are in Romans chapter 8 and uh... mostly verse 15 we're going to drop back to 14 for just a moment uh... just to provide continuation I'm dinging which means I forgot to turn my thing down verses 14 and 15 in chapter 8 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 so on week four last uh... apologize for being sickly last week but uh... just one of those things that happens uh... we left off of verse fourteen and some tests we saw some tests there which we must apply to ourselves to make sure that we are being led by the spirit of god tests of conduct and behavior and tests of desire and so on and so forth not an exhaustive list by any means but a list of definite importance but it basically boils down to the fact that for all those that are christians The Holy Spirit will lead you and will give you the power to put to death the deeds of the body, proving that you already have eternal life and that you are sons of God. And so we come to verse 15, which will take us some time to work through, not as long as Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who spends seven chapters on this one verse. Then eight chapters on the next verse. So if you think I'm slow, that's 15 weeks on two verses. so that's what he did from october to may every year for twelve years every friday night he taught these lessons three hundred and sixty six lessons going deeper than any other human has ever imagined i would guess uh... what might be more amazing is his congregation that gathered every friday night with a hunger and thirst for god's word don't imagine we would get much response to such a thing in america today as Friday and Saturday nights were given over to worldly things a long time ago. But regardless, like I've said, I'm getting a lot of reading done, and some of it is kind of overwhelming to my little pea brain. But I will say that there are far worse ways to spend your time than reading Martin Lloyd-Jones, so if you get the chance, you should do that. So anyway, here in verse 15, we have come to another test that we must apply to ourselves in order to make sure that we are indeed the children of God. Our assurance of salvation is the thing that most of us seek, and finding that assurance is the highest privilege that a Christian believer can have this side of heaven. So here I think we will see that our spirituality can be tested more thoroughly by these two verses than almost any other statement in the whole of Scripture. At least this has been true of me in working through this. I have found myself lacking in so many ways. It is fairly simple to grasp these two verses on an intellectual level, but there is much more to be found here and that is where we will go this morning. Verse 15 is a most important verse with regards to assurance. even more so than verse 14, because we go far over and above what was already quite wonderful. He says, 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. So the first thing we see here is the use of the word spirit twice. The spirit of slavery and the spirit of adoption. Two sides of the coin, negative and positive. but the same exact word used in both places. Now, many of the commentators use the lowercase s in both cases and assert that it is only referring to feelings. Or in other words, that we have not received a heavy spirit of bondage and fear, but rather a cheerful spirit of joy. We used to be sad and downcast of spirit, but now we are happy and joyful of spirit. and so these use the lowercase s in their expositions. There are even more, including the translators of our ESV that use the lowercase s for the first spirit and the uppercase for the Holy Spirit in the second one. Again, they say that the first is only about feelings or disposition, and in the second, it is in fact the Holy Spirit that produces our adoptions, our adoptions, so that one has to mean the Holy Spirit. I would prefer to say that it is the Father that does the adopting rather than the Spirit. The Spirit does His part, but it is primarily the work of the Father. Anyway, we have proof from Scripture that the second one is in fact the Holy Spirit. It's found in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 6. He says, And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. this is obviously a parallel birth to the one that we are looking at spirit of God's son is the Holy Spirit so there is no doubt about the second one second use of the spirit in verse 15 it is my assertion that the first use is also the Holy Spirit once again arguing arguing against those that are much smarter than I am I say that this is not possible because the Holy Spirit come cannot be described as a spirit of slavery They say that the first is in reference to the unbeliever on one hand, and the second is to the believer on the other hand. It cannot be so. The first reason being that the entire context here, through this entire section, is in reference to the Holy Spirit Himself. Secondly, it is unlikely that Paul would change the meaning of the same word without giving us some indication that he is going to do so. So he is putting in front of us a contrast, and for the contrast to work, there has to be a balance between the two statements. Spirit on one side must mean the same as spirit on the other side, otherwise the contrast does not work. Third, it is entirely unscriptural to say that the lost man, apart from the spirit, has a spirit of slavery and fear. Why? Well, the main trouble with unbelievers is that they are very secure in their positions. They have no spirit of slavery or fear. Paul himself, prior to conversion, had no concept of slavery or fear. He was secure in his own righteousness, very secure, very self-satisfied. dead in trespasses and sins absolutely but not touched at all by the operations of the Holy Spirit which leads to the fourth answer emphasizing the words received and back again that word again is not used in our translation but it is in many others but the term back does make the again implicit on both sides of the contrast we find that word received suggesting that the persons that Paul is referring to, these at one time received this spirit of slavery, even as they now have received the spirit of adoption. He says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons. They received the spirit of slavery. They received the spirit of adoption. Much easier to see the exposition if we use the King James Version where it says, For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. But you'll see that it works out in the end with both of them. So the best translation would sound something like this. You did receive the spirit of bondage to fear once, but you have not received it again. you have received something entirely different. So the Christian is a man who at one time, at one time received a spirit of bondage to fear. How did he receive it? Hang with me now because this is good stuff. As a result of the operation of the Holy Spirit on him, how did the Christian man receive this spirit of slavery to fear? It was the result of the operation of the Holy Spirit on him. It is the Holy Spirit that produces the spirit of bondage to fear. It is the Holy Spirit alone that can do this work. This is what was happening to that wretched man in chapter 7 in my assertion. It was the Holy Spirit that brought this lost man to his knees, placed him in bondage to the law and to fear for his very soul. There is no other power that can produce a spirit of bondage and fear except the Holy Spirit. That is what He does when He begins to work in us His work of conviction. The law cannot do this. Circumstances cannot do this. Now, those things can scare us. They can prompt us to cease sinning for a moment. They can maybe even make us vow to live a good life if God will just get us out of the trouble that we are in. How many of you are familiar with that phrase? Lord, just save me and I'll do right from here on out. It doesn't last, okay? But that is not the spirit of bondage to fear, which is the only true conviction of sin. In Acts chapter 2, you know the story. says 3000 people were pricked in their hearts as Peter preached the gospel what was it that pricked their hearts the Holy Spirit pricked their hearts poured out on them a spirit of bondage to fear slavery to their sins and fear of standing before a holy and righteous God and their response was what what what what must we do to be saved okay It was the Holy Spirit convicting them of their guilt and their condemnation of sin that brought them to seek salvation. That was what brought them under the conviction of their sin. Many of the biographies of the saints tell us how these famous men passed through terrible periods of bondage and fear. John Bunyan, everybody knows John Bunyan, tells us that his period of conviction lasted for 18 months. In his book, Grace Abounding, he says that many times during that 18 months he wished that he were dead or that he were an animal with no soul to worry about perishing in hell as his was likely to do. that on one occasion he even smelled brimstone in the air. That is the spirit of bondage and fear that was the work of the Holy Spirit convicting John Bunyan of his sin. And yet, prior to this working of the Spirit, he spent his life very carefree, very happy. Jesus himself, in describing the Holy Spirit, says this. It's in John chapter 16, verses 8 through 11. He says, and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. So, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Absolutely true. But there can never be and will never be liberty without conviction of sin and the spirit of bondage and fear coming first. Always remember that you cannot be saved until you know what it is that you are being saved from. So, how do we work this out? 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 so he's in essence saying you Roman Christians you did receive the spirit of slavery you were convicted by the Holy Spirit of your slavery to sin and your inability to do anything about it in your own strength that is where the fear I say the terror comes from. But the Holy Spirit had no intention of leaving you there. The goal and purpose of it all was that you would ultimately receive the Spirit of Adoption as sons of God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Liberty, the Spirit of Adoption as sons, but the Holy Spirit always, 100% of the time, begins his work of conviction through that spirit of slavery and fear. For some, that period of conviction might last only an instant. Those 3,000 at Pentecost were convicted basically immediately and baptized into the church almost immediately. Like that, boom, it was done. Paul himself, on the other hand, he spent a minimum that we know of of three days under this spirit of conviction after being struck blind on the road to Damascus. And for some like John Bunyan, that period might take 18 months. The work of the Holy Spirit is to convict God's elect of our sin, of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment. That is a fearful thing indeed. That is the spirit of slavery and fear that we receive at the beginning. That fear, that godly sorrow that works repentance in us. That repentance in faith leads us to justification and from that point forward the Holy Spirit's work is no longer to bring us to fear. It is in fact to keep us from falling back into that spirit of slavery. It is now to bring us to the realization of who we are and what we are in Christ. We receive the spirit of adoption as sons. It is the same Holy Spirit that works both truths in us in order to bring us ultimately to full assurance of our present and future position as Christians. The spirit of slavery and fear is our assurance, just as much as is the spirit of adoption. How so? Because both are a clear indication of the working of the Holy Spirit in us. The unregenerate know no such fear. They might fear the fires of hell, but that is easily outweighed by their love for their sin. Anybody that remembers how you were prior to regeneration knows that to be true. Fear of the fires of hell is easily outweighed by your love for your sin. At least mine was. Maybe I'm the only one. A true Christian, on the other hand, is not convicted nearly so much by the fear of hell as they are by the fear of the holiness of God. The spirit of slavery and fear is also of great value to us in testing the spirits. There is another spirit of our enemy that often persuades people that they have the spirit of adoption when they in actuality do not. The evil one is more than willing and ready to make men feel secure and happy and lull them into a carnal peace, which means that such men are no longer concerned about their salvation. It is very easy for the devil to persuade people that they are saved people, that they are Christians and sons of God. Christ warns us many times in Scripture that there are far more lost men in what calls itself the church than saved people. Men who have been deceived by a spirit that is not of God. This is where the spirit of slavery and fear becomes invaluable as a test of our own standing. If we have never known the spirit of slavery and fear. We had better examine very carefully what may appear at first glance to be the spirit of adoption. Again, the spirit of slavery and fear always precedes the spirit of adoption. John Preston, one of the Puritan writers, puts it this way, If thou never hat'st the spirit of bondage, Certainly thou hast not received the Spirit of the Son." So Paul speaks of it here as a condition common to all Christians. They did not receive the spirit of slavery again. They had it once, but now you have the spirit of adoption. Again, we emphasize this, that every person must have had this spirit of slavery and fear and for the simple reason that the law must be the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. And there is a very great reason behind this. That is because otherwise we would never know the love of Christ. Any person who has not known what the spirit of slavery is never known what these fears are, what the terrors of conscience are, in at least some measure, has no idea what Christ has suffered on his behalf, or what he has been delivered from, and thus will have no reason to fall on Christ as his only hope. First you must receive that spirit, and only then will you receive this spirit of adoption. Now, we need to expound on that for just a moment. Seven chapters worth, actually. You understand how hard it is to get seven chapters of wonderful information into one lesson? Especially for me. The degree to which this spirit of slavery and fear is experienced does vary considerably in intensity. The experience is absolutely a necessity, but there is no standardized experience as it were. Not everyone is a wretched man in their conversion experience as was the man in chapter 7. Not every man spends 18 months wishing that he were dead as John Bunyan did. Some are more like the Ethiopian eunuch who heard the word from Philip and immediately said, here is water, what does hinder me to be baptized? That's pretty instantaneous. Yes? I do see, and I don't know the answer to that other than the fact that I don't think the Holy Spirit was here prior to that because he only fell on those apostles. okay but you know if I knew an answer to that I would if I want to answer that nobody was there okay okay uh... the scripture does not say that one must be brought to the deepest of agonies just that one must know something of this spirit of slavery and fear which is produced by the Holy Spirit Now, somebody says, what about those that are brought up in Christian homes with Christian parents and nurtured in the scriptures practically from birth, many not even sure of a certain time that they were brought to salvation? They have no gross sins to speak of, have never been violent sinners. Is it right to say that even they must have known this spirit of slavery and fear? Now those who question such things do so because they do not read their Bibles and only follow their own feelings about such matters. We know, especially those that were with us through Romans chapters 1 through 5, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is the ultimate sin. All the other sins are only symptoms of the ultimate sin. Failure to glorify God is the ultimate sin. Failure to believe on the Son is the ultimate sin. He even says that's what the Spirit is coming to convict us of. He says, convict us of sin. It is failure to believe in the Son. Scripture teaches us that prior to our justification by faith alone, the very act of breathing was sin for us because we were at enmity with God. Simple as that. Scripture is clear that we are either for him or against him. And if we are not for him, every act, every thought, every word is sin. So yes, even those who were blessed from the womb must still know the conviction of the Holy Spirit of slavery and fear. Otherwise, they will live their lives never truly knowing just what it was that they were saved from. and thus never knowing the deep, deep love of Jesus. Don't you love that song? I do. The number and severity of sins committed is not what determines the presence or absence of this spirit of slavery and fear. It's a well-known story. If you will turn with me to Luke chapter 7, we were only doing two verses, we're doing an entire parable this morning. Luke chapter 7, starting with verse 36. It's a better known statement found in Luke that deals with exactly this matter. And one of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said to him, Simon, I have something to say to you. And he answered, say it teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors. One owed 500 denarii and the other 50. And when they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more? Simon answered, the one, I suppose, for whom he canceled the larger debt. And he said to him, you have judged rightly. Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven. For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins are forgiven. Now, there's a gross error regarding this passage that everyone here has no doubt heard at some point in a sermon, that this is a woman who had been living a very evil and immoral life. Simon, on the other hand, had lived a relatively good life. Therefore, since she had sinned so much more and been forgiven of so much more, she loved so much more. That teaching borders on blasphemy. that the more we sin, the more we shall be forgiven, and thus the more we will love God." That is obviously not Christian in any sense of the word. What is Jesus teaching here? What matters is not the amount of sin we have committed. What matters is our realization of our sinfulness. The one who realizes the extent of sinfulness. will therefore realize the extent of forgiveness. That is the one who will love much. That is the one who will seek harder. That is the one who will gather more frequently. That is the one who will hunger and thirst more fervently. This realization of sin is possible and necessary regardless of one's upbringing. possible because of the work of the Holy Spirit and necessary in light of its alternative. The alternative that has been around from the very beginning, the patristics call it fetism. You may have heard it also called easy-believe-ism, meaning that one simply affirms out loud that you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died for your sins, and then you go about your business. as that's all that's required. This is the popular belief system of American Christianity today and has been the majority belief for the last almost hundred years. Characterized by a heart-rending sermon on the fires of hell followed by an emotional arm-twisting altar call and 27 courses of Just As I Am. Next thing you know, mamas are shoving their kids into the aisles so that they'll go forward and repeat a sinner's prayer that is found nowhere in the Bible and then they are pronounced to be children of God by a preacher that should have spent less time preaching and more time studying his Bible. Emotionalism and decisionism have unfortunately replaced the work of the spirit of slavery and fear in the American church and the results of that are plain for all to see. There is little love because there is little realization of sin. Fear of hell is not conviction of sin. That is self-preservation and is no less selfish than the rest of the sinner's life. Peer pressure is not conviction of sin. Parental manipulation is not conviction of sin. Emotionalism is not conviction of sin. None of these can save because they do not deal with the problem that you need to be saved from. Conviction of sin, of the righteousness of God and of the coming judgment, are the only motivators to true repentance. This is the very reason that from the very beginning of the church the apostles warned of false conversions and exhorted men to examine themselves. Even the Old Testament prophets were constantly warning God's people to be on guard against false prophets and false teachers. Examine yourself, Paul told the Corinthians, to prove to yourselves that you really are in the faith. because from where I am standing, he says, it doesn't really look like some of you are. Now, he didn't come out and say they weren't. He said it just don't look like it from where I'm at. You need to check it out. Such is the purpose of New Testament self-examination. And if we cannot stand the testing and examination of the New Testament, then there is something seriously wrong with us. And so we repeat that this negative is, as it were, of utmost importance. The Spirit produces this spirit of slavery and fear. It is His work. He does it. He always does it. How can we be possibly happy about ourselves if we have to say honestly that we have never known anything of this Spirit? Whatever our upbringing, whatever you might have been or done, does not make the slightest difference at all. God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. What produces the spirit of slavery and fear is not your upbringing, is not the number of sins you have committed, is not the sheltered life you may have lived. It is your relationship to God and your knowledge of God. Those who are most aware of their sinfulness, those who are most aware of the love of God and forgiveness, are not necessarily those who have been drunkards or murderers or adulterers. It is those who have the greatest knowledge of God, of His holiness and righteousness, of their own sinfulness and their absolute need, of what has been done alone through God's dear Son, and especially by His death on the cross. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. And so we come to the spirit of adoption. The mere fact that we have had the spirit of slavery and fear is a very good test of our sonship because as we have said the spirit of slavery always precedes the spirit of adoption George Whitefield possibly England's greatest evangelist said first we hear the voice of Moses the voice of the law the only way to Mount Zion is through Mount Sinai that is the negative aspect now we turn to the positive is those who are sons of god who have been delivered from the spirit of slavery and fear he says for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear you did receive it once but that is not what you have received now in other words one of the characteristics of the sons of god is that they no longer have that spirit of slavery and fear that has gone it has been replaced by the spirit of adoption But you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father." This is not a new thought. This is the same thought that Paul has stated over and over again through chapter 5, 6, and 7, culminating in this chapter with the fact that there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The important point being that the Christians should have lost the spirit of slavery and veer. Now, we for certain need to contrast that fear with reverence and godly fear, because the two are not the same thing, not by any means. We're told that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. That is reverence and godly fear, okay? O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me? That is the spirit of slavery and fear. Okay, Isaiah, a man chosen by God, trained by God, anointed by God, when confronted with the glorious majesty of God face to face, what happened? He fell on his face and cried, I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. That is reverence and godly fear. For wherein we always remember who God is and what God is. We do not ever rush into the presence of God. As Cooper says every Sunday morning, we don't come to worship until we are what? Until we are called to come to worship. Okay? We do not presume. We do not presume on God's grace and love and kindness. Reverence is based on love. And godly fear is based on the fear that we may do something displeasing to God. not that we fear that he might punish us for something. There is no slavery in that kind of reverence and godly fear. We should never allow anything or anyone to bring us back to the point of slavery and fear. We have been freed from that. And so we turn to the second half of the verse, which tells us positively that we have also received the spirit of adoptions as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. And as is always Paul's way, he gives us the means and the ends. There's no longer just the absence of that other spirit. This is the positive blessing that results. This is the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba father. This is much stronger proof of our sonship than anything we have looked at thus far. It is an ascending scale. So as we've gone from chapter five, all the way through to here, it's an ascending scale, one on top of the other. Okay. So the first thing he tells us is that the Holy Spirit himself produces this knowledge of our adoption. And he also produces the cry, Abba, Father. Paul is quite clear in Galatians that we looked at that it is the Holy Spirit himself who cries Abba, Father. But here he tells us that we cry Abba, Father. So how? By the Holy Spirit. Okay, it is the Holy Spirit that leads us to cry, Abba, Father. He urges us to cry out, Abba, Father. Secondly, we look at the character of the proof that is provided by the Spirit of our Sonship. It is important that we be clear about the nature and character of this proof. Now, this is about to get above my pay grade, and I'll explain that to you in a minute. This nature and character is something which belongs to the realm of feeling and subjectivity and emotions. It is something within us at a deeper level than the level of the intellect. In other words, this does not result from certain actions on our part. It is the spirit that produces it in us. It is not something that you can persuade yourself of. We can test ourselves, examine ourselves to see if we are being led by the Spirit, to see if Christ is in us and so many other spiritual things, but that is not the position here. This is not in the realm of intellectual argument or demonstration. It is something of which one becomes conscious. It is comparable to what we know about human love. you do not persuade yourself that you are in love else you are not in love. If you have to persuade yourself you're not in love. This is not a matter of persuasion. It is something that you know. You become conscious of it. It is thoroughly subjective and it is produced by the operation of the Holy Spirit. So what is he telling us? He says that it is a spirit of adoption. meaning that it is a consciousness of the fact that we have been adopted into the family of God. We know that adoption is a legal process that often comes at a great price and must follow many laws, many regulations, lots of paperwork, every I dotted, every T crossed. So an adopted child can know and have proof that they are a legally adopted child. And yet, It will never become truly real and active until they feel as if they are the child of these new parents. So we have the proof. We have God's word on our adoption that we are sons of God. But we must also be conscious of it and feel it. There must be the spirit of adoption in us as the result of the work of the Holy Spirit. So Paul is really telling us that what we are to feel here, what Christ himself felt. Again, Galatians 4 and 6. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And you notice he didn't say there, he didn't say the Holy Spirit. He says the spirit of his son into your hearts. That is deliberate. in order to make us conscious of the fact that as a result of this action of God in our adoption we have in a sense a standing in the side of God comparable to that of his own son. So what we have here in this spirit of adoption is that we should be aware of the fact that God as it were has placed us alongside his very own son. He is our brother. He has made himself our brother, the firstborn of many brethren. Thirdly, we see that this spirit of adoption is a matter of our feelings towards God. Not merely that we believe the teaching of the scriptures about these things. Much more than that is involved. We really know it. We really feel it. Now, there are variations in the intensity of this feeling. Some have more intensity of feelings in general than others, which is why I said this is above my pay grade. But there must be some measure of this feeling if we really have the spirit of adoption. We love him because he first loved us. This spirit of adoption means that statements in scripture about our relationship to God as his children means that we not only accept them with our minds and feel and know that they are wonderful, but this goes even beyond that. The spirit of adoption means that they warm your heart as well as your mind and your imagination. They move you and you are aware of being moved. Like a child is moved by the expressions of love on the part of a parent. That is a very good way of testing whether you have the spirit of adoption. This spirit speaks to our new relationship to God. We no longer simply believe in God. Even the demons believe in Tremble. We all know that. The man who has the spirit of adoption is most certainly orthodox. But he goes far beyond orthodoxy. He has a feeling of love toward God. He delights in God. He knows something about enjoying God. Chief end of man is to glorify God and to what? There you go. It is this feeling that we enjoy, that nothing can ever harm us, that he holds all things in his hands. that He will always provide for us, that all the promises He made to us are true. Not only do we believe it with our minds, we now feel it as well, and we now have a sense of rest and peace and joy. And this spirit of adoption results in our crying, Abba, Father. Two words, Aramaic and Greek, signifying that God is the father of not only the Jews, but also the father of the Gentiles. That's one truth, okay? There's a whole bunch of stuff out there about these two words, like pages and pages of stuff, okay? That's one truth. Not only is he the father of the Jews, he's also the father of the Gentiles. Abba was the word used by Jewish children when talking to their fathers. Sort of like the word Papa or Daddy. Don't take that too far. A child's word used by all children of the Jewish race. Now importantly, is the fact that slaves amongst the Jews were never allowed to use this term with regard to a free man. Only the children of a free man were allowed to use the term Abba. The slave children were not allowed to use the term. So in using it, Paul reminds us that we are no longer slaves. Pretty simple. No longer under the spirit of slavery and fear. Jesus used this phrase in the garden, Mark 14, 36, and he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. He used this phrase as he was sweating great drops of blood at the time of his greatest agony. This is the cry he uttered and this is the cry that says Paul that comes out of the heart of the one who realizes that he has been adopted as a child of God. We cry Abba Father, meaning a loud cry, an expression of deep emotion, all of which implies a real knowledge of God. God is no longer a distant God, something out there somewhere. To cry Abba Father means that we are speaking to someone that we know, not just a God in whom we believe intellectually, theologically, or doctrinally only. All of that stuff is possible even for the demons. This purely academic kind of belief is possible even for demons. But to the Christian, God is no longer a distant God. He was distant once. But Paul rejoices in the fact that God is no longer someone in the distance. He becomes someone that we know. He is a God to whom we have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The relationship we have now is one of a child and a parent. Yes, he is in the heavens. Yes, he is omnipresent. but he is also near and he approaches us as his children and so we cry Abba father both together don't ever separate the two God is not daddy God is our heavenly father okay calling God daddy is a blasphemy in my opinion he is the father but he is a father whom we now know and who knows us and who loves us so that by the Spirit we can now cry not just Father but Abba Father. Two together, okay? This is real Christianity. I say that because I went to a Christian camp when I was a kid and that was the camp leader's main thing was every time he prayed he said, Daddy. And I was a 10-year-old heathen and I knew better than that. Okay? Don't do that. This is real Christianity. Yet we are often more interested in our own activities and our own problems. How to be delivered from this or that sin. How to have guidance. How to have this or that. All while missing out on the most glorious element of our salvation. That being our personal relationship to God. The ultimate object of salvation is not to keep us from hell. It is not merely to deliver us from certain sins. The object is that we may enjoy our adoption. That we may become children of God and joint heirs with Christ. To see God and while in this life, to know God intimately as our Father and to cry, Abba, Father. This is what is offered to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. God forbid that any of us should stop at any point short of that. Let's pray. Father God. You have shown us in your word those things which you have promised us. Those things which you have offered to us in your great plan of our salvation. and for your glory. Father, I pray that you would help us to cease reaching for the offerings of those temporal things that cannot satisfy and focus more and more and more on the eternal things. You have given us a new heart. You have given us a new life. Grant us grace to live as such. to your glory and to the praise of our Lord and Savior and your Son, Jesus Christ. For it is in his name we pray. Amen.