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The Spirit

The Spirit - Makes Us True Sons & Daughters

Eric Hayes · Sunday, 17 August 2025 · Romans 8:12-17 · 43:29 · 8,719 words

Romans S17 · 8:12-17 Grand Blanc

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

Romans 8:12‑17 is examined, showing how the Holy Spirit answers the question of whether we are God’s children. The sermon presents four questions about dealing with sin, being led by the Spirit, seeing God as Father, and suffering with Christ, each paired with a blessing the Spirit gives. Listeners are encouraged to recognize the Spirit’s confirmation in their lives and to surrender any lingering self‑driven effort. Those without assurance are invited to trust in Christ and receive the Spirit’s testimony.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

suffer 77 spirit 132 test 29 led 34 holy 60 adopt 21 lead 27 prove 13 heir 13 testify 8 obligation 11 bless 22

Topics

The Holy Spirit 35 Suffering 17 Adoption & Sonship 10 Sin 10 The Flesh 8 Prayer 1 Sanctification 1 Freedom 1 Obedience 1 Condemnation 1

Scripture referenced 33

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 7 1:21 Romans 7 1:25 Romans 8 1:25 Romans 7 1:32 Romans 8 2:24 Romans 7 2:27 Romans 8 2:32 Romans 8 2:33 Romans 7 2:33 Romans 8 2:36 Romans 8 2:38 Romans 8 2:38 Romans 8 2:39 Romans 8 3:13 Romans 8 3:26 Romans 8 3:26 Romans 8:12-17 3:41 Romans 8 4:45 Romans 8:12-13 8:46 Romans 8:1 9:32 Romans 8 11:34 Romans 8:11 11:34 Romans 8:13 12:39 Romans 8:14 17:13 Romans 8:14 17:18 Romans 8:14 18:49 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 19:19 Romans 8:15 25:32 Romans 8:15 28:08 Romans 8:16-17 31:56 2 Timothy 3:12 34:39 Romans 7 41:54 Romans 7 42:02

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:39. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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All right, so we are going to be in Romans, as we have been all summer.

Pretty cool, huh? Who's been enjoying the summer series in Romans, right?

Amazing. I mean, just watching how the Apostle Paul is just taking us down that Romans road,

just brick by brick, just laying the foundation, introducing an idea and a thought,

explaining it very well, and then adding just a little building block,

you know, one brick at a time.

And then oftentimes going back and revisiting the prior point with the extra information of that new brick.

Just very slowly, very intentionally. It's been awesome.

So I don't have time to review the whole book. That would take too long.

But if you remember, several months ago when we got to chapter 7,

Pastor Chuck set it up and he kind of explained how chapter 7 and chapter 8 of Romans

are kind of these two conflicting chapters.

So chapter 7 is full of frustration. It's full of defeat.

The Apostle Paul,

he's having this internal tug of war, right, with his old self,

his old fleshly sinful self that still wants to do what he wants to do,

does not want to please God, still wants to just do what he wants to do.

But that's at conflict with this new spiritually clean self, right?

When we're born again, we're new creations.

And we have these two people living in us.

We have the old fleshly self, and then we have our born again,

spiritually clean self that wants to please the Lord,

wants to do what God wants us to do.

And he's just agonizing over this.

And he talks about, like, the things I want to do, I don't do.

And the things I don't want to do, I do do.

And it's like in the old cartoons when you have the devil on the one shoulder

and the angel on the other shoulder, and it's like, do this.

And it's like, no, I don't want to do this.

And it's just this crazy tug of war.

But then finally, we get to chapter 8.

Because in chapter 7, there's not a whole lot of hope offered.

It's just this frustration and this defeat.

But thank goodness for chapter 8.

And I'm glad I get to preach in chapter 8 and not in chapter 7.

Because chapter 8 is way more fun.

So in chapter 8, I'm going to preach in chapter 8.

In chapter 8, Paul gives the answer to all of this.

He gives the answer, and that answer is the Holy Spirit.

It's all the Holy Spirit.

The answer is always him.

It reminds me of Sunday school back in the day.

If you've ever seen young kids in Sunday school, they all know the right answers, right?

They all know the church answers.

The answer to every question is either God or Jesus.

So anything the teacher asks, God, Jesus.

You know, they could ask him, what did you have for breakfast this morning?

Like, okay.

So they might have missed out on the question a little bit,

but they knew the answer.

The answer truly is always him.

And we get to celebrate that in chapter 8 this morning of Romans.

It's interesting.

In the first seven chapters of Romans, the idea of the Holy Spirit,

or the phrase Holy Spirit, is only used one time in chapters 1 through 7.

But then in chapter 8, it's used 20 times just in chapter 8 alone.

So the answer is him, and we get to celebrate that this morning.

So what I'd like to do is I'd like to read the passage and then pray

and see what the Lord has for us, okay?

So if you have your Bibles this morning,

we're in Romans chapter 8, verses 12 through 17,

or it'll be up on the screen for us, okay?

So let's go ahead and read that together.

So it says,

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh,

to live according to the flesh.

For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.

But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again,

but you have received a spirit of death.

But you have not received a spirit of death leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of death leading to fear again.

And you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.

Let's pray this morning.

Heavenly Father, I just thank you so much for this opportunity to share your message this morning.

I just pray that the words this morning will be yours and not mine.

And I just thank you so much for the Holy Spirit.

And I thank you for Romans chapter 8 and for everything that the Holy Spirit has done for us.

And I thank you for everything that the Holy Spirit has done for us.

And I thank you for everything that the Holy Spirit has done for us.

And I thank you for everything that the Holy Spirit has done for us.

And I thank you for everything that the Holy Spirit has done for us.

Prepare our minds this morning.

Prepare our hearts to hear from you.

And in Jesus' name we pray.

Okay.

So, by show of hands, who just loves taking tests?

Like, you think back to high school or junior high.

Okay, one.

We got one.

We got one here.

Okay.

Think back to high school or junior high or maybe had a medical exam or something.

Like, who just loves, like, taking tests?

Like, all that stress that goes with it.

No?

Okay, only one.

I kind of expected that.

Well, how about this?

Who likes passing tests?

Okay, passing tests is more fun, right?

So, you know, why is that, right?

Well, the answer is pretty obvious.

Usually there's some type of reward or some type of a certificate or you get a passing grade.

Maybe you get a, you know, clean bill of health.

You know, you had a medical exam and you passed the medical exam.

So, taking the test, not so fun.

Passing the test, a lot more fun.

So, has anybody taken a test before and then had to wait for the results?

So, maybe you took a medical exam and, like, you had to wait.

Like, you're waiting.

You're waiting in the mail every day.

Man, where's those results?

Like, did I pass?

Do I have this thing?

Do I not?

Or maybe you took a certification test and you're waiting and you're waiting.

You're checking the mailbox.

For all you young people out there, checking the mailbox is something us old people used

to have to do.

Nowadays, it's just instant.

You get on the internet.

You get the email and you already know.

But back in the day, we had to wait for the mail to come and see if we passed or not.

But what if you took a test and you were pretty sure you did well, pretty sure you passed,

but you literally never found out the answer.

You never found out the results.

So, my son, Ethan, is 15.

And he just got done taking the first segment of driver's training, right?

You go and you take some classroom stuff and you take a written test.

And then you get your permit.

And then you get to drive your family around and try to not kill them for the next couple

And then once you, you know, complete all that, you take your final driver's test.

And if you pass that test, you can get your license.

Well, what if he takes that final driving test and, you know, he does the thing and

the instructor's in the car with him and taking notes, doing all this stuff.

And he gets done.

And the instructor gets out of the car and goes, all right, thank you for your time.

And just gets in their car and drives away.

Never tells him if he passed.

Never tells the state of Michigan if he passed.

Just, that's it.

I mean, what would he do?

I mean, he could yell from the rooftops, I passed this test.

But wouldn't do him any good.

He wouldn't have that confirmation.

He wouldn't have that validation.

He would not get that driver's license.

You have to have some type of validation or confirmation that you passed the test.

Otherwise, you're just waiting for the results.

Well, a test we're talking about this morning in this passage is a little more important

than a driver's test.

The test this morning is the most important test.

Anybody ever takes.

And everybody who's ever lived takes this test.

And everybody who ever will live in the future will take this test.

And the test answers this question.

Are you a child of God?

It's like the song we just sang.

Are you a child of God?

Do you belong to him?

Is he your Lord and Savior?

It's the only question in life that really matters.

It's the only test that really matters.

Well, the fun part this morning is, if you're a believer here today, you've already passed.

So we're not so much going to take a test today, but we're going to review the test

and we're going to see how the Holy Spirit works.

How the Holy Spirit confirms and proves that we are his and truly makes us sons and daughters.

Okay, so there's four questions on the test that we're going to work through.

They're all multiple choice.

Okay, one of the answers is more self-driven.

You do it yourself under your own power.

And one of the answers is through the Spirit, what the Spirit does for us.

And each question comes with a blessing that the Holy Spirit gives us.

All right, are we ready to celebrate the blessings of the Holy Spirit together?

Let's go.

All right, take a drink so my mouth doesn't get dry.

All right, question number one on the test.

Here we go.

How do you deal?

With sin in your life?

How do you deal with sin in your life?

Do you deal with it by the flesh within yourself?

Or do you deal with it by the Spirit with him?

So let's look at the text.

Let's look at verses 12 and 13 again.

It says this.

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.

But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

So we've got these two paths, right?

We've got by the flesh leading to death.

It's not a physical death.

It's a spiritual death.

It's spiritually being dead, separated from God.

Or you have by the Spirit, which leads to life.

So let's look at what it looks like to live and to deal with sin according to the flesh,

without the Holy Spirit.

What that means is, it simply means an unsaved person.

It's the way all of us dealt with sin before we had the Holy Spirit, before we were born again.

So it's not suggesting that believers can lose their salvation.

So we learned in Romans 8, verse 1, that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So it's not suggesting that.

It's not suggesting that believers will never sin in these ways.

What we're talking about here is we're talking about an unsaved person whose lifestyle is continuously characterized

by habitual sin without true remorse, without true repentance, or asking for forgiveness.

It's the pattern of their life.

Now, they might feel bad about it.

They're not just going to necessarily go around and just do a bunch of crazy sins.

I mean, an unsaved person, somebody that doesn't have the Holy Spirit,

they may not cheat on their spouse because they don't want to experience the natural consequences.

But the only reason...

The only reason we're avoiding sin, if we're in the flesh, is to benefit ourselves.

It's to avoid the natural consequences.

The only reason to avoid it is to the extent that it benefits us.

It's self-centered.

It's focused on our results.

And we'll bend the rules, bend the rules, push the envelope a little bit.

We'll do things that we know probably aren't right, but we'll just get off on a technicality

and give in to those sinful desires if we can get away with it.

Okay?

That's what it's like to live in the flesh and to deal with sin in the flesh.

Sin as much as you can to where it doesn't affect your life too much.

And again, sometimes people living this way, they can appear very moral.

They can be very kind.

They can even be more moral and kind than a Christian.

But their motivation is self-based.

They're not trying to please him.

They're not trying to please the Lord.

It's just to the extent that it benefits them.

Well, as we see in the text, living according to the flesh in that way ultimately cannot please God.

It leads to death.

But then let's look at what it looks like.

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.

So this phrase, so then, is another way of saying therefore.

Okay?

And we've learned throughout Romans that any time we run into a therefore in the Bible,

we need to figure out what it's there for.

Right?

So we look at the verse just prior.

Okay?

Chapter 8, verse 11 says this.

The idea here is that his spirit gives us life.

And because of that life, so then, because of that life, we are under obligation, not to the flesh.

So this idea of being under obligation, it's this idea of there's a debt that's paid to something or someone.

It's that we haven't made amends.

It's that we're compelled to act in a certain way because of that debt that's owed.

We're bound by that obligation.

Well, I've got good news for you.

You probably know this.

You probably know this.

When Jesus died on that cross, and he paid that penalty, and we accept that gift from God, and that Holy Spirit comes into our life, that debt is paid.

We are not under any obligation to that flesh anymore.

We don't have to live that way anymore.

It's such an encouragement.

Such an encouragement.

We are no longer under any obligation to the flesh.

We owe the flesh nothing.

What an encouragement.

Going on, second half of verse 13.

It's a pretty big phrase.

Probably could spend a whole sermon just on that.

For the sake of time, we won't do that today.

So what does it mean to put to death the deeds of the body?

How do we do that?

Well, the first way we don't do it is we don't do it in our own power.

Right off the bat, it says,

by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body.

So that means being in his word, by the Spirit, being in prayer, acting in obedience to the Spirit's leading, which we'll touch on in just a minute.

But it's also not passive.

We're not just praying that sin will be removed from our lives, and then just waiting for it to just manifest.

We're not just praying that sin will magically disappear.

We do have to take action.

We do have to cut that sin from our lives.

So how do we do it?

Well, the first thing is, we must see it, right?

We have to know his word.

We have to understand what he hates.

We have to understand what that sin is.

We have to see that sin in our lives.

Well, then we have to recognize it as dangerous.

So we might see it, but we might not think it's that big of a deal.

We might try to tolerate and live by it.

This is where the Holy Spirit helps us.

And oftentimes, the Holy Spirit will speak to us through somebody else.

So this is where fellowship with other believers,

is important, and accountability with fellow Christians.

So another believer that you know well may observe something in your life or in my life

and be like, hey, I notice you've been acting in this way.

I'm a little worried about you.

Those are things that we need to take very seriously,

because that is one of the ways that the Holy Spirit literally enlightens us

and shows us some of those situations so that we can recognize that sin is dangerous.

And then after we recognize it as dangerous, we have to admit it, right?

It's not going to do us any good if we don't admit that it's happening.

We have to confess it, ask for forgiveness.

And then, most importantly, we have to sever it.

We have to get rid of it.

We have to cut it out.

And this is a process that has to be repeated every single day.

We have to be relentless with this process.

We cannot let sin take root.

We have to have zero tolerance.

It's like weeds in a garden.

When they're small and they're just starting, pop it out, no big deal.

The bigger that weed gets, the harder it is to get out.

The Holy Spirit helps us see those sins,

helps us put to death,

helps us put to death those deeds of the body

so that we can pull them out while they're small.

I think of any VeggieTales fans in the room here today?

You guys remember the VeggieTales movie?

Okay, there we go.

We've got a little wood over there.

It's good.

So I don't know why this popped in my head,

but there's this VeggieTales episode about a rumor weed.

Yeah, rumor weed.

And, you know, it starts out just a little potted plant, you know,

and then every time during the episode somebody, you know,

spreads this rumor, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger,

and then it's just like taking over the city,

and it's completely out of control, and it's just crazy.

Same idea, right?

See that sin, get rid of it, no matter what it takes,

because the bigger it gets, the harder it is.

But that there is the first blessing of the Holy Spirit, is this.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to remove sin from our lives.

And in doing so, when we do that, it proves that we are His.

It proves that we belong to Him, okay?

So question one, how do you deal with sin?

Do you deal with it with yourself?

Just a pattern of life is sinful, unrepentant.

The only reason you're avoiding sin is to avoid natural consequences.

Or are you putting to death the deeds of the flesh with the Spirit's help

because you want to be rid of it, because you hate sin,

because you want to please Him?

That is the blessing of the Holy Spirit,

is it empowers us to remove sin from our lives.

Proving, proving that we are a child of God.

I love it.

I love it.

All right, here we go.

Question two, who are you led by?

Or in other words, who is the Lord of your life?

Who are you led by, okay?

Option A, led by yourself, without Him,

or are you led by the Spirit, with Him?

So we're all led by something, right?

We've talked about this before.

Even leaders, they're led by something.

If you have a job, you're an employee somewhere,

you're probably led by a manager or a boss.

If you're on a sports team, you're led by either the coach

or the captain of the team.

Sometimes people are led by religious beliefs or principles,

and they will adhere to a certain code when they follow that leading, okay?

Sometimes we're just led by the pursuit of knowledge, right?

We want to gain intellectual insight, so we're led by that pursuit,

so we just try to learn and learn more things.

And then my favorite, sometimes we're just hungry.

So we're led by cheeseburgers and pizza, whatever that may be.

And we're following that hunger, right?

So we're all led by something.

The question is, who are you led by?

Well, let's look at verse 14.

I love this verse.

The more I study this, I just kept reading this verse over and over.

It says this, verse 14,

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

So who are you led by?

All right, so answer A, being led by yourself.

Unsaved person, or all of us before we had the Holy Spirit,

when we are led by the Spirit of God,

when we are led by ourselves, we are the Lord of our own lives.

We do what we want to do.

We listen to our hearts, as the old song says,

which is horrible advice, by the way, horrible advice to listen to our hearts.

We can see we're listening to our hearts' leads.

Turn on the news, turn on social media.

You can see what it looks like when we're trying to be led by ourselves

and we're listening to our hearts.

Our desires come first when we're not being led by the Spirit.

Now, we might try to pigeonhole God into those and say,

oh, yeah, we'll fit him in somewhere.

But it's really us just doing what we want to do.

And then trying to force God into it.

Being led by yourself is like trying to steer a ship without a rudder.

You get tossed around by life's circumstances,

no clear direction or purpose,

usually leads to anxiety, confusion, loneliness, hopelessness,

all kinds of things like that.

And the scriptures often refer to us as sheep, right?

Sheep that have gone astray.

I don't know a lot about sheep, but it seems like they're not very smart.

Without a shepherd, without a shepherd leading them,

they just kind of wander, they just kind of wander off.

And they're not very smart.

They're exposed to all kinds of danger,

and they have no real good way to protect themselves.

That is what it's like to try to lead ourselves.

It's no good.

Thank goodness, thank goodness for verse 14.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God,

these are the sons of God.

So how does the Spirit lead us?

What does it mean to be led by the Spirit?

So there's three main ways that the Spirit leads us.

The first one is the Spirit reveals the truth of God's word to us.

So Pastor Chuck touched on this last week.

There's a little bit of crossover.

Paul does this.

He goes over this.

He goes over the same idea multiple times with slightly different angles.

But the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God's word to us.

So we see in 1 Corinthians 2, verses 14 to 16, says this,

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,

for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them,

because they are spiritually appraised.

But he who is spiritual appraises all things,

yet he himself is appraised by no one.

For who has known the mind of the Lord that he will instruct him?

But we have the Lord.

But we have the mind of Christ.

So when we are being led by the Spirit,

the Spirit literally illuminates us,

and it takes off the blockers in front of us.

And when we read his word, we see the truths.

And that's why he often spoke in parables, right?

Jesus often spoke in parables,

so that only those that were truly his would understand what he was saying.

An unsaved person looks at Scripture,

someone without the Holy Spirit looks at Scripture,

and it just all looks like gibberish.

It all looks like foolishness.

They might understand it from an intellectual level,

but the truth is,

the true spiritual truths,

the real fruit of the Scripture,

it just looks like nonsense.

It just looks like garbage.

Pastor Chuck has used this example before,

if you think to the old Charlie Brown cartoons, right?

Anytime there's an adult speaking,

the teacher or the parent,

Charlie Brown talks to the teacher,

and it's just wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah, wah-wah.

It's just nothing.

It's just nothing.

That is what it's like if we try to read the Scripture without the Holy Spirit.

He illuminates us.

He makes us see the Holy Spirit.

He makes our minds new so that we can understand his word.

Okay?

So the second way the Spirit leads us is through sanctification.

So that's a big, fancy Christian word, right?

So really, sanctification simply means is he makes us more like Jesus.

He helps make us more like Jesus.

He reveals sin in our lives to us,

and as we already talked about,

helps us put those sins to death.

And sometimes he does it in unpleasant ways.

So has anybody gone years thinking,

yeah, like I have the right opinions about these things.

Like I have the right attitude.

I have the right attitude about stuff.

I'm doing pretty good.

And then the Holy Spirit comes out of nowhere

and just smacks you right in the head and goes,

yeah, you're a little off there.

Anybody had that happen before?

I have.

I had it happen as I was preparing for this,

as I think is often the case.

So if I can be a little bit vulnerable with you this morning.

I've always been a bit of a perfectionist.

I don't know why.

Just as long as far back as I can remember,

like I always wanted to have the right answer,

was proud to have the right answer,

didn't want anything wrong.

Like if I did something wrong as a kid,

I would normally tell him,

before I got caught.

I just didn't like doing anything wrong.

Everything had to be perfect.

Like knowing the right answer,

like doing the right thing.

Didn't want any blemish on my track record,

any blemish on my reputation.

And it's always been that way into adulthood.

Now, in some ways it's been okay.

I did well in school because of that.

I wanted to do well in school.

I've had success in career because,

you know, when I do a project,

I want it to be very well.

But what's been happening over the last several months is

it's gotten a little bit better.

It's gotten to the point where

my pursuit to be perfect,

my pursuit to have everything be perfect,

has caused me to be very, very stressed out,

be very, very anxious,

just completely consumed about

just worrying about making a wrong decision at work

or saying the wrong thing,

or even for this message,

just doing, you know, doing something wrong.

And I haven't been a heck of a lot of fun to be around.

You can ask my wife.

She will admit that.

She will say, yes, he's been pretty rough to be around.

And what that means is that

what that is, is that is the Holy Spirit.

And that is the Holy Spirit telling me,

hey, knucklehead, that is pride.

That is pride.

That is sinful pride that you need to get rid of.

And I argued with him, like we do.

I said, wait a minute.

I said, how are you going to tell me,

how are you going to tell me that trying to do well,

that trying to put my best foot forward,

that, you know, trying to do a good job can be bad?

How could that be?

And he answered.

He goes, because you're trying to do it all yourself

and you're not trusting on him

and you're not depending on him.

I said, good.

Shouldn't have asked.

Shouldn't, shouldn't have asked.

Shouldn't have asked that question.

It's usually not good news when we try to argue with God.

But that's what he does.

So now this like badge of honor

that I've been wearing around my, like my whole life,

like, oh yeah, like, you know, I do stuff good

and I'm never wrong.

And this and that other thing is now like revealed,

like, oh, that's like, there's,

there's elements of sinful pride in there.

And now I have to put the work in

and try to, and try to put that to death.

And it's not easy.

I've not, I've not succeeded in it yet,

but that's what the Holy Spirit does when he's leading us.

He reveals those sins to us.

And he says, hey, I'm going to help you get rid of this,

but you need to know what's here.

All right.

And then the third way that the Spirit leads us

is he allows us to yield and be obedient to that.

So once, once he makes us aware of those things,

we will yield and we'll be,

we will be obedient to that correction.

An unsaved person or a person

that doesn't have the Holy Spirit

is not going to yield to that,

is not going to make changes.

They're just going to keep doing what they want to do

because it's hard.

So being led by the Holy Spirit

is like adding a rudder to that ship.

Like we talked about earlier,

it gives you,

the Spirit gives stability in circumstances,

gives us that peace that God is in control.

We can depend on him,

not try to do it all ourselves

and gives us that hope of our eternal glory with him.

And again, going back to the sheep example,

he's the good shepherd.

The Holy Spirit is the good shepherd.

He leads us.

He leads us.

He leads us from the dangers.

He leads us in the way that we should go.

So question number two,

who are you led by?

Are you led by the flesh, yourself,

or are you led by the Spirit, him?

Are you growing in him?

Are you becoming more like him?

And that's the second blessing

of the Holy Spirit

is that the Holy Spirit leads us

and his leading in our lives

proves that we're the sons and daughters of God.

It's so awesome.

I love it.

I love it.

I love it.

I just kept reading this stuff.

I'm like, this is amazing.

This is amazing.

All right, question three.

Question three.

How do you view God?

How do you view God?

do you view him as a slave master

or do you view him as a savior?

Let's look at verse 15.

It says this,

So we've got these two spirits here, right?

We've got the spirit of slavery

and we've got the spirit of adoption.

So let's look at what the spirit of slavery looks like.

So Donnie, another deacon here at this location,

he preached a couple of weeks ago

and he used this great example that stuck with me.

So I'm going to repeat it here again today,

but giving Donnie credit.

He shared an example of back when slavery was prevalent

and they were just getting to where

they were freeing the slaves,

that what was happening is

some of the slaves,

even though they were free,

they didn't know how to live free.

They didn't know how to do it.

They couldn't.

So they would go back to their masters

because they were more comfortable in that bondage.

They were more comfortable in that

and they didn't accept that gift of freedom

that had been made available to them.

And the spirit of slavery is the same way with us.

So what happens is,

we talked about when Jesus died on the cross

and he paid that penalty,

we're not under any obligation to the flesh anymore.

Like we are free of that.

But what happens is sin twists it

and it makes it,

and so without the Holy Spirit,

what happens is it looks like God is the slave master.

It looks like he is just giving us a set of rules to follow.

He is frustrated with us all the time.

He's angry with us all the time

and we have to work and work and work to keep the laws

and we have to do all these things

and we can't approach him with confidence.

We have to approach with fear

when in reality that is the freedom

and going back to the bondage of sin is the real bondage.

Okay?

So having the spirit of slavery is just that.

It's seeing God through this lens

where he's just up there angry

and he's just up there demanding all kinds of things from us.

I mean, how many times have we tried to, you know,

share with an unbeliever like,

oh, you know, it's so great,

like the freedom that Jesus brings

and they're like, I don't know what you're talking about.

All I see is a bunch of people following a bunch of rules

and not being able to do a bunch of things

and having to work, work, work, work, work.

Well, they're seeing God incorrectly.

They're seeing God as a slave master.

Okay?

And it leads to fear.

In general, it leads to fear.

You look around and,

and people are scared.

They're scared of death.

They're scared of punishment.

They're scared of what's going to happen when they die.

There's just all this fear.

The fear in the unbelieving world is very evident

and it's, it's largely based on,

they view God as a slave master.

They don't view God as a savior.

And this is the same thing we all did

before we were born again,

before we had the Holy Spirit.

Thank goodness for the second half of verse 15,

which says this,

but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons.

So when I was studying for this,

I came across a fact

Now, this was Google told me this.

I did not go back and confirm this.

So I'm pretty sure it's true.

But if it's not, it's not my fault.

But evidently, evidently,

the most common command in the Bible,

in the entire Bible,

is not what you might think it is.

The most common command,

according to Google,

is, is this.

It's do not fear or don't be afraid.

Do not fear.

Don't be afraid.

We don't have to have that spirit of slavery,

that spirit of fear anymore.

We are given the spirit of adoption

by the Holy Spirit.

Okay?

I think it's very intentional

that Paul is using this word adoption

because he's writing to believers in Rome.

And in Rome, adoption was a pretty big deal.

It was very common in Rome for,

you know, if somebody just like wasn't happy

with their son or with their child,

they could just be like,

yeah, I don't want you as my child anymore.

I don't want you as my heir anymore.

I'm going to adopt this other person.

And when that happened,

the adopted child come in

and everything from that child's old life,

everything about it,

cut off completely separate.

Any debt they may have owed,

any obligations they may have had,

all the connections to their old life,

completely, completely cut off.

And that's exactly how it is with us.

When we are adopted into God's family,

as we already talked about,

that old debt,

that old obligation to the flesh,

We are completely adopted into God's family.

And now, and now because of that,

we can cry out,

by which we cry out,

So this phrase, Abba, Father,

it's a very informal and intimate word of Father, right?

It'd be more,

it's more like saying Daddy or Papa.

So what it's saying is this,

we have the spirit of adoption,

which means we can approach God

with no fear,

We can be assured of His unending love for us.

We don't have to view Him as being angry with us

and looking down at us going,

nope, you better not do that,

or you better work harder to do this.

We can come to Him

believing that He loves us

and knowing that He loves us

because the Holy Spirit gives us that spirit of adoption.

And of course, this made more sense to me when I had kids.

Those of us that have kids in the room,

probably this makes more sense.

I hope that my kids know

that even if they do something wrong,

even if they do something stupid,

that they can always come to me.

I'm not as good as God, obviously,

so I'm not going to express this as well as God would.

But I hope that they know that they can come to me

and no matter what they've done,

it's not going to change their status as my children.

Like, they will still be my children.

And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit does for us

is He gives us that spirit of adoption.

So that's question three.

How do you view God?

Do you view God as a slave master?

Like, it's just,

you're in this bondage

and you have to follow all these rules,

not because you want to,

but because you have to.

Or do you see Him as a Savior

with that spirit of adoption,

approaching God with confidence

and just assured of His love for you?

And the blessing,

the third blessing of the Holy Spirit being

that the Holy Spirit imparts to us

the spirit of adoption as sons

and that proves that we belong to Him,

proves that we are His.

So encouraging.

So encouraging.

All right.

Now, Paul wants to make sure

we're on our toes here

because he kind of mixes some things up in this one.

So I'm going to try to navigate this

and not butcher it.

So bear with me here.

But the last question is this.

How do you suffer?

How do you suffer?

Option A, do you suffer within

or do you suffer with Him?

So let's look at verses 16 and 17.

It says this.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit

that we are children of God

and if children, heirs also,

heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

If indeed we suffer with Him,

so that we may also be glorified with Him.

So there's lots of commas in there, right?

And there's some capital S's for Holy Spirit

and there's some lowercase S's for our spirit.

So it gets a little tricky.

So what I want to do,

hang with me,

I'm going to try to convey this correctly here.

What Paul is doing here is he's mixing

some present blessings

with some eternal blessings

and it's kind of every other sentence.

So what I'd like to do is I would like to extract

the present blessings

and then extract the eternal blessings.

So if we can focus on these phrases first here.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit

that we are children of God

if indeed we suffer for Him.

Okay, that's one grouping.

That's the present blessings.

And then the eternal blessings are the other phrases

which is,

and if children, heirs also,

heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,

so that we may be glorified with Him.

Okay, can we kind of separate those?

Look at it.

Look at them individually.

All right, so the first one,

the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit

that we are children of God

if indeed we suffer with Him.

So what does it look like to suffer within

rather than suffering with Him?

Well, again, an unsaved person

or all of us before we had the Holy Spirit,

we cannot suffer with Christ.

All we can do is suffer

based on general experiences in our lives.

And typically what happens is

all we can do is look inward for solutions.

We try to solve it on our own power.

It lacks any type of hope.

And all we can do is look inward for solutions.

And often what it does

is it leads to bitterness and anger

and a digging in of heels against God.

So how many times, again,

have we tried to share with an unsaved person

and their main basis from belief is,

well, I had this painful event in my life

and I don't know how God could let that happen.

And so they had gone through some kind of suffering,

but they weren't suffering with Him.

They were suffering within.

So basically what it did

is it pulled them further from God

because they were suffering within themselves

rather than with Him.

And that's how it is.

That's how it is.

That's how it is for all of us apart from the Spirit, okay?

But then let's look at suffering with Him.

So the phrase, if indeed, it says here,

if indeed we suffer with Him.

So if indeed is better thought of as because or since.

So it's not really a question so much of

if we're going to suffer with Him

or if we're going to suffer because of Him.

It's assumed that it will happen, okay?

And we see that in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12.

Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus

will be persecuted.

It doesn't say,

might be persecuted.

It doesn't say,

could possibly sometimes be persecuted.

I mean, it says, like,

all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus

will be persecuted, okay?

So what does it look like to suffer with Him?

Well, suffering with Him simply means

that we are suffering in the same ways

that Jesus suffered.

So we think about the ways Jesus suffered,

and when we're suffering in those same ways,

we're literally suffering with Him,

together with Him,

and Him with us, okay?

So what are some of the ways that Jesus suffered?

Well, one way, obviously, was physical suffering, right?

I mean, going to the cross, being beaten,

all of that, a lot of physical suffering.

Now, we're pretty fortunate in America, in this country,

that there's not a whole lot of physical suffering,

but there's certainly Christians in other areas of the world

where there is physical suffering,

and when they suffer physically,

they are literally suffering with Him, okay?

That's an example of suffering with Him,

because that's how Jesus suffered.

Another way that Jesus suffered is emotionally.

So if you think about it,

when He had started His public ministry,

He went back to His hometown of Nazareth,

and He was rejected by His hometown.

All the people He grew up with,

all of His friends that He may have had growing up,

He was rejected by His hometown.

They did not accept Him as Messiah.

There was probably some suffering involved in that,

and that type of thing could happen with us, too.

Maybe the more we become more like Christ,

that there starts to be these rifts

between friends that we had,

or family members,

that starts to get uneasy,

because we're going to suffer,

and they're going in a certain direction,

and they're not.

Those types of emotional suffering

between family and between people,

that's an emotional suffering that Jesus went through.

And so when those things happen to us,

that's us suffering with Him.

Also, have you ever suffered

just because of your awareness of sin,

either in your life or in the world?

Like, have you ever just looked around

and just saw all the sin,

and just really just felt just pain, anguish,

and just like, man, it's just,

I can't believe all that sin is out in the world.

Well, Jesus did that.

He did that.

He was known as a man of sorrows,

acquainted with grief.

He suffered often because of seeing sin.

We see where He wept over Jerusalem.

He went out of Jerusalem,

and He looked over Jerusalem,

and He wept because of the sin,

because they were rejecting Him.

So suffering in those ways,

the way that Jesus did,

that is what it means to suffer with Him.

So it's important to note

that suffering with Him

does not mean that if we go out and sin,

and make dumb decisions,

and we suffer for them,

that is not suffering with Him.

That is suffering because we're knuckleheads,

and we made some poor choices, okay?

Suffering with Him is when,

is when because we are like Him,

remember, Paul just got done painting

this beautiful picture of how

we're adopted as God's children,

and we can call Him Daddy.

So the world hated Jesus, okay?

So now because we're His,

the world hates us.

And when we suffer in the same ways that He did,

that is what suffering with Him means.

But thank goodness for the rest of the verse,

it says this,

because we suffer with Him,

the Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit

that we are children of God.

So going back to the Roman adoption example,

when somebody was being adopted in Rome,

it wasn't fully finalized

until there were seven witnesses,

seven witnesses confirming that adoption.

The Holy Spirit Himself

literally comes to our spirit in our suffering,

when we're suffering for Him,

and testifies to our spirit and says,

hey, you belong to Him.

Gives us that comfort,

gives us that assurance,

gives us that validation,

like, hey, I know you're suffering right now,

but He's right there,

He went through the same things,

and this suffering is proof

that you are His

and that you belong to Him.

It's so comforting.

And so now,

so now instead of

suffering within ourselves

and kind of getting angry with God

and getting separated

and being further from God,

now when we suffer with Him,

we can actually come closer to God.

Now we can run to Him in faith.

We can see Him supporting us.

We can see His sovereignty.

We can see His characteristics

being poured out on us,

and we can get closer to Him.

So it's all true.

It's all the difference in how you suffer.

Do you suffer within

or do you suffer with Him?

So that fourth blessing of the Holy Spirit,

the Holy Spirit bears witness

that we are children of God

when we suffer with Him.

What an amazing encouragement.

Amazing encouragement during our suffering.

So then the second part of the verses

that I promised I'd come back to,

the eternal promises,

says this,

in doing so,

we are also heirs.

We're heirs in the same way that Christ is heirs.

So our inheritance,

we get to be with God forever.

We get to be with God forever in heaven.

All that Christ receives,

We co-rule with Jesus.

And it sounds weird,

but we will also be glorified along with Him

because of that suffering for Him.

And in doing so,

when we do that,

the Spirit is proving to us that we're His.

It's so comforting.

It's so exciting.

So amidst that suffering,

the Spirit's testifying that we are His.

So that's question four.

How do you suffer?

Do you suffer within,

focusing on self,

pulling you further from Him,

or do you suffer with Him,

focusing on His promises,

now and eternal,

bringing you closer to Him?

And the fourth blessing from the Spirit,

that He bears witness

that we are children of God

through our suffering,

through our suffering with Him.

So that's it.

That was the test.

That was the blessings of the Spirit.

In quick review,

how do you deal with sin in your life?

Either by the flesh,

on your own,

or by the Spirit?

And the blessing of the Holy Spirit

is that He empowers us

to remove sin from our lives

and it proves we are His.

who are you led by?

Are you led by yourself?

Or are you led by the Spirit?

Blessing number two,

the Holy Spirit leads us

and that makes us true sons and daughters.

Question number three,

how do you view God?

Do you view Him as a slave master,

in fear,

that spirit of fear?

Or do you view Him as a Savior

and call Him Abba Father,

call Him Daddy,

approach Him with confidence and assurance?

And that's that third blessing

the Holy Spirit imparts to us,

that spirit of adoption.

And then the last question,

how do you suffer?

Do you suffer within,

or do you suffer with Him?

And allowing the Holy Spirit

to bear witness in that suffering

that we are children of God

through that suffering.

So Paul wrote this message

as an encouragement

so that the believers in Rome

could be confident and comforted

that they had passed the test,

that the Holy Spirit is proving

that they are His.

It's very exciting.

It's very encouraging.

So if you're a believer here this morning,

this should have been awesome.

Just seeing how the Holy Spirit blesses

and how the Holy Spirit gives us that hope

that was kind of left out in chapter seven.

But maybe you're here this morning

and you don't have that assurance.

Maybe you're still feeling

the frustration and defeat

of chapter seven.

Maybe you're not experiencing

those blessings from the Holy Spirit.

And when we got to those options

during the questions,

you kind of leaned more towards

the self options.

So this passage does teach

that if the Spirit is not confirming

and is not proving

that you're His child in these ways,

then you're not adopted

as a child of God.

So have you fully surrendered this morning?

Have you fully surrendered

and given himself to Him?

Are you trying to do it in your own power

apart from the Spirit?

You can surrender today

and you can do it in your own power

and you can make Him Lord of your life.

We're going to give you an opportunity

to do that right now.

So let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

I just thank you so much

for your Holy Spirit.

Thank you so much

for the blessings of your Spirit

and how it proves

that we belong to you.

Just amazing encouragements.

Lord, I just pray

that if there's anybody here this morning

that maybe doesn't have that assurance,

maybe hasn't surrendered to you,

that you would speak to their hearts today

and that they would accept you,

that they would accept that gift

and that they would allow the Spirit

to come in and testify

in their lives

that they belong to you.

It's the greatest thing ever, Lord.

Thank you.

Thank you again for the opportunity this morning.

Thank you for being here with us.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.