a broad place, in a good place. Now this brings about an important question. Why is it that the Holy Spirit is not the spirit of bondage within believing hearts? Why is it that the Holy Spirit habitually produces liberty and not bondage? in God's people. Why is that? Is it because the Spirit of God removes all the standards and expectations that press against our flesh? Is it because the Spirit of God comes to us and says, now you're justified and now you're guaranteed a place in heaven? Don't worry about rules and restrictions and confinements? Is that why? Is it because the Holy Spirit frees believers from all concern about such things as keeping commandments and avoiding sin? Well, no. No, not at all. This very passage, Romans 8, speaks about the righteous requirement of the law being fulfilled in those who live according to the Spirit. It speaks about those whose minds are filled with the things of the Spirit being subject to the Law of God. Whereas, in contrast, those whose minds are controlled by the things of the flesh cannot submit to the Law of God. He speaks about those who are being led of the Spirit as those who, by the Spirit's help and energy, put to death the evil deeds of the body. No, the Holy Spirit is not the spirit of bondage, but that's not because He removes or He relaxes or He counsels the need for holy standards and requirements. It's not because He exempts us from holiness. It's not because He says, don't worry about sin, let it go. He is not the spirit of bondage because of what we see in the second half of verse 15 And we'll get to that in a moment But he is also not the spirit of bondage Because according to second corinthians 3 to which i referred a moment ago According to that text the spirit removes the veil over our hearts and enables us to see the glory of christ And therein is our liberty It's in coming to know our Savior. I mean, not just knowing Him theoretically or theologically, but in terms of who He is theologically. Coming to know Him personally. Becoming intimately acquainted with Him. Coming into a life of trust. A life of enjoyment. A life of fellowship and communion. And a life that is very much very much dedicated to pleasing them. The Holy Spirit brings believers to become so fully in love with Christ that Christ becomes their liberty. They enjoy Him. They know Him. They enjoy Him. He is the delight of their heart. Whatever was the darling of their hearts before, it is now Christ. And it's becoming more of Christ, and more of Christ. And consequently, as they become more enraptured with the reality of Christ, they become more and more zealously affected by the things that please Christ. So that they learn to say in all sincerity, in service which thy will appoints, there are no bonds for me. My secret heart It's taught the truth that makes thy children free. A life of self-renouncing love is one of liberty. When Anna Waring wrote those words, she was not talking about a self-renouncing love for humanitarian causes or philanthropic causes, but she was talking about a self-renouncing love for Christ. Those who are enabled to know Christ and love Christ find no bonds in doing the will of Christ. It's liberty to them. The Holy Spirit is not the spirit of bondage. He does not make Christ odious. He makes Christ lovable to us. There's one other aspect of the opening half of verse 15, Paul's statement concerning what the spirit does not do in believing hearts that requires some attention. And that's a phrase, again to fear. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. What does that mean? Well, some have taken that to mean that the Holy Spirit does act, He does act, as the spirit of bondage when He comes the first time to convict God's elect of their sins, in order to awaken them and to send them to Christ. When He comes the first time, these commentators would tell us He does come as the spirit of bondage, but when we are converted, When he comes again to indwell us after we believe, he does not come again in this capacity of producing fearful bondage. Well, it is true that the Spirit's conviction is powerful. It is arresting. It is alarming. When the Spirit of God begins to deal with a Christless soul, He makes that soul to be utterly overcome with the conviction of sin, the awareness of lostness, the awakening realization, I am without God, and I am without hope. And I am a criminal in the sight of God, and I have broken His law in this way, and that way, and that way. And a whole vista of lawlessness is opened, and the sinner is virtually overcome with a sense of his helplessness, his lostness, his condemnation. That's powerful. The Spirit of God knocks all the props out from under the sinner that he's calling to Christ. He won't let him find hope or satisfaction in anything except Christ. And all of that does produce a holy fear. A holy fear. A fear that causes us to take God and the gospel seriously. And yet, having said that, I think it's a real mistake to view the Holy Spirit as ever being the spirit of bondage. I don't believe that the Spirit of God is ever the spirit of bondage. Paul, in saying that the Spirit is not the spirit of bondage again within the souls of believers, is not suggesting automatically that the Spirit was ever the spirit of bondage. Well, then what do we make of this word again? It means something. You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear. What does that mean? The apostle is here referring to an emotional and psychological condition that belongs to the unconverted. If you're without Christ, this condition belongs to you. Now, some Christians may struggle with this condition periodically, but not like the unregenerate. It is a condition of being so oppressed by sin and guilt and by the sense of condemnation which the guilt of sin creates within the conscience. so oppressed that there arise within the soul all kinds of deep, dark, inexplicable fears. All kinds of fears. Every unconverted person knows in his heart of hearts there is a God, and this God controls the world. He may not understand the doctrine of providence, but intuitively he knows that there is a God who controls the world. And that's why after September the 11th, all kinds of people were saying, where was God? God never enters their conversation at any point, but all of a sudden they have this rational dilemma, where was God? because they know intuitively God is there and God is in charge. And that produces all kinds of fears. Fears of providence. Fears of heights. Fears of closed-in spaces. Fears of wide-open spaces. Fears of crowds. Fears of being alone. Fears of travel. All kinds of fears. Sin abounds in men's hearts more and more, and with it, men's hearts fail them more and more on account of fear. What men really fear is death. The unconverted are held captive all their days by a fear of death, and the judgment that follows, and the punishment of their sins. But you know what? At the base of all that fear, it is ultimately a fear of God. Now, it's not the fear of adoring wonder. It's not the fear of deep heart reverence. But it is a fear of tormenting distress. There is this God, and I can't get away from him. And he sees me. And He controls me, He controls my life, He controls this car I'm driving, this car I'm meeting, the germs that are floating in the air, this terrible disease. He's controlling all things and He's there. This God, I can't get away from Him. And that fear without the grace of God leads to resentment, and it leads to an aversion, and it leads to hatred. It's a kind of fear that we could come to have of cancer. If we have seen people we love die with that dreaded disease, we have seen it eat up their strength and take them out of this world, we will come to hate that disease and to fear it. no matter what unbelievers may say by way of denial. Every graceless soul has this kind of fear embedded deep within it, and it cannot be completely suppressed no matter how hard you try. No matter what philosophical explanations for reality you embrace, there is lurking deep within this haunting fear of God and death and judgment. And God's people, God's real people, may experience some temporary echoes of this fear, especially under the conviction of our sin. But this My dear ones, what I'm describing to you now, it's the work of conscience. In some ways, it may be the work of our adversary, but it is not the work of the Holy Spirit. What is depicted in the first half of verse 15 is indeed a miserable disposition of soul. It's a disposition caused by sin and the wages of sin. It's caused by a wounded conscience. Perhaps it's caused by Satan and misinformation about God and salvation. But it's a disposition of soul belonging to nature and not to grace. It's also a disposition that while it is caused by sin, It does not view sin as a culprit. You who are unconverted, you know something of what I'm talking about. It's there. You may cover it over and deny it, but it is there in the depths of your soul. You know something of what I'm talking about. And you think that the problem is not sin. It's not the world. It's God. You view God as a culprit. This feeling of bondage and fear blames God and resents God. Why does he have to be so holy? Why does he have to be so powerful as to hold me accountable? I don't like a God like that, a sovereign God, an omnipotent God, a judging God, an inflexibly holy and just God. I don't like a God like that. And as a result of this spirit of bondage, Almost everything connected to biblical religion becomes a black cloud in your life. You're sitting at home, and you're listening to your favorite music, and you're having a good time watching a TV program, and dad takes the Bible and says, now we're going to have devotions. Here comes that black spirit. God. I want to think about God, and perhaps and planning to come to this conference. There were things about it you wanted, the fun times with your friends, the happy times on the ball field, the basketball court, the tennis court, the swimming pool, and a lot of fun things. The only problem is you've got to come to these meetings, and you've got to have that black cloud come back over your life. God. And deep inside, you hate him. You are at enmity against Him because you can't escape Him. You can't escape Him, but you want to escape Him. It's a spirit of oppression and dread and disdain. And that's what Paul is describing. He opens this verse by affirming that the Holy Spirit given by Christ to His sheep is not responsible for that condition of soul. That's a work of sin and conscience. Well, this brings us to the second half of verse 15. A much happier part of the verse. A statement of what the Holy Spirit does do in believing hearts. Look at verse 15 again. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, But you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father. He is saying to God's people, when that dark cloud begins to intrude your conscious thoughts, you have warrant to put it away. Because that dark cloud doesn't belong to you anymore. And God, the Holy Spirit, would not have you living under a dark cloud. That dark cloud belongs to the unregenerate and to the unconverted. It doesn't belong to you. Now notice how the indwelling spirit is here defined in the latter part of verse 15. He's called the spirit of adoption. That should not be taken to mean that he is the spirit who adopts but rather that he is the spirit who conveys the knowledge of adoption. That's part of what God has sent him to do, to convey to God's people the knowledge that they have been adopted. What is this adoption to which the spirit gives knowledge and testimony? What is it? What is adoption? How do you understand adoption? I know it's not a new word to most of you. How do you conceive this adoption. There are three things I want to say about this adoption quickly. First of all, adoption is a status or better stated it is a relationship which the first person of the Godhead has appointed to those he has chosen to save. It is a relationship with the first person of the Godhead which he has appointed to those he has determined to save. Keeping a place in Romans 8, turn quickly to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him. In love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Before the worlds were formed, God determined to adopt you In choosing you to be the recipient of His grace in Christ, He predestined you to be adopted. Now, every aspect of God's salvation is free grace. It's all amazing grace. Every part of Christ's coming, living, dying, living again, interceding for sinners, is an act of incredible love. But there is a sense in which nothing so reveals the nature of God's love as this. He has not only determined to deliver elect sinners from the consequences their sins deserve by visiting those consequences upon His only begotten Son instead. But beyond that, God has also determined that these lowly, undeserving sinners will be elevated into a relationship with Himself that is comparable to the relationship of His only begotten Son. He takes our miserable sins and the consequences of them and puts them on His Son. And He takes us and He elevates us to a position that is comparable to that of His Son. We are adopted sons. Not only does God pardon his enemies, he takes them into his family. He embraces them in a way that is comparable, not equal, but comparable to the way he embraces the only begotten Son. Let's say you're walking down the street, the town where you live, and you come across a homeless man. Before you get to him, you smell him. The odor is distinct, nauseating. And as you get close enough to see him, he's a miserable creature to look upon. He is dirty. His clothes are ragged. He has sores. He's a miserable human being. And you stop, and you take out a $5 bill, and you put it in his box. And you walk on. You feel fairly good about that, but you take a few steps, and you don't feel good about that because you know you have a $20 bill in your pocket. And so you come back, and you give him a $20 bill. Well, that would be good. I mean, that would be merciful, wouldn't it? It would be. We need to be more merciful. I need to be more merciful in that way. But let's say you do something much more. Let's say you take that miserable, dirty, reeking human being home. And you help him get cleaned up. And you give him some of your son's clothes to wear. And you give him his own place at your table. And we're in July, come December. If you celebrate Christmas, when you celebrate Christmas and you're passing out presents, there is that man. He's still there. And he's going to receive equal share with your kids. That's almost unthinkable, isn't it? What God did in adopting us is far more unthinkable than that. Behold what manner of love has been bestowed on us that we should be called sons of God. It is indicative of the coldness of our hearts when those kinds of ideas have lost their wonder to us. Adoption is a relationship with God into which God brings sinners out of his amazing love for them. He will not just have them saved as brands out of the burning. That's mercy. He'll not just have them pardon criminals. That's mercy. He will have them sons living in his house, eating at his table, wearing his son's garments. That's adoption. Secondly, adoption is a legal standing. It's a relationship, but it's also a legal standing bestowed on everyone who believes on Jesus Christ. Adoption is a legal standing. Turn to John chapter 1, please. John chapter 1, another very familiar passage that speaks to this matter. John 1 verse 12. but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Adoption is distinct from regeneration. Regeneration or the new birth is that special work of the Spirit upon and within our souls that makes us alive and enables us to repent of our sins and to believe on Christ for salvation. Adoption is a legal standing before God. It's like unto justification. It is a legal standing. to as many as received Him. To them, He gave the right, He gave the authority to become sons of God. It is a legal right conveyed by the Father. And with this legal right come certain entitlements. Entitlements. When this right is bestowed, there are commitments that are made by God. One of those entitlements is the entitlement of unique closeness to God. When God adopts us, he is saying, my child, I know you don't think of yourself as my child. I hope to bring you to the place that you'll think of yourself in those terms. But I'm telling you this, I am your father and you can come to me at any time. At any time. The fatherhood of God in the redemptive sense extends to none except those who believe in Christ. For these are the ones that God has chosen to have a peculiar intimacy of access with himself. And just as the CEO of a great company, if he's a decent dad, in the midst of the most important of board meetings, when he receives a call from his son. And it is obviously a serious call. He stops what he's doing, and he says, son, what is it? Our God is the Lord of heaven and earth. He is working all things according to the counsel of his own will. All things consist by the word of his power. He is, in a sense, a busy God, in a sense. But beloved, as his adopted child, you always have access to him. Always he is committed in adopting you. He is committing himself to be open to you He's also committed himself to meet every need you have When adults adopt children, is that not what they're committing to do I Commit myself to be your guardian. I commit myself to be your provider. I commit myself to be your protector Is that not what Pharaoh's daughter did for Moses. She adopted him. She took him out of the water. She gave him safety. She gave him clothing. She gave him food. She gave him an education. She made commitments to him. In God's adopting us, he is committing himself to relieve our distresses and meet our needs. And we need not be embarrassed about asking him, for he is our father. That's how he wants us to think of him. Why do you hold back and you don't come to me, my child? What father here would not be grieved to know he had a child who was worried sick about a particular situation that dad could help, that he didn't want to bother dad and he didn't say anything? Would that not grieve you? Adoption gives us the entitlement of God's protection. You say, well, I don't have a right to demand that. No, of course you don't. He gives it. He adopts you. You don't adopt him. He adopts you. You would never enter my mind to think of considering God as my father. That's his idea, not mine. A third entitlement is participation in whatever inheritance he has. As adopted children, we come to be... Well, look at what verse 17 says. Romans 8, 17 says, and if or since you are children, you are heirs. You're heirs of God and you're joint heirs with Christ. And that tells us that the best part of our inheritance is yet to come. There are good things in this world, there are better things in the world to come. Adoption involves an instatement by God into astounding wealth and privilege. I know some of you young men, probably my son, is wondering what it would be like to have a dad who is wealthy. Beloved, if you believe in Christ, you have a dad who is wealthy. He's so wealthy. that you will never want anything but what He has to give you if it's good for you. Now, is that how you pray? Do you pray with that kind of confidence and conviction? I'm going to my dad, and my dad owns everything. And if what I think I need, I really need, I know his disposition. He will give it to me. That's one of the entitlements of adoption. The third thing I would say about adoption is the point of this text, and that is that the Holy Spirit, as the spirit of adoption, is sent by God into believing souls to communicate the reality of this new status and this new relationship. God hasn't done this, and then He doesn't want us to know about it. He's going to surprise us when we get to heaven. No, beloved, He wants us to know about it now. And that is part of what the Spirit of God has been sent to do. He has been sent to make us aware, wonderfully aware, that we are now the adopted children of God. How does he do that? Well, the text says, you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba Father. Those words are simple, but they're puzzling. The word the Holy Spirit enables us to know the reality of our adoption by bringing us to cry out Abba father Galatians 4 6 is even clearer Because you were sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out Abba father But these words are simple and yet they're puzzling They do give rise to some questions. First of all, what is Abba Father? Well, I'm sure you know this. The word Abba represents the Aramaic word for father. The English word father is simply a translation of the Greek word for father. We can't explore the linguistics, but we should see this as This expression is a depiction of an intense intimacy and tenderness. God's intimacy toward us, which he wants us to feel toward himself. The Lord Jesus used this very expression in the Garden of Gethsemane. According to Mark 1436, Christ said, Abba, Father. It was his darkest hour. He was expressing his deepest convictions about the intimacy and love of his father. And he says, Abba Father. Now our relationship to God as father cannot, it will not ever equal the relationship of his only begotten son, never. But the Holy Spirit moves us to a similar kind of affection and a similar kind of confidence He comes and causes us to have a growing confidence of God's fatherly affections and commitments toward us. And he works in us this sense that God is my dad. He's my dad. I realize in the day of enormous sin and wickedness, where common grace and natural affection are eroded, that word dad doesn't mean to everyone. comfort and reassurance And maybe your dad has been detached from you and maybe he hasn't loved you Maybe he's even abused you in certain ways an idea father makes you cringe But intellectually you're able to understand that's not the way it ought to be right the word father ought to mean Love, it ought to mean approachableness. It ought to mean tenderness. It ought to mean provision and protection and security and solace and direction and guidance, safety. Well, God is a prototype of what a father is to be. And he wants us to understand that in Christ, he is, and I say it reverently, but I think it's this kind of language that we need to embrace. He is our daddy. And he wants us to feel free to throw ourselves into his lap and wrap our arms around his neck. And again, that's his idea, it's not ours. What does it mean when the text says the Spirit of God cries out in us, Abba Father? He cries out. Well, that simply denotes, my brethren, that the Holy Spirit will not simply allow us to stand at a distance and contemplate the doctrine of adoption and coldly dissect intellectually the doctrine of the fatherhood of God. He welcomes our inquiries. He wants us to study, but at a much deeper level, he wants us to feel. The fact that he cries out, Abba Father, signifies he draws us to God as our Father. He draws us into a filial kind of affection and communion. He doesn't allow us to stand off. Though we don't feel worthy and we're not to approach God in these terms, He yet draws us to God in these terms. He moves us. He moves upon us. to draw near to God more and more with childlike affection and confidence. And this is part of what the Spirit of God is doing in every one of us. He is urging us to get closer to God as our Father. You say, well, I've learned that. Yeah, but you're not as close as you need to be. You say, well, I'm closer than I've ever been. You're still not as close as you need to be. And the work of the Spirit of God is to press you. Get closer to God. Get more intimate with God. Become better acquainted with God as your Father. Learn to go to Him about everything. You're lonely. Go to Him for communion. You're fearful. Go to Him for solace. You are guilty. Your sins don't surprise him. And your sins will not cause him to cut you off unless you cut yourself off. What does he expect you to do when you sin? Come to him and confess. Dad, this is what I did and it's reprehensible. And he's made provision for that. And he is faithful and just to forgive you. and to cleanse you and to restore you. There is no reason for staying away from God if you believe in Christ. Our text declares this wonderful work of the Spirit of God that, as I said in the beginning, creates a fundamental change of disposition toward God. In addition to, not in the place of, in addition to awe and godly fear, the Holy Spirit creates the conviction, the confidence, and the affection of a child toward his father. And the result is not in any way a lessening of our reverence for God, but the result is that alongside this awe filled wonder at who God is. There is this increasing and incredible consciousness. This God loves me. This God has included me in the most intimate kind of relationship. He has made me his child. This God is my dad. And I am secure. I am safe. All is well with me. Later in this text, Paul says, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Now, I said yesterday there are no commands in Romans 8. The text doesn't tell us to do anything. That would be an appropriate response. Worship. Bow and bless God. What grace, what love, what can we do but adore and love and embrace it and ask the Spirit of God to give us more of it and not allow us to forget it or doubt it or suspect it. I urge you to make it a purpose sometime during this conference to get along and to ask God for a stronger sense of his fatherly love and commitment for you, for you. Now, I know that for some of you, this is all mumbo jumbo. Never crossed your mind to think of this God as your father. He's a black cloud. You don't want to live, and you don't want to die like that. And you don't have to. I have one thing to say to you, to whom all of this is so far removed from your conscious experience. One thing to say. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the sons of God, even to those who believe on his name. Go to Christ, and this incredible privilege will be yours. Father, give to your children the faith to drink deeply of these realities. However, it seems to us too good to be true. We pray that you would fill our hearts with faith and that we would embrace them as being true, and that the Spirit of God would increasingly draw us to yourself with childlike love and confidence. And for those, dear Father, who are utter strangers to this relationship, please, Father, by your omnipotent grace, Provoke them to jealousy. Make them wish that they could know God in this way and not as an ominous, dreaded figure. And bring them to Christ, who is the peace of all who believe in Him. Hear us and answer us, please, for Christ's sake. Amen.