I feel like I'm coming to my second home here. There's so many friendly faces I know here and love here. So it's a delight to come again to preach here at Harvest and to be able to fill this pulpit of men. Man, I really respect, I've been very thankful and blessed to get to know not only Dale, but to be able to get to know Wayne and Pastor Greg and Pastor Adrian and to get to know intern Mark Scaturro and all the staff here. So it's just a delight. Thank you for letting me come again to preach here. I think you guys do it for my sake more than your sake. But again, thank you for showing me that kindness. Please turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and we'll be reading from verses 12 to 17. Again, it's Romans chapter 8, 12 to 17. This is... This is a text that's very close to the heart of myself, the idea of sonship, adoption, but for harvest, harvest is very committed church for adoption. I think that's beautiful and it's very biblical and we'll see it tonight from Romans 8, 12 to 17. So then, brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Please join me in prayer that the Lord would bless the reading and the preaching of his word. Sovereign, majestic Lord, there are beautiful, glorious words on these pages. I, as a vessel of clay, am not able to give full expression to the beauty of these. So, Lord, I pray that through the power of the true preacher of this word, which is not myself, the Holy Spirit, may you thunder, may you boldly exclaim, may you show the beautiful vistas and truth in these passages. May we hear of Jesus and keep me from all error, that you would be glorified and that your people would know your truth. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. I had a good friend of mine from seminary who struggled with the concept of a father, a dad. When he read scripture and he saw the words of father or dad, he misheard them. He misheard them because his dad was an abusive, physically abusive man. He was a drunk. So when he thought of the idea of a father, he thought of it as a distant, cold, hurtful idea. He even said one time to me on an aside, he said, it almost feels like it's a cuss word. How is it good that God is father. It was through the relationships he had at seminary and through friends and through actually through his church that he grew to understand and to see through those men what it could look like to actually be a father, what it actually could mean for God to be father, to be such a rich and beautiful concept. And this can be true for us. We can read our experience. maybe with our dad or mom or family. We can read our experience and read it into God and think, God must think these things of me. Paul intends to provide us comfort and assurance in this passage, but we could read this passage when we see words like, we are called to put to death the things of the flesh, or you will die. We could easily read into that and think, well, this is a command. Are you putting to death the deeds of the flesh? Are you doing it right now? And you say to yourself, well, no, I'm not. All right, well, this is just going to be another procedure through all the ways I've failed God. We easily read commands in here. Paul's not trying to command us. He's trying to comfort us. He's trying to provide comfort. And we will find in this passage three things about adoption. We will see adoption as a triumphant life. It is a privileged life in a confident future. Three things. A triumphant life, a privileged life, and a confident future. The comfort of our sonship or our daughtership is with the perspective that the former life is truly in our past. And that our present life is that of being debtors. He says in verse 12, brothers, well brothers and sisters, we are debtors. Now when he says debtors, he's trying to say our present life is that of debtors. Not that we are in debt, but that we are obligated. We are set in an obligation. We are under a mastery. We're not independent people, but we have a master. Formerly, our master was sin and the devil. And we are obligated to sin and the devil. But we no longer are. We are under obligation or mastery of the Spirit and of the Father. You see, Paul was torn in chapter 7 between his former life and his present life. I'm not doing the things I ought to be doing. Actually, I'm doing the very things I don't want to do. What am I? Who's going to free me from this body of sin? How can I? I don't know what to do. I'm torn within myself. Maybe you feel that same way tonight. God, if I'm honest with myself, I'm not getting it done. I have failed you, Lord. And I still feel like I'm failing you, Lord. He's torn. You see, in chapter 8 here, verse 13, he says, 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. You see, the old life, the life of sin was death. Now when you think of death, you immediately think of a dead body. But you don't think in terms of destruction, that sin is is not helpful. Every time there is sin, there is just a harvest of destruction. What you say, what you think, it always affects us, and there's always a negative consequence to sin. That's the old life, and I've faced it, even condemnation. But he's established from verse 1 to 11 here in chapter 8, That Christ has set us free. He says four times, Paul says four times in 8 to 11, that we have been made alive in Christ by the Spirit. So he's talking about lively, joyful things here. That you have a vibrant, joyful life by the Spirit. That you are called to love what God loves and to hate what He hates. that we need to look at our sinful past as things that hurt us and separate us from God, we are called to live not according to the flesh, but to put to death the deeds of the body so that we can live in joy of the Lord. It's a lot like if you've ever dated. There's a lot of young people, so I'm assuming you guys understand the concept of dating. Have you ever dated? And that relationship is no more. You decided, hey, we're no longer date. What do you do? You unfriend that person on Facebook. You lose their number, right? That's kind of what Paul is asking you to do. Hey, that's your past. You're now united to Christ. Whatever that was, that's no longer you. Lose that phone number. unfriends that person on Facebook. That's no longer you, that's no longer part of your life. It's that this text right here in verse 13 that people misread John Owen. You've heard maybe that famous line from John Owen in the mortification of sin, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. And we misread that, we mishear that. We think that it's our job to take sin and kill it and put it to death, as if it's in our power to do something so profound. Except that sin has mastered us and is so powerful that if you are struggling with temptation normally, between you and temptation to sin, and yourself, who ends up winning most of the time? It's sin. So if you're thinking about what he's saying here, and it's a lot like John Owen, be killing sin or sin will be killing you, we misunderstand. We can't kill sin. How are we more than conquerors? It's because we are more than conquerors because of Jesus Christ. Jesus decisively dealt with our sin. According to Romans 6, he ended that, and that we are no longer slaves or in bondage to sin. I didn't kill sin. Jesus did a definitive work on the cross for me. I'm living in the victory. I'm a conqueror because of what Jesus has done. So when he says be killing sin or put to death the deeds of the body, he's saying live in the vitality that you've been given in Jesus Christ. and lose that phone number, unfriend, distance yourself with that former life because you're able to do that because Christ has won that victory from you. And it's all under the authority of God, the Holy Spirit. It's not your power that you're doing this, it's rather the power of the Holy Spirit. He says, for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The power for this life is not in you, it's in the Holy Spirit. It's using the analogy of a house. There's a master in the house, there are servants in the house, and there's children in the house. Now this verb here in verse 14, for all who are led by the Spirit, well, You'd have to be a bit of a Greek scholar to understand what it means by to be led. You are guided by the Holy Spirit. Okay, I got it. He is my guardian and custodian. The idea of being led here is the idea of a servant or a slave in the house of a master. They're given a job. Those children over there you're supposed to take care of and you are to guide them. You are to be a guardian to them and to lead them. And if you don't do a good job to lead them and care for them and guide them, who's going to be upset? It's the master of the house. It's going to be the father. It's the Holy Spirit who is guarding who? The sons and daughters. What Paul is saying is to be under that care, you have to be a son and daughter under that father. To be led and to be guided. You're not under your own authority. You're not under your own power. You're not under your own steam in this life. You're being guarded and cared for by the Holy Spirit. And it's His job to take care of you. You are saved not to just do a task, but really to a relationship where the Holy Spirit is your nanny. That's the idea. It's a nanny. He is there to hold your hand and says, precious little one, hold my hand as we cross the street. Avoid that dog right there. Avoid that little pit of sin right there. Now listen to my voice. We'll cross the street okay if you listen to me. My job is to care for you. This guiding is more of a nanny. This verb is very rich in that way. We're not under the power of sin. We're being guided by the Holy Spirit. I have some good friends of mine. They adopted a son from India. And what's interesting is this concept we love, idea of sonship, but it's a lot like my friends, because what happens at night when they first adopted this little boy is he'd wake up screaming and crying out. You see, he had seen and witnessed awful things in India. So even though he's in this safe place, he is adopted, he's being taken care of, he's still trying to overcome his past. and the things that have happened in his past. And so mom and dad would come and they would comfort him, stroke him on his back as he's crying. He says, it's okay, mom and dad are here. I love you. Now that reality takes time to come to grips that you could really sleep at night. You see, we understand this concept that we're taken care of by the Holy Spirit. But because of this past, because of this struggle with sin, as very much what Paul is saying in Romans 7, a present reality, it takes time for us to really come to grips that we are being guided and cared for. as children of God, led by the spirit of God, because we are children of God. You see, this is the life we are given. This is the triumphant life. But it's not only a triumphant life. Our adoption is also a very privileged life. This is my second point. Paul takes a step further that we're not just sons and daughters, but we've been adopted. Now, adoption in Rome is a very interesting thing. Why did Romans adopt? Most of the time, it wasn't because they feel like they want to have an extra kid in their family and they love babies. Oftentimes, the reason why they adopted was their own personal purposes. Think of Caesar, Julius Caesar. Why did he adopt his nephew, Caesar Augustus? because he wanted to continue his fame, his name. He wanted to continue his lineage. And they didn't really believe in an afterlife, so if you're going to continue your name, you need somebody who is named after you to continue it. That's why we have Caesar Augustus. Adoption was about your own personal gain. You didn't want your goods to be given over when you died to that brother or that sister. So you adopted somebody so everything stayed in your family and that your name continued down the line. It was an expensive, difficult thing. It was used for political gain. But what's interesting about Romans is Romans did not adopt slaves. Romans would not adopt a slave. That's not what they would do. But we hear in this text of somebody who does adopt a slave. You see, what would happen is, since slaves are not adopted, when they are, they're taken from a position of nobody noticing them. And they're brought into an elevated status and privilege. Only God does this. Not in that culture, not in the Roman Greek culture, but if you were to hear this as a Roman, As people from Rome, this is a book of Romans, right? They understand the culture. You would hear something that God does that no one else does. Wait a second, I'm a slave and I get to be called a child of God? I get to be taken from the bottom rung and get brought to the top rung? Who does that? Who is like that? No Roman I know would ever do that. Not with a slave. That's what our God does. It's a very immense privilege. We see three privileges in this way. In this text. He cares for us. We are secured. Look at verse 15. 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. We are secured. Slaves live in fear. They want to be accepted. They're fearful they're going to get punished. And back then, slaves would get beaten on their backs. They're afraid they're going to lose their job. We don't have a spirit of slavery. We have a new mindset. Yet, If we're honest with ourselves, if we have had a complicated family life, we read things wrongly into the situation. If we've ever had an unstable home or difficult parentage, our parents, our mom or dad, we can read in fear or condemnation or coldness that doesn't exist. We can make it seem like our relationship with God is drama, I sinned again. I messed up again. The spirit of slavery, right? He's mad at me. Lord, I'm sorry. I know what I did was wrong. Please do not be angry at me. Please do not be disappointed. And we feel like he is distant. We feel like he's withdrawn. We feel like he's giving us the cold shoulder. He says, look, I forgave you, but you know what you did. I gave my son for you." But you know what she did. We read in drama because that's the way our relationships are on this earth. We don't really understand grace. But these feelings are not from God. Christ died so that we could have this free life and the Holy Spirit has delivered it to us. We have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. That's not what we have on offer here. We don't just have a new mindset, but we have a new name because we are called and children of God. We are adopted as sons and daughters. We've received the spirit of adoption. The Holy Spirit gives us a new life. He awakens us in this new life, but a new relationship. We are no longer orphans as we were when we were under sin, or we were under the devil. The devil was an evil father. He was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, is what Jesus said. In today's context, you have two large reasons for adoption. Either there is a really bad situation, a child needs to be extracted from that, and put in a healthy family situation. Or the second reason is, parents really do love that child, and they know that they can't take care of it, so they give up that child for adoption out of love. The devil is not like that. The devil is not interested in love of taking care of you. God had to wrestle you out of the arms of the devil And the devil wasn't doing you any favors to bring you into an adopted relationship with God, to take you from the sinful world where your father was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, your father the devil, to bring you into a redeemed relationship, this adoption. God did this in a courtroom. Adoption is a legal, binding relationship. Adoption happens in a courtroom. So imagine, if you will, you're in a courtroom. The judge says to you, let me read the verdict. This person, I declare, is innocent. Do you know what we call that word? When someone is being declared, let me read what the jury has said. We find this person not Guilty. Do you know what that is called? That's called justification. They have been shown to be innocent. That is a relationship between a citizen and the government. This citizen had been shown to be innocent before this court of law, before the king, before the government. But then, stop the presses. Something unexpected happens. The judge takes off his powdered wig, takes off his robe, Walks down from the bench. He looks at the innocent person and he looks them in the eye. He takes a knee and he says, precious little one, you have been hurt. You've been damaged. I am going to adopt you. I'm going to take you home and you're going to be my child. That former relationship done to you, that did you no favors. I see you. I value you. You are going to be my child. This is a legally binding relationship. He takes you home. He gives you a new name where you are sharing in this adoption with Jesus Christ. You are being able to call yourselves a child of God. That is a name, an awesome name. On a side note, that's not what we normally call ourselves. Call ourselves stupid or idiot. What we have received is a spirit of adoption, where we are called children of God. We are given a great name that the only other name that is like this is Jesus Christ, and we share in the same name as Jesus, as children of the Lord. We have the same status, the same idea of who we are before God is as if we are Jesus. And all along, it's not just that. The Holy Spirit is there, called to take care of us, to nanny us. It's not just that we are adopted. Now we have the Holy Spirit right here, right now, to lead us, to guard us, to keep us going, to whisper in our ears, precious little one, You are now a child of God, and my job is to take care of you and to walk through this life with you. The third and final privilege is we get a close and intimate relationship. With the devil, with fallen families, we have seen cruel, distorted relationships. And if you've ever known somebody, or if you yourself has ever struggled in a difficult family situation, A hug from a father, like my friend, can be awkward. A pat on the back from a mom can feel like a ton of bricks. A big hug from a grandpa can seem weird. Intimacy can be weird. For the Jews, this would be weird, because in their mind, in the Old Testament, God as Father, we as children, was an analogy. But God is so holy and other, he is distant. It's merely analogy, not an actual thing. We find in the New Testament, as Jesus has revealed our relationship as deeper what it is, and he has died for it, that we would become sons and daughters. We find this is a reality. It's not an analogy. It's not a beautiful picture. It is what we possess. On the adoption papers, the ink that it's signed with is the blood of Jesus Christ. This is a reality for us. But for a Jew, this would be a very weird view. Jesus says, my desire, in John 17, 21, is that they may be one as we are one. I want for them to know the unity and intimacy that you and I know, Father, that they would have it too. This adoption is about intimacy. It's about unity. It's about closeness. Jesus says in Mark 14, 36, Abba, Father, if it's your will, would you let this cup pass from me? Where did we hear that language of Abba, Father? Well, wait, look in our passage. We have the spirit of adoption of sons by whom we cry Abba, Father. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones at this point makes a connection Jesus, who cries out, Abba, Father, and has that close relationship where he can cry out to God in the most excruciating pain, unburden his heart and call him Father, by being adopted, we get to say the exact same thing. We get to speak the words that Jesus spoke in an intimate relationship. This is a picture of what we actually possess with God. As if we're quoting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, Abba Father, I'm pouring out my soul before you, crying out in anguish. I can only do that, as Lloyd-Jones says, because I've been given that in my adoption. In Christ, the concept of a dad changes. We in pain and suffering, we can call out to the Lord. And is he cold? Is he distant? Well, was he that way with Jesus in the garden? Did he give him a cold shoulder? That's OK. You're meant to be strong. You're meant to be tough. Real men don't cry. Is that what happens? That happens in cultures, right? We're not to let people see us sweat. But with God, we get to cry out. That's our relationship. That is the adoption. That is what we possess in Jesus Christ. And He is near us. He is close to us. He has the comforts of the Holy Spirit with Him. We hear adoption is a triumphant life. We know adoption is a privileged life. But adoption is finally a confident future. What this adoption does is it gives you, sorry, something to look forward to down the road. We need to see ourselves as sons and daughters. And that is going to matter from this moment until the day I get to glory. I am confident that where I am sitting, if I'm in Jesus Christ, matters from this point till the time I get to heaven. It is ironclad. It is legally solid. We cannot be disowned in this relationship. We are more secured in Christ because of this adoption than if we were natural born children. The nature of adoption is A natural-born child can have that relationship severed. But legally, it's harder to separate an adopted child from the parent. It is more legally, profoundly solid. Now, what do we see in verse 16? The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Again, there is a legally binding thing being said here. What is a witness? A witness goes on the stand, they testify to some reality in the court of law, they are made to be honest and truthful, that what they say is the truth. You see, the Holy Spirit testifies publicly, legal, in a court of law, of what is real. You see, the Holy Spirit was an eyewitness. can testify because in that courtroom, in that event, what was the big event that we saw? It was at the cross, where Jesus was crucified for our sins. The Holy Spirit was there, saw it, right? That same Holy Spirit, who is an eyewitness, testifies to our spirit. He bears witness of the reality of the truth of what Jesus did for us. He is an eyewitness. And when our heart condemns us, or when Satan accuses us, and we have been brought to our knees because of trials, because of sufferings, but especially because of sin, where we have feel disowned, we've been broken by the evilness of our actions. The Holy Spirit stands up and says, I was there. I testified to the reality of this. This one, because of Jesus, this one is God's child. It is the greater truth. When we are like Paul in Romans 7, I don't do the things I want to do. I'm doing the very things I don't want to do. When I feel that I'm lost and I have failed and I'm falling away, the Holy Spirit stands up, testifies. You are a child of God. You are precious in the sight of the Lord. I love this passage in Zephaniah 3, 17, who says basically the same thing. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. You don't hear it, but that is fatherly language, quieting somebody by their love. That's what my friends did with their child who they adopted from India. It's holding that child on your lap, saying, holding them and gripping them. I love you as their tears are streaming down their face, quieting them with the love, dear precious one, I'm here. Or the language of Revelation 4 and 17, he'll wipe every tear from your eye. Who does that? Who is so careful and caring that even your tears are precious to them? And they wipe every tear from your eye. Precious little one, I'm here. I see you're valuable to me. Nobody but our God and God's courtroom. He's testifying of this in the courtroom of your heart. He's testifying. You are a child of God. So precious to him, so valuable to him. It's not just there in verse 16, it's 17, too. And if children and heirs, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him and or that we might also be glorified. I'm going to. I know I've thrown a bit at you, but think of this, we are joint heirs, we have equal rights. In Rome, if you're the firstborn, if you adopt, that's a rival to the inheritance. You don't want another person adopted because your inheritance gets diminished. But Jesus is not like that. Jesus wants us to be a joint heir. He says in John 17, I want them to be one like you and I are one. He has an interest that you would have these pleasures and these privileges. All the rights of Jesus is in heaven are mine, his reward, his status, his approval of the Father. So that when we see in Philippians 2, 9 that after Jesus has suffered, he was exalted into heaven. What we have to say to our hearts right here and right now is after I suffer and I will suffer and we will suffer here and now after that time, I will go to heaven. I will be like Jesus. And I will hear phrases like, well done, good and faithful servant. We will have honor. We will have joy. This will be all yours. But after a time of suffering, you are the children of God. If you don't yet know the Lord. You're struggling in this broken world, I'd encourage you to know Jesus Christ. Because that family relationship is so important. You will finally know what real, beautiful love is. And I would encourage you to know, to believe in Jesus Christ. Please pray with me. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for my friends here, that you have adopted so many of them, that they would know that they are comforted by their adoptions. That adoption is beautiful, and that what you have done with adoption is beautiful. And I pray, Father, that we would be comforted in the face of evil of this world, in the face of our sin, that Jesus is greater than our sin through the cross, that the Holy Spirit's testimony of what Jesus has done is greater than our sin, And if any of my friends here don't yet know that, Lord, please give them that joy and that hope. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. I'd ask that you would stand for our final song as we reflect and we rejoice that Christ is our hope in life and in death. And what will lead us to the end? Oh Oh A music of the drum song, God is good, God is good. Praise His grace and work is done. In our faith we keep His word. Close our gaze with tears of gladness. Who shakes the waves and brings the sun to the shore of Aquitaine. Oh He will lead us to the Lord, and sin and death will be destroyed, and He will lead us to the end of time, and Christ will rise forevermore. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave Hear the Lord's blessing. Fear not, O Zion. Let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. Amen.