For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children and heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. Well, it was nice having the children sing to us this morning. You know, one of the interesting things about children, most children, is that they have a tremendous sense of entitlement. I don't know if you've noticed that. Your children eat your food and they think they're entitled to it. They sleep under the roof that you provide and they think that your money, they're entitled to your money to buy clothes for them and they'll even have the audacity to ask for toys as well. They feel entitled to those things and that entitlement doesn't grow up as they get older. They are perfectly willing to take advantage of your wealth and to take provisions from your wealth. But then as they get older, you'll see them going around the house and thinking about what they ultimately might gain full possession of. You know, if you go to some homes, you'll find that underneath certain items are little stickers with the names of relatives or siblings. They're planning and plotting for a full possession of what you have. They actually feel entitled to it. To some extent, you know, it's okay. It's all right. It's the right thing to do because they are entitled. They're entitled to a provision in the present out of your wealth, and they're also entitled one day to coming into the full possession of your wealth as well, at least in a normal family that's the case, because, well, your children are your heirs. They're your heirs. And by the way, I recommend families that you're plotting and thinking about what it is. Parents, something of what you want to leave your children. Not only memories, but something to tag those memories to. Some endowment that you want to give them. And you're working towards that end. And if you do, you're doing something God-like. Because God says He has heirs as well. And He's preparing something for us. Things that He wants to endow with us. How wonderful. That God calls those who know the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior, as heirs. We are children of God. And if you're a child of God, then you are an heir of God. And I want to emphasize two truths to you today. And we'll look at this probably over the next couple weeks. Because we won't have time to go into this in great detail. But I want to emphasize to you two elements of this idea of being heirs of God. And the first one is, because we're heirs of God, we have an expectation for provision in the present hour out of the resources or wealth that belongs to God. And the other thing, because we're heirs of God, we not only have an anticipation or an expectation of provision out of the wealth of God, but we also have an anticipation of the full possession of it one day. Both things are ours. So this is what I want to focus on. This is what I want to look on and us to consider. But the first thing, let me just give you a couple of preliminary thoughts from what we read here. We have just a couple of words here that we should focus on right at the beginning. It says, If children, then heirs. And the only thing that qualifies you to be an heir, one who is endowed upon the right to inherit all the wealth of God, is that you have to be a child of God. It says if children. It doesn't say if a good person. It doesn't say if possessed with a positive mental attitude or outlook upon life. It doesn't say if you are possessing superior moral qualities to your neighbor, or if you were baptized as an infant, or if you were baptized as an adult, or if you've partaken of the sacraments. It doesn't say any of those things. It says if a child. if a children of God. So there's only one thing that qualifies you to be an heir of God and that is we have to be children of God. That's just a simple notion but sometimes it's easy to bypass. Let me also say to you that if suggests that there are some who are children of God and that there are clearly some who are not children of God. So it says if children of God then heirs of God but it could also read this way if not children of God then not heirs of God. It's a limitation to who it is that will enter into and experience the wealth and outpouring of all that God has. Paul is speaking about being children of God, not in the sense that we're all created by God, in that sense, God is the father of all, but he's speaking of that unique sense in which we're children of God by the new birth. The Lord Jesus said, when Nicodemus came to him at night, Lord Jesus in John 3 told Nicodemus at the very beginning of their conversation, unless a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now that's interesting because one of the things we're told to be heirs of as the heirs of God is we're told to be heirs of the kingdom. Jesus said, well, you'll never even see the kingdom unless you're born again. So he's speaking about not simply being a child of God because you're made by God and he created you as he created all men and all things, but speaking uniquely, not to that kind of universal family of humanity, but he's speaking to those who belong to God as children of God by way of adoption, which is what we read in this passage. Something that's come along later in life and by way of the new birth being born again. John actually tells us how a person is born again. He says it in John chapter 1. He says that the Lord Jesus in John chapter 1 came unto his own and his own received him not, but to as many as received him. To those who believed on his name he gave the right or the power to become the children of God. it was through their believing and there it explains to us that saving believing, saving faith is a receiving faith. We can take that and put that to another thing that John wrote in Revelation chapter 3 verse 20 in which John is speaking through the Spirit to the churches and he's delivering a message from the Lord Jesus to the churches. If you open up your Bibles there you'll see if you have a red letter edition that This portion of the book of Revelation is written in red letters. In there, the very last word in verse 19 of Revelation 3 is repent. And then it says in verse 20, Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come into him and I'll sup with him and he with me. There you have a description of repentance and receiving belief or faith. It's not just an intellectual understanding. It's not an intellectual acknowledgment. It's the acknowledgment of the mind that opens a heart or life to receive in fullness Christ for who He is. Christ come, live in me, abide in me, stamp your life in me, be my Savior, be my Lord. As many as received Him who believed on His name. We'll see in a moment that His name is the name of salvation. To those He gave the right to become or the power to become the children of God. And so, not everybody Not everybody is a child of God in that way. Only those who believed in Christ in this way and put their faith completely in Him. The third thing I want to see about this word if here, and this puts us in the context of Romans that we've been looking at. is again, Paul in this passage is leaving the assurance of salvation, the assurance that an individual belongs to the family of God, to the witness of the Holy Spirit. He is in this passage laying out all the wonderful promises that come to the child of God, all the wonderful things that they gain in possession that can never be taken away from the child of God. But he doesn't go around and say, now you're a child, and you're a child, and you're a child, and you're a child. He's not saying that. He's not making that declaration. He says, if a child of God, because he's leaving it to the witness of the Spirit to the individual. that they've been adopted and that they're born again. And it's important that you have that witness. And as we have spoken before, that witness brings to us a number of wonderful messages. It tells us that we're no longer under condemnation. It reveals to us that we have been brought into and we can approach the law and not be under its condemnation. But in the law, we can experience the full free flow of the life of Christ coming to us. It tells us that we now have a brand new heart. We don't have the heart we used to have. We have a heart that's been stamped with the obedience of Jesus Christ. We have a fulfilled or accomplished heart because we've been given the heart of Jesus Christ. You'll see this in the first four verses of Romans chapter eight. And it also tells us that we've been moved out of a life that's just living within the realm of our own flesh. living life to the end of our noses, satisfying ourselves, our life being dictated by our own fleshly desires and calculations. And now being born again, we've been given a life where we can live within the range according to the Spirit of God. We're moved into a whole new environment. We live our lives in the wide open space of the Spirit of God. It's a message of tremendous freedom. And it comes to the individual who has become a child of God. And yet that assurance of the Spirit that we're the children of God comes to us. When because of this new life, and because of these new properties, and because of this new arrangement that we have, we find ourselves no longer in agreement with the flesh that's within us that has sinful appetites, and we're no longer in agreement with the world that makes its appeal to us through the flesh, and Satan who comes and tempts us through the flesh, we find ourselves in a conflict. We're in a battle. against those things, because this new heart and this life that Christ has given us is placed within us a pulsating inward desire to live above those things and to glorify God and to honor God and live for His glory. And so a battle ensues in which we struggle in that conflict with temptation and with the world and with the devil. And in that battle, in that battle, we don't just think, I'll just try harder. I'll be a better person tomorrow. In that battle, ultimately what happens, I'll just draw a little bit more on my own resources. No, in that battle, We find ourselves crying out, Abba Father! That's what it says. It actually says, by the Spirit we cry out, Abba, Father. This new life we have drives us to the Father. You know what happens when other people are tempted? They tempt until eventually they say, oh, why fight it? Let's give in and go with the flow, right? Or they say, I'm gonna make this work for me. Or I'm gonna try to manage this so it doesn't embarrass me too much. Or I'll just, look it, I'm so bad that I could, and the things that I have in me could never bring me to God. And so they actually, their temptations, their sins, ultimately become a justification to drive them into those sins and away from God, but not with the person who's born again. When you've been born again by the Spirit of God and you feel those things, you hate them more than anything, more than you ever have before. But when you feel it coming over you, it doesn't drive you from the Father, it drives you to Him. By the Spirit of God, you say, oh, I have a Father. Daddy, help me. Save me from this thing. The Spirit is authoring that cry, and in that cry, the Spirit comes to you and says, well, you're a child of God. You've been born for this battle. The enemy's going after you because he knows you're God's son, and he hates the sons and daughters of God, but you're my child. Actually, wonderfully, Galatians 4.6 not only says that we cry through the Spirit, but in Galatians 4.6 it says because we are sons, God sends forth His Spirit into our hearts, and He cries out, Abba, Father. So the idea there is, that the Spirit of God is given to us. He comes into our life, and the Spirit actually cries out through us, Abba Father. So it's you crying Abba Father through the Spirit in Romans chapter eight, and it's the Spirit of God crying out through your hearts, Abba Father within you. He's both crying, and this is taking place, and it's this unison of this passionate cry. And by the way, the first place that you hear the use or the term Abba Father expressed, is the Lord Jesus when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. And in the garden of Gethsemane, he's facing one final great temptation. A temptation that he fights to the shedding of blood. It's the temptation to turn away from the will of God, to present himself and go up the cross to die for our sins. And there he says, O Abba Father, if this cup could pass from me, nevertheless not my will, but your will be done. That's the height of his temptation. Because, O Abba Father, The word that's been given to us. It's the name now by the Spirit that we're able to proclaim as well. The same message that the Spirit proclaimed. And so it reads this way in Galatians 4, 6. I kind of butchered it when I tried to quote it to you. It says this, because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son, His Son who said, Abba, Father, in the garden, into your heart, crying out, Abba, Father. Oftentimes we think when we struggle with sin and we struggle with temptation that anyone wants to come along and tell us that shows that you're not changed. You're not really a Christian. And Paul says, no, it's just the opposite. It's how you react to it that reveals what God has done in your life. You hate it. You don't want it. You fight it. You cry out for God to deliver you. And in the midst of that struggle and that battle, and even when you fail, Find yourself going back to Him, and He assures you that you're a child of God. Now, if a child of God, that assurance comes to you, and it's encouragement to you, then with it comes this wonderful promise, and this is where we're at today. Then it says you are heirs of God. In the New Testament, there are multiple times in which the child of God is referred to as an heir of God. We're said to be heirs of salvation. We're said to be the heirs to the grace of life or the eternal life. We're called to be the heirs of the promise. We're said to be heirs of righteousness. We're said to be heirs of the kingdom. And they're broad terms because there is no way that you can understand or begin to grasp all that you have and all that is yours by right as a child of God and all that God is one day going to open up to you. But with all of those five things that it says, there are actually provisions for us on a daily basis that we can enjoy out of the riches that is going to be one day fully ours. But then there's the full anticipation of a full salvation and a full righteousness and a full expression of life and all these things that are ours as well. It's beyond our imagination but you have every right to stretch your imaginations to think about what it means and to begin to grasp it. This morning I want to just briefly touch upon two. And the first one is I want to look at heirs of salvation and then we'll go back next week and we'll look at the rest. We're said to be heirs of salvation, Hebrews 1.14. says this, are they not all ministering spirits, speaking of angels, sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation. Actually a wonderful passage, it says that God's angels come and minister uniquely to the children of God, those who are heirs of salvation. Just as they came and they nurtured and sustained the Lord Jesus after he went through his temptations, they come to us as well to encourage us and watch over us. Heirs of salvation. Maybe it would be helpful to think of the word salvation, there's heirs of rescue. In Cambodia, there's a woman that I know, and I've visited on different occasions, an orphanage that she formed. She had brought the gospel to a number of women who were dying of AIDS at the hospital. They came to Christ, then she decided to bring them back to a property where she built a few huts for them to live and care for them while they were dying. When they died, she inherited their children, so she started an orphanage, and the orphanage began to grow from there. In Cambodia, by the way, Ernest Tung, by the way, is going to be visiting us hopefully at the end of this month. Ernest has a few daughters. I don't know if his daughters know it, but at least the first daughter that they adopted was adopted at the border of Cambodia and Thailand. It was actually intercepted as an infant. She was only a few days old at the border of Cambodia and Thailand because her parents had sold her. and sold her to be bartered into Thailand for who knows what kinds of horrible experiences. And that little baby was intercepted, and that little baby has become their child. Actually, the last time I was in Cambodia, I was able to be there and watch as that beautiful daughter played this beautiful piece on her piano before the church that we were visiting, a wonderful triumphant song. I don't think she knows actually yet exactly how she came into the possession of her parents but she was intercepted from slavery and brought into a family and rescued and this woman who had this orphanage named the place of the orphanage A place of rescue. That's what an orphanage is. Now there are a number of them. It's the place of rescue. What a wonderful statement. She was not saying it so that the fixation of the mind of the individual or child of the individual would be focused on all the things that they escaped, but to know that they've been rescued to and into something wonderful and tremendous and glorious. and yet you know when God wants to reveal to us the salvation and what he's planning for us and all that even heaven will be God doesn't simply tell us all the good things that are going to be in heaven God also to help us orientate our minds to the wonder of heaven has to explain to us what is not going to be there what you're not going to have there and so we just this morning had as our scripture read to us from revelation chapter 21 and Let me just read to you what we've read at the very end of that section. It was in verse 27. There it says, speaking of the new Jerusalem, the new heaven that God is going to create for us to reside within, but there shall by no means enter into it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie. All the things that we will be rescued from, all sin and all the effects of sin will be outside of the new Jerusalem and the city that God has for us. Chapter 22 verse 3 says, there shall be no curse there. Verse 3 it says there will be no curse there. In verse 5 of chapter 22 it says there will be no night there. In other words there will be no shadow of darkness cast over the heaven that God has for us. In verse 15 it says outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie. The idea here is that every shadow cast by sin will be forever gone. God in saving us today and working our lives today saves us from the penalty of sin. And God also provides some means to rescue us from elements and expressions of the power of sin, but not entirely. And he saves us in part from even the presence of sin, but not entirely. These are things because we still live in this world that we still wrestle with and we have to deal with but there's coming a day when we will be fully and completely lifted from all the presence of sin entirely and from every residue of its power and influence upon our lives that's heaven that's the full possession of salvation that's awaiting for us that's what's coming to us can't disengage from those things entirely now but even now there's a provision for us and all the wealth that's waiting for us one day, so that in that provision we might live still under the presiding sense of the inheritance of rescue, salvation. Also might be helpful when you think about this idea of salvation, to remember that salvation is not a principle of truth that you learn about, it's a person who comes to you. You remember when the Lord Jesus as a baby was brought to the temple by his parents to be dedicated? And that little baby was taken up into the arms of Simeon. And God had promised Simeon that he wouldn't die before he saw the Messiah coming to the people of Israel. And Simeon, when he takes up the baby in Luke chapter 2 verses 29 through 31, it gives us what Simeon said. Simeon says this, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation. which you have prepared before the face of all people. What was he speaking of? Was he speaking of a soteriological concept that you find in theological books? He was speaking about Jesus. Jesus is our salvation. It's not something you just learn. It's a person who comes to you. Who comes to you in sinless perfection saying, I have died for all of your sins and suffered in your place. And I have borne its punishment and finished the payment completely on your behalf. And I've risen from the grave and I bear the wounds of my suffering for you. But now I come to you to bring to you my resurrected life and that's salvation. That's salvation. And look what he does. He does, in a sense, bring to us a ministry from his death for the penalty of our sins, because we still go on sinning, but the promise for us is if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just, that cleanses of our sins and washes of all unrighteousness. He still opens up his life to wash us and cleanse us on a daily basis, and that's the privilege of a child of God. One of the great privileges as a little child I had was my parents, before they put me to bed, and I did this as a parent as well, we took our children, the last thing we did, particularly on summer days, is we took them up to the bathroom, we set them on the counter, we filled the sink with water, and we washed their feet. We washed all the residue of dirt that had collected on their feet from all their pitter-patter throughout the day, and then we sent them off to bed. And it was kind of a precious moment, and they laughed and they giggled as we were washing their feet, because it tickled, and the water was cold, and whatever it was. Jesus has paid for all of our sins. The payment is expressed in the reservoir of his life poured out for us and his blood shed for us on a daily basis. We never have to go to bed with the residue of sin in our lives. We've been forgiven once for all. We've had our complete washing and our complete bath, but at the end of every day, the privilege of the child of God is that he ministers, because of that penalty being paid, he ministers to us forgiveness and cleansing. sends us to bed with our feet washed. It's beautiful, it's wonderful. Then he comes and he brings to us relief from the presence of evil and sin because it's all around us, but oh, we can retreat into Christ and he's like a shelter and a covering and he's life for us so that even in the midst of this dying and sick world we have him with us, with us always, presiding with us and covering us and keeping us. Then He pours His life into us by the Spirit so that even though sin has its powers, we have the power of Him, of Christ living within us so that we can say, greater is He that is in me than he that's in the world. And I have a provision of the salvation through Jesus Christ that one day I will have in fullness. But then in heaven the Bible says, when I see Him and I meet Him that I'll be like Him for I'll see Him as He is. Then I'll have the full inheritance of His life being poured out upon me. And that's... That's salvation. That's wonderful salvation. Let's look at one more. It's heirs of eternal life. That's what Titus says in Titus 3, 7. Peter calls it heirs of the gift of life. Heirs of the gift of life. Now I have a question for you. Do you like this life? Do you like this life? Some days you say no. I do. For the most part, I like this life, even though it has its challenges, even though it has its cups of sorrow and misery. It also has on a daily basis joys and benefits and small joys like a good cup of coffee or great joys like the birth of a son or a daughter. We just had that in our church this week. Great joys like the marriage of a young bride which will have this next coming week and those are joyful things that life provides for you. You know, when I go to bed sometimes at night, sometimes I can't sleep because my brain is stuck summing up the minuses of the day. So in order to go to sleep, I will counteract it by adding up the blessings from my life. And I'll categorize them. I'll think of, for example, memories of the first camping trip I went on and then all the camping trips after that. Or I'll think of unique memories that I had with one of my siblings. I'll pick one of them and I'll try to think of all from the earliest time period All the different fun things that I did with them, or blessings that I have memories of them, or I'll think of a memory of, you know, my favorite meals, or fun sporting events that I went to. It doesn't matter what it is. I'll start adding up games that I played. That's one of my favorite ones. Thinking of the unique games that I played and invented, and characters, and ways that I enjoyed myself as a child. But then I'll think of the things I've done with my own children, and I'll categorize it. There's no end to it. Eventually you tail off to sleep and you forget about summing up all the minuses of the day because you start adding up all the blessings that God has given to you. We just sang the song, count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. That's life. It's what life brings to you with all of its difficulties and hardships. One of my favorite memories was something that took place, it was about six months after our son Jack Kennedy was born with Down syndrome. And I'd gone to a basketball game at the grade school where one of my daughters was playing a basketball game, and the opposing team they were playing had a little girl in it named Miri. And Miri had cerebral palsy. And Miri had been given the assignment for her team to dribble the ball down to center court. She would, with her struggle, The very disease she had was an awful disease which we would not say to be a portrait of life. but of the death that comes upon this world and the disease and the hardship that sin has brought in this world. But in it, Mary had found life because she would dribble that ball down the center court. And as she did, she had this smile that was just built over her face as she struggled, but she got it. She would dribble it down. Everybody would clear back to the center court line and wait for her to bring that ball down the court. And then when she got to center court line, she would stop and pick up the ball and she'd look at everybody and smile, the biggest smile. And then she would jump into the forecourt, in which case one of her teammates would come, take the ball from her, and they'd go on and they would play that game. All of us who were watching it were mesmerized by Mary, by her smile, and by that experience, and by the joy that was just springing from that little girl's life. Not all of us experienced in this life the enjoyment of life. We also have experience of death, and not a little bit of it, but a lot of it. And the decaying world that is around us. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have the privilege of celebrating the light that comes shining through in a wonderful way. We get to capture all the great moments that God is giving us of life and experience them. And here's the wonderful thing, where the world experiences them as wonderful things that are passing away and leaving them forever. And so oftentimes they get glued in it. You'll find a person A mother who's raised up her children, when the child leaves home, she's just never happy again, because all the things that she thought of as life are gone from her. But for the believer, it's not that way. It doesn't have to be that way. Everything that we experience of the benefits and blessings of life, every bit of life that comes shining through, the expressions of death all around us, is for us a foretaste of a fuller possession that's coming. of a life that's going to be poured out unabated upon us one day. So we get to enjoy all these wonderful things, not as something that's passing away that we cling to because it's going to be gone in a few moments. Just a glint, a shining, something fuller and greater, more wonderful even yet to come, because we are the heirs of life. We embrace life now, not as something that's draining away from us, but something that is actually trickling in, but one day is pouring in upon us. It's never gonna go away entirely. We have that provision and we'll have the possession one day. Let me go back to Miri for a second. Everybody, I think, was struck by that image of Miri, but you'll remember that, again, this was only a few months after our son had been born. We knew that he had Down syndrome, but we didn't know at that time what that would mean for us, what our experiences would be as a result of that. We were exploring, but we didn't know that there would be profound limitations on his life. I watched that little girl, Miri, as she was dribbling up, and for me, I was overcome with emotion, because a thought came to my mind early on, and then from then it just kept repeating itself when she'd come to that center line. And my imagination was Mary coming to that center line, that center court, and jumping into that forecourt, and the minute she did, that she was transformed. and this glorious redeemed body that we'll have in heaven perfect in every way and as she came across the line she was able to engage in whatever the game was being played there and in all reality so for me in my mind I thought of what would it be like one day when Mary jumps across the line and she's metamorphized she's transformed into everything God has in store for her and plans for her and then when she did that I I pictured my son Jack coming to that line and leaping into that life but then it wasn't enough then I saw myself coming to that line one day come in that line that court between time and eternity and because I'm God's child and I'm an heir of the grace of life and eternal life one day leaping into the fullness of that life an unabated full possession of The provision God has given me throughout my life, what a wonderful blessing, what a gift, what a promise, what a hope. That's our position. I'm gonna give you some applications real quickly, I'll repeat them next week. But here are the applications to what we've just said. Number one, if you hope for this future possession, then let yourself be encouraged to rest and rejoice in the provisions of that possession now, what God provides for you out of that possession now. Number two, regulate yourself as one who lives in the now and yet anticipates the still to come. Regulate yourself as one who lives in the now, able to gain all the joys and benefits of the now, but always pointing you with an eschatological perspective to the still to come. Number three, don't diminish the joys of your inheritance by clinging to the crust of this world. and not holding to those things that will never pass away. Those things that God is promising that will never be taken from you. Number four, don't think you're making a sacrifice in being a Christian. You're not giving up anything. You're not getting rid of anything or letting go of anything that you will not gain to overflowing and everlasting life. Number five is the result. Submit to the Father in all things. He will provide to you out of the storehouse of His wealth, and all of this is preparing you for the day of your full inheritance. Talk about this morning's week, Ms. Bauer-Hetzel. Oh, that will be glory for me. And yet, it's still glory all the way. We see through the glass darkly, but we still have visions of your glory reigning through in our life. We thank you, O God, that we even now have joy. We have joy to the full. We are not just holding the fort. We live in a triumph of what You give, and every measure of it points us to what is ours and will be ours forever. We praise You and thank You for that. An inheritance that comes to us through our Savior Jesus Christ, an assurance we have because the Spirit within us cries out, teaches us to cry out, Abba, Father. We praise You in Jesus' name, amen.