Romans 8:12-17

Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church iconCoram Deo Reformed Baptist Church

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It's been quite a fun ride up to now, three
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Romans, not necessarily a fun ride, it's been a long time, we've spent several weeks, but I'll start in verse 1.
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There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the
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Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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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 for sin, he condemned 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
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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
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Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
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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.
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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You however are not in the flesh, but in the
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Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the
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Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the
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Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the
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Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your moral bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
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So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
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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.
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For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the
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Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,
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Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
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And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may be glorified with Him.
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Starting back in verse 12, it says, So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
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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.
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We have been bought with a price by Christ, His life.
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So Paul here is saying that we should not be working towards the lusts of the flesh any longer.
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We owe no obedience to the flesh. Paul has labored this point numerous times.
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We consciously have no reason as saints to sin.
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Though our flesh does, we owe no obedience any longer to the flesh.
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We do it because our flesh is corrupt, because our flesh still enjoys it.
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But in no manner, under no circumstance, can you use any sort of excuse with God. Now that you're a saint, you owe your obedience to God.
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These verses in 12 and 13 should sound oddly familiar.
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Like I said, this is a point that has been labored numerous times by Paul. In Romans 6, verses 20 and 22, he says,
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For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regards to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from things of which you are now ashamed?
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For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification, and it's end eternal life.
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The point that Paul is making in both passages is that, as I said before, we're no longer under any obligation to sin.
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Now that we know our sin and can recognize it, we can see when we are about to sin, we ought to see that it is unfruitful, that it is offensive to God.
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And because we can recognize that, we ought not do it. We should labor constantly to be obedient, not because it will get us anything.
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We've already gotten everything by grace, but because we wish to be obedient because of what it has done for us.
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He says, But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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He's referring to saints here. He's not referring to a really unbiblical attempt at legalism.
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He's talking about those people that can do that. Remember, just earlier in verse 8, he said,
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Unbelievers cannot be obedient. They cannot please God. The only people that can are people that are indwelt by the
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Holy Spirit and are inclined to the things of God. Those that are indwelt by the
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Holy Spirit, they're being sanctified, the fruit of which, one of the fruits of which is a progressive ability to fight against the sins of the flesh.
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Those that display these characteristics, those are the children of God.
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See, the evidence of the Holy Spirit working in you is in part in that moment when you recognize sin, when you see it, when you have that urge or that inclination to do a certain thing, and you recognize that it's sin, and you avoid it.
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It's not that moment when you go, Oh man, I could walk into this bar and not drink.
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That will show strength of will. It's in those moments where you have those issues and you avoid going to that place at all.
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One of the markers of a life lived according to the Spirit is a love for the truth, an unending obsession with it, and it will progressively get worse.
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Not worse, but it's stronger the older you get in your
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Christian life. This also comes with a love of correction.
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Now, this doesn't always come into play in the moment. We do still live in our flesh, and at times we dislike being corrected, but overall, a love of finding fault in your life.
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Having that fault, that sin, that flaw in your logical thinking pointed out.
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Enjoying that becomes a mainstay in your life because you care more about God's truth than you do about your own feelings, so you continue to find those things that don't belong.
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Those things that are sinful, you remove them from your life. Not just sinful actions, but sinful thoughts also, as well as flawed thinking, logic.
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The trouble with these things is that we don't know where they are, especially with thoughts.
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Some, super plain, adultery, lustful thoughts. If you think about doing sinful things, those are obvious.
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The flaws in how you think about things, your worldview, when those are corrected, you don't know where those are.
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Flaws in your theology. You don't necessarily know where they are until they're pointed out.
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He continues in verse 14. He says, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
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I want to make a point here because there seems to be quite some issue with, honestly, how the modern church understands being led by the
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Spirit. We use terms that are commonplace.
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Terms such as, I was called to do such a thing. I was led to do such a thing.
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Most commonly, it's everyday things. I was really led to go to Starbucks today.
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Sometimes it's accompanied with, there was a man there, and he really needed the gospel, and I shared it with him, and it was a great time.
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That is wonderful. Providentially, you were supposed to be at Starbucks.
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You know how I know? Because God is sovereign, and nothing at all happens in his universe without him ordaining it.
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Some people refer to it as providence. That doesn't necessarily mean that the
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Holy Spirit took you by the hand, made you think about Starbucks, and made you go to Starbucks.
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But that's how people use that term. I can think of one specific pastor who felt called to go and park in a certain parking space and get a specific turkey at a certain grocery store at a specific time.
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That is not what Paul means. Your whole life sits in providence.
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Everything that you will do as a saint, God has ordained for you to do already.
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He says so in his word. It's not a random world that he leads you through.
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So how does the Spirit lead us? What does Paul mean? Because he obviously says those who are led by the
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Spirit. He gives us an image of this in 1
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Thessalonians 4, verse 3. But in verse 1 he starts, he says,
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He says,
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Great praise coming from Paul.
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That you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the
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Lord Jesus. Through the Lord Jesus. Verse 3 says, And then he goes on to further expound sanctification.
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That is the will of God for your life. So if you've ever had a question, what is God's will for my life?
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Did it include getting this job or that job or picking boba or jamba juice or Starbucks coffee or fixing your coffee at home?
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Yes it did. How do I know? Because you did it. If it wasn't
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His will, you wouldn't have done it. But His will for your life is for you to be sanctified.
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We don't know how that plays out beforehand. And we don't know for a reason. Do you think that all of the saints in their sanctification in church history that were martyred, had known exactly, exactly moment for moment what was going to happen in their life?
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What would that have done to them? They're saints, so they would have done it anyway. There are reasons why
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God doesn't tell us exactly what's going to happen in our life, and that's okay. And we should be okay with the fact that He knows.
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And we get to see retrospectively the things that He's done in our life. And when you get asked that question, especially as a saint, if you're having a friendly conversation and someone says, hey, what is that thing in your life?
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Is there anything in your life you regret that you go back and you change? Your answer ought to be, no.
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Because even the worst moment in your past was ordained so that you would end up where you are.
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Paul then goes on to state the true nature of our relationship with God. All of the analogies that Paul uses throughout the
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Scriptures are absolutely and utterly correct. Absolutely. Slaves of Christ, servants of God, debtors of the
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Spirit, all 100 % correct analogies.
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How do I know? Because they're in Scripture. Because God said them.
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But if you notice, they all display an obligation to leadership.
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Being a slave. Being a servant. Being a debtor.
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You are obligated to someone. Just as you are as a son who is obligated to his father.
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You are a son of the one that you follow after. We are sons of God because we follow after the
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Holy Spirit who leads us, who works in us to make us obedient to the
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Father. Because we are obedient, we are
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His sons. He continues with this in 15.
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He says, Now I want to point out,
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Abba is an Aramaic word. When the New Testament was written, it was written in Greek.
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And yet, Paul sees the significance to put both the
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Greek and the Aramaic there. Being therefore adopted as sons and daughters of God, Paul says that we did not receive a spirit that would lead us back into our old ways.
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A spirit that would cause us to be afraid of God's wrath. But rather a spirit, the spirit of adoption.
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We are all familiar with the concept of adoption.
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Let's say there is a child. This happens all over the world every day.
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There is a child somewhere who is in the system or on the streets.
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And they are led around by fear and by their obligation to sin.
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That's normal human beings in general. Imagine having no family at all. No one to guide you.
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But then a father comes along. A father who already has a perfect son.
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Comes along and he rescues that child. And takes upon himself the responsibility to raise and protect that child.
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That's adoption. Thousands and thousands of Christian families practice this across the world every day.
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Why? Because we know what it's like. We know what it is like to be adopted.
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The relationship that we share with God truly is one of adoption.
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There is only one begotten. Jesus Christ. There is no other like Him.
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And there will never be anyone like Him. He is truly, truly the
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Son of God. But we get to count ourselves as His adopted brethren.
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The Father from eternity past chose those that He would adopt to be His children. And follow after His true
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Son. Our Lord and Savior. We express this in our
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Confession. Chapter 12. And it's the only thing in Chapter 12. Paragraph 1.
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It says, All those that are justified God conferred in and for the sake of His only
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Son, Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption, by which they are taken into the number and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God, have
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His name put on them, receive the spirit of adoption, have access to the throne of grace, with boldness, are enabled to cry,
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Abba, Father, are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him, as by a father, yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises as heirs of everlasting salvation.
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He truly treats us like His children. Because we are. He protects us.
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He provides for us. And when we need it, we are chastened.
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We are disciplined. As we read before, some He allows to fall into their sin momentarily, so that they will see their own corruption.
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Others, the same corruption, He uses to harden them. That part of our
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Confession has 18 references in Scripture. Here's one. It's in the first chapter of John, right after the part that everyone remembers.
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Verses 9 -13. This is the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
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He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive
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Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name,
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He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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John is talking about those who are born of the Spirit. He's talking about the elect.
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We must understand the true privileges and grace that our Father gives us, and give thanks for them every single time that we pray.
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I know that it's become quite cliche to say that you have a personal relationship with God, especially in modern church culture, because of what is meant when people say that.
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I have a personal relationship with Jesus. Truly, truly, saints do.
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But we understand it in the true context of what that means. You have a
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Holy Spirit. You have the Holy Spirit living inside you, conforming you to the image of Christ, the preeminent
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Son. As the apostles say, as we confess in our confessions, you can approach the throne with boldness and cry out,
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Abba, Father. This is a new concept, by the way. This is something that they hated
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Jesus for when He talked about it. Now, truly, He was the Son of God, so when
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He meant my Father, He truly meant my Father. But because of Him, we also can truly say my
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Father. That doesn't set us equal or coeternal as it does when
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Christ says it, but we can truly say it with boldness.
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I want to point out for a second in marriage. This is not off -topic, I promise. But in a marriage, you have an intimate relationship with another human being, your wife, your husband.
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And in a marriage that is doing well biblically, there are no secrets. You and your wife are both doing your best to be a biblical husband, be a biblical wife, to follow the example set by Christ and His church, and to show your children what marriage is supposed to look like and what they should be looking for in a spouse later on in life.
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This is a person that you share your entire life with. There is no amount of intimacy in a marriage that I think that can compare with the intimacy that you share with the
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Holy Spirit. Your wife doesn't know what you think. Your husband doesn't know the inner workings of your heart.
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They aren't with you every second of every day. They do not incline you to God's Word.
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They do not convict you when you sin. Now, sometimes when your wife gets the chance, she will, but if you want to talk about a personal relationship and that's not personal enough, then you need to redefine the word personal, how you look at the word personal.
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You cannot get more personal than that. In verse 16, he says,
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The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
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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.
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I want for a second to take notice that Paul has brought forth this idea of witnesses.
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What do witnesses do? They give testimony. They testify.
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They witness an event, and then they testify about it. In our modern legal standard, if you get enough witnesses and they all tell a similar story, it's obviously that guy did it.
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If you have 10 people saying that so -and -so committed a crime and their stories are similar, it's a safe bet that so -and -so did the crime.
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That's how our legal system works. We didn't invent this, by the way. Deuteronomy 19, in verse 15, it says,
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A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed.
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Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
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This is a civil law to govern the Jews, the Israelites, just before they enter
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Canaan. Right? We copied that civil law.
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Most countries, whether they know it or not, have copied this example.
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This is not the only time that this appears in Scripture. It's actually a standard. It continues in the church today.
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In 1 Timothy 5, verse 19, it says,
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Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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Same standard. One person cannot come and make a claim and everybody go crazy.
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You have to have more than one corroborating witness. You have to have someone to corroborate the story.
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Because it could just be that that person has a personal grievance and has decided to make up a lie to get this person in trouble.
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Happens all the time. How do I know? Because human beings are evil at heart and they lie.
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Matthew 18, verse 15. It says, If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
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If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. You fixed it. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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Sounds familiar. This is Christ and Matthew talking about an exercise in church discipline.
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In 2 Corinthians 13, verse 1, it says,
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This is the third time I am coming to you. First of all, 2 Corinthians. You can tell
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Paul was not happy. This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
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You can then move all the way towards the end of the book in Revelation. What do you have? Two witnesses. I think we've established this.
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Two witnesses is a Biblical standard of understanding things.
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Two people. Luckily, by the grace of God, we have four
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Gospels, not two. He doubled the standard for us, for the world.
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Do you know the standard of two witnesses? Here's four. I mean, four people saying the same story.
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You know what? The standard of two witnesses has been established for a very, very long time. Now, the thing to notice is that Paul says these two witnesses are the
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Holy Spirit and our human spirit. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit.
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How does this work? What do you mean, Paul? Well, he does it by his work.
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He does it by his work in you and by the inspired word, the
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Scriptures. He wrote them, the inspired word, and he causes you to read them and understand them.
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And because of this, internal experiential work inside of you that you see, that you can look back in your past at the old man and see how different you are from then, even to this moment.
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You're experiencing that. And because of the external objective truth of his word, this is what testifies that indeed you are a child of God.
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You see, he tells us in his word what a true Christian acts like and thinks like.
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He tells us exactly what we should be looking for. He tells us the fruit of the
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Spirit. A person will display these characteristics if they are in what with the
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Holy Spirit. And then, he causes us to act and think in the same fashion.
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And then, he inclines us to the word of God where we go and read exactly how a true
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Christian ought to act and think as confirmation that he is the one causing us to act and think in this manner so that we understand everything that I just said.
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That he wrote it down, caused us to act that way, and then caused us to read it as confirmation.
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All of this, by the way, over thousands of years. For us, not for all the saints.
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Because if you were not in what with the Holy Spirit, you would have no inclination to the word.
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You would have no inclination to the things of God. Not one thing.
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You may very well go to church. You may very well pray. You may very well do all of the things outwardly.
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That saints do in the church. You will not be doing them for God.
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It is not possible. How do we know that it's not possible? Because the
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Holy Spirit, and Paul just said so a couple of verses ago. Cannot. As I said before, when you look at how you used to be, and you look at how you are now, and you see those things written in the
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Scriptures, that is what gives testimony to you. That is what gives testimony.
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He then adds at the end of this passage. If children, then heirs.
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Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we also may be glorified with Him.
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I've taken up a good amount of time. Paul here correctly reasons that if we are children, if God truly considers us children, and we are truly in Christ, that it is very obvious then we must be heirs.
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And heirs with Christ in the promise. Co -heirs by grace with Christ, with Christ, and it being
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His divine right. The promise is Christ's divine right alone.
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The saints are co -heirs in it because we are with Him by faith. He takes us with Him to oversimplify it.
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We are heirs with the Lord Jesus, and we will share in the promise with Him of eternal blessings in a world made new, not lounging around playing harps, then what and how we ought to have been.
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I'll leave you with this quote from Martin Luther. It says,
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This is but a little word, and yet notwithstanding, it comprehendeth all things.
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The mouth speaketh not, but the affection of the heart speaketh after this manner.
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Although I be oppressed with anguish and terror on every side, and seem to be forsaken and utterly cast away from thy presence, yet I am thy child, and thou art my
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Father for Christ's sake. I am beloved because of the