Dale Partridge - The Adoption of Unworthy Sinners - Romans 8_12-15

00:00:00.960 Amen. Well, welcome. And I'm excited that we finally get to get into the word here in a deep

00:00:06.360 level. What a blessing it is to be in Romans chapter eight, right? It's such a beautiful book.

00:00:11.620 And as we continue this wonderful chapter here in chapter eight, allow me to just give you a quick

00:00:18.420 recap because some of you guys are new here. And I want you guys to have a little historical

00:00:22.580 background, what we've been through over the last several weeks. In 8.1, it's this famous

00:00:28.560 verse that we see. Some people have this over their kitchen table. Some people have this

00:00:35.900 written down and pasted on their desk. Some people have this even tattooed on their body,

00:00:40.240 but it's Romans 8.1. And it says, therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ

00:00:46.200 Jesus. It is the conclusion. That statement is the concluding fact of the line of reasoning

00:00:54.120 that we saw in chapters five and six and seven he closes with that great truth that says there

00:01:02.280 is therefore no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus now in the next 10 verses

00:01:10.120 he provided additional clarification and this is again going back a few weeks for us

00:01:15.480 he provided additional clarification he's focusing not just on our changed relationship

00:01:20.200 with sin and law and death as he did in chapter 5 6 and 7 but on our union with the spirit that's

00:01:27.720 the focus of chapter 8 our union with the spirit he presents this clear contrast between two

00:01:34.360 identities those who walk in the flesh and those who are in the spirit and walk in the spirit and

00:01:42.600 he contrasts these by essentially highlighting the corresponding lifestyles that will stem from these

00:01:49.720 two identities. There are spirit walkers and there are flesh walkers, and there are two distinct

00:01:57.400 identities. And last week we learned that he spoke of the identity of the Spirit. What does it mean

00:02:06.120 to be in the Spirit? What does it mean to have that identity that you are one in the Spirit,

00:02:13.400 namely a born-again Christian? And he tells them that although there is no condemnation for those

00:02:19.560 that are in christ that's the premise of this chapter and although christ died as our substitute

00:02:26.920 he died the death that we deserve uh he says last week in the last week's text that they're still

00:02:33.320 going to die and that was something that paul wanted to address the fact that well wait a second 0.57

00:02:39.960 if christ died the death that we deserve then why do christians still have to die 0.79

00:02:44.760 And we spoke about that last week 0.92

00:02:46.700 and the fact that it is actually our blessing

00:02:49.620 to share in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

00:02:55.880 Ultimately, the closing of last week,

00:02:57.620 and this is kind of just giving you the context

00:02:59.220 for where we're gonna start off this week,

00:03:00.920 was the idea that the gift of spiritual life

00:03:03.860 surpasses the cost of physical death.

00:03:06.800 I want you to really grasp that just for a second,

00:03:08.980 is that the gift of spiritual life

00:03:11.040 is actually so valuable

00:03:13.360 that it surpasses the cost of physical death.

00:03:16.720 That is the value of being in union with the spirit.

00:03:21.280 And so this power, this power of Jesus Christ

00:03:24.800 that's dwelling in us, in the spirit walkers,

00:03:28.700 those of us who have been born again,

00:03:30.320 is the same power that brought Jesus's body

00:03:33.820 out of the grave.

00:03:36.160 That was where we ended last week.

00:03:38.680 And because of that truth,

00:03:41.180 we can have confidence that the same power that dwells in Christ

00:03:44.320 that resurrected his body that died will resurrect our body that dies.

00:03:51.060 Now, it's only natural to be concerned with death.

00:03:56.540 I've been chronically ill for many years.

00:03:59.760 There are days and moments and hours and minutes that I think,

00:04:04.040 I'm going to die today.

00:04:06.040 or I feel like I'm slowly approaching death.

00:04:13.720 A few years ago, if you saw pictures of me,

00:04:15.820 people would come up to my wife and tell her,

00:04:17.760 are you sure he doesn't have cancer?

00:04:21.740 Death is a natural thing to be afraid of

00:04:24.540 in the sense that God designed our bodies to be afraid of death.

00:04:29.320 Try not breathing for longer than a minute.

00:04:34.060 your body will naturally panic. It's designed to do so. Death is an enemy to us. We hate death.

00:04:46.940 And Paul wanted us to understand that though we are going to lose these temporal bodies,

00:04:50.680 though every one of us are going to experience that reality of physical death,

00:04:55.720 that the spirit, the value of the spirit in us

00:05:01.620 is actually going to overcome that fear of physical death.

00:05:09.160 It's going to overcome that reality of physical death.

00:05:11.880 In fact, it's going to resurrect and reverse that physical death at one point.

00:05:18.360 And this at some point should calm you.

00:05:20.740 It should give you peace that though my body will die, it will be resurrected.

00:05:29.800 And so in today's text, that is the context of where we've been.

00:05:33.420 In today's text, the apostle shifts from explanation to exhortation.

00:05:39.160 He shifts from facts to function.

00:05:43.680 And because those things are true, he essentially says, act this way.

00:05:49.660 So this is the first time in chapter eight that we get some instruction on how to act

00:05:54.620 a particular way.

00:05:56.900 And because Christ has rescued you from the dominion of sin, from the dominion of the

00:06:00.460 law, from the dominion of death, Paul's essentially going to encourage us to give your allegiance

00:06:07.120 to Christ, give your life to Christ, and every possible way that you live, operate

00:06:15.160 for the glory of Christ.

00:06:17.760 Now in Romans 8, 12, I'm going to read it to you.

00:06:20.380 It says, so then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

00:06:31.900 I want to stop right there.

00:06:33.760 He's addressing the brethren.

00:06:37.660 Now the word brethren, it's a delphos in the Greek or a delphoi if it's in the plural in the Greek.

00:06:44.460 and this word is actually made up of two Greek words,

00:06:48.620 one meaning the same and the other one meaning born.

00:06:53.300 And so the idea is that we are born of the same womb.

00:06:57.140 That's really the concept behind the word Adelphos

00:07:00.940 is that he's saying, brethren,

00:07:03.600 those of you who are born of the same thing,

00:07:07.540 those of you who have a familial connection to one another.

00:07:11.320 and he's essentially emphasizing our common birth, that we are united uniquely because of that birth

00:07:21.360 and it creates and it should create and I think what is often missing in the church today is a

00:07:25.520 familial element to the church. Church should feel like a family. We are truly brothers and

00:07:34.400 sisters in Christ. He says that those of us who have been born of the Spirit are in debt.

00:07:42.540 Or your scripture might say under obligation. You owe someone. This is important. Pay attention.

00:07:50.000 You are in debt. You owe someone. You have a master. You are somebody's slave.

00:07:56.560 but you're not the slaves of the flesh. You're not the slaves of the flesh. You do have a master

00:08:05.960 but it's not your flesh. It's not your flesh. You're not supposed to be doing the sinful

00:08:12.140 deeds for the promotion and the advancement of the flesh. You're supposed to be doing

00:08:16.320 the deeds in the promotion and the advancement of Christ. I think about a police officer,

00:08:23.720 right? Brent in the back, he's a police officer. A police officer is under obligation.

00:08:30.120 They're under obligation, but he's not under obligation to gangs or drug dealers.

00:08:35.080 That's not the authority that he is submitting to. If a cop submits to the lawbreakers that

00:08:43.540 he's actually supposed to eliminate, we would call that cop corrupt. It's an abomination.

00:08:49.100 and the same is to be said of a Christian 1.00

00:08:53.100 who is under the obligation to Christ

00:08:54.700 but instead serves the authority of the flesh.

00:09:00.600 When you walk in the flesh

00:09:03.700 but claim the name of Christ, 0.97

00:09:06.820 you're corrupt. 0.99

00:09:10.120 That's an abomination. 1.00

00:09:12.220 You're serving the wrong master. 1.00

00:09:14.080 Christians are not to obey the flesh they're not to perform the deeds that satisfy the demands of 1.00

00:09:26.540 the flesh he's not our ruler that's not our dominion that's not our master 0.78

00:09:32.340 we're not to pay homage to the flesh with lies with lusts with anger who of you struggles with

00:09:41.720 anger? Who of you struggles with lust? Who of you struggles with lies? When you

00:09:48.340 fall into those realities, you are paying homage to the master of the flesh. As a

00:09:58.400 Christian, your allegiance is not to the enemy. It's not to the flesh. It's to

00:10:05.000 Christ. So when that sinful temptation arises, you need to be in the habit of

00:10:13.440 saying, no, I'm not going to obey the flesh. I'm going to obey Christ. It should

00:10:20.580 happen daily. It happened to me this morning. You're not ruled by the flesh.

00:10:27.560 the animating power of your life is Christ.

00:10:33.560 Don't be corrupt.

00:10:35.680 Don't be ruled by that which is not your ruler.

00:10:41.720 Verse 13, he gives an explanation further. 0.86

00:10:44.140 He says, for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.

00:10:49.380 But if by the spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

00:10:53.300 now the word for we are smart Bible interpreters in this congregation so the word for is typically

00:11:01.760 offering you an explanation or it's signaling the cause of the previous verse and so we want

00:11:11.340 to know how to interpret our Bibles we don't want to be 20 years into being Christians and have no

00:11:14.860 idea how to properly read our Bibles that would be foolish what thing do you do for 20 years and 0.96

00:11:21.320 you are still a novice. Nothing. We should be incredible Bible interpreters because we are 0.96

00:11:28.800 faithful and we learn how to read the book that we rely our entire lives upon. So verse 13 is

00:11:36.780 really offering us further explanation for verse 12. He says, for if you are living according to

00:11:41.200 the flesh, you must die. Now, when he uses the term you, look down at your Bible as you can see

00:11:50.680 that. He's not speaking to Christians as if Christians are oscillating between living in

00:11:55.660 the flesh and living in the spirit. He's not speaking in that particular manner. Jesus says

00:12:01.260 in John 3, 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is

00:12:06.960 spirit. They are two distinct realities. You are one or the other. Now, can you misstep and do a

00:12:15.140 deed in the flesh, certainly. But you are not of the flesh unless you are not born again.

00:12:22.140 But if you're born again, you are born of the spirit. So when Paul says you, he's using what

00:12:29.100 grammar would call the second plural pronoun. It's an indefinite pronoun. We don't have a second

00:12:35.000 plural pronoun in English, so we don't say yous, we say y'all, right? So this passage really could

00:12:42.660 be translated, for if y'all are living according to the flesh, y'all must die.

00:12:48.000 That's essentially what's being said there. Young's literal translation says, quote, for if

00:12:54.740 according to the flesh you do live, you are to die, end quote. Now, Romans 6.23, a very powerful

00:13:03.140 passage of scripture, it says the wages of sin is death. That's what the scriptures teach. The wages

00:13:08.180 of sin is death. When I was preaching through chapters five and six a few months ago,

00:13:15.560 I offered you a biblical definition of death, and you should have this understood. If you don't

00:13:22.540 understand how to define death according to the scriptures, you will be confused by much of the

00:13:26.540 scriptures. According to scripture, death is separation. Death is separation. The Greek word

00:13:37.820 for die is apothnesko. And it's really made up of two Greek words, apo, which means to go away from,

00:13:45.700 and thanatos, which is the word for death. And so it really implies this idea of separation.

00:13:52.000 And so physical death is the separation of the soul from the body.

00:13:55.740 That makes sense, right?

00:13:56.840 What happens when you die?

00:13:58.820 Well, your soul separates from your body.

00:14:02.660 Now, spiritual death is the separation of your soul from God.

00:14:11.100 The life source of the soul is God.

00:14:14.880 And when it is separated from it, you are spiritually dead.

00:14:21.340 Now, Revelation 20, 14 speaks of a second death, a final death,

00:14:29.320 a death that you will experience if you are not born again,

00:14:32.820 if you are not spiritually resurrected to new life.

00:14:39.720 That second death is the eternal separation of your soul from God.

00:14:47.600 It's the death that generally when Scripture speaks of death,

00:14:51.340 that's the death that it's speaking about.

00:14:55.880 If you sin, you will die.

00:14:58.960 Sin, the wages of sin are death.

00:15:01.640 That word death is talking about the second death,

00:15:04.840 the eternal separation of your soul from God.

00:15:10.100 Paul says that those who live according to the flesh, 0.98

00:15:13.640 these flesh walkers and their very being, 1.00

00:15:17.000 it's who they are, 1.00

00:15:18.800 they must die. 1.00

00:15:21.340 If God is to be a God of justice, if God is to uphold righteousness and punish evil and reward 0.99

00:15:30.720 goodness, then those who live in the sinful flesh must pay the consequence of sin, which is eternal

00:15:39.620 death. This is what Paul is saying. He's saying, if you walk in the flesh, if you're one of those

00:15:47.800 people who do not have spiritual life, you will die. If I could summarize the statement, it would

00:15:57.620 say, if you live in the flesh, you will die. And this is important because in the second half of

00:16:04.260 the verse, Paul makes an observation of the contrast. And I want you guys just to look to

00:16:08.580 verse 13 for a second. He says, but if by the spirit, you are putting to death the deeds of

00:16:17.560 the body you will live so one must die but the other path says you will live

00:16:28.900 Paul is saying if you live in the flesh you will die but if you're one of those

00:16:33.320 who puts the flesh to death you will live now I want you to notice that the

00:16:40.440 means of putting the flesh to death look down in your Bible 0.80

00:16:47.560 putting to death the deeds of the body, how is it done?

00:16:53.320 By the Spirit.

00:16:55.880 By the Spirit.

00:16:58.020 And this is important for two reasons.

00:17:02.660 First, it means that when you obey the will of God,

00:17:04.680 it's because the Spirit's conviction, not your inherent goodness.

00:17:10.520 When you obey the will of God, you don't get to look in the mirror.

00:17:14.880 It's not your inherent goodness.

00:17:16.300 It's the spirit of God in you.

00:17:21.600 Paul said in the last chapter, verse 7, 18, it says,

00:17:25.180 for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.

00:17:30.340 Nothing good dwells in you, except Christ.

00:17:38.460 That is every time you do the righteousness of Christ,

00:17:41.940 God gets the credit because it's not you who is good,

00:17:45.740 but Christ in you. Does that make sense? When you misapply the motive or the act

00:17:56.300 of obedience, you plagiarize the spirit. You actually produce fertile ground for

00:18:03.080 boasting and pride and legalism. When you think that it's you as a believer

00:18:13.300 said no to pornography.

00:18:16.280 When you think it's you who had that self-control

00:18:19.200 or had joy in the face of trials

00:18:21.720 and not Christ,

00:18:24.580 that's pride.

00:18:27.420 That's not giving credit where credit is due.

00:18:31.680 Second,

00:18:33.560 this means that when temptation comes

00:18:35.720 and when lust arises

00:18:37.480 and when rage comes

00:18:40.600 And when the temptation of deception is there, the means to eliminate them are not your own willpower.

00:18:51.180 It's not just being a better person.

00:18:55.580 It's not counting to three.

00:18:58.600 It's not using Tony Robbins' three tips for self-discipline.

00:19:04.180 No, it is by prayer, by worship, by praise, by the word of God.

00:19:09.580 It is by the spiritual that we overcome these temptations.

00:19:14.500 2 Corinthians 10.4 says,

00:19:16.200 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.

00:19:23.060 How many of you turn to pragmatism when you are tempted?

00:19:29.680 How many of you fight battles in the flesh and not in the spirit?

00:19:35.340 Ephesians 6 10 says

00:19:40.480 Finally be strong in the Lord

00:19:43.360 And in the strength of his might

00:19:45.980 Verse 14 if you guys look down your Bibles

00:19:53.780 Paul offers another statement of explanation

00:19:55.560 You can start to see this process

00:19:58.540 This flow of further and further explanation

00:20:00.900 Started with the word for

00:20:02.580 For, for

00:20:04.700 He's given us greater and greater explanation.

00:20:08.860 Verse 14 says,

00:20:11.000 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.

00:20:19.780 Ultimately, Paul is saying that those who live this way,

00:20:23.880 those who do not submit to the dominion of the flesh,

00:20:27.420 those people who are animated by the Spirit,

00:20:30.800 those are the sons and daughters of God.

00:20:34.280 You see them over there?

00:20:37.460 Walking not according to the flesh?

00:20:40.900 Those are the sons and daughters of God.

00:20:45.120 These people are the ones that are evidencing in their own life

00:20:48.280 that they're the ones without condemnation.

00:20:54.940 That they're the ones from the freedom of the dominion of the law

00:20:58.100 and of sin and death.

00:21:02.100 Is that you?

00:21:05.080 Is that what your life looks like on a regular basis?

00:21:08.860 Are you walking in the spirit?

00:21:10.420 Is that true of you?

00:21:16.440 If that is true of you, it should give you assurance.

00:21:19.340 This is a verse of assurance.

00:21:21.340 It should give you and grant you peace.

00:21:25.420 That I could look back at my own life and see

00:21:30.020 that I'm ruled and animated by God's spirit.

00:21:34.280 that I love the things of Christ,

00:21:38.480 that I long for the word of God,

00:21:41.180 that I want to see righteousness done in this world,

00:21:45.080 that the affections of my life are pointed towards holy things,

00:21:52.620 that when I sin, I am convicted.

00:21:58.380 If that's you, that's wonderful.

00:22:01.720 that this is a passage of assurance to you.

00:22:08.720 See, moralism can pretend for a time.

00:22:13.240 Religiosity can pretend for a time.

00:22:16.340 There are many people in the church

00:22:18.080 that came to the church but never came to Christ.

00:22:21.760 Many people who are moralists and religious people

00:22:24.980 who have never been born again.

00:22:26.540 but it can only stand for a time

00:22:31.840 because when they're alone

00:22:34.580 they know

00:22:37.800 that their heart isn't given to holy things

00:22:42.180 they know that the pattern of their life

00:22:47.660 is actually fixed on materialism

00:22:50.700 and pleasure and sensuality

00:22:53.000 but it's important because I can't tell you how many times I have seen people who thought they

00:23:01.780 were saved for a decade come to Christ in the middle of a sermon I have walked a gentleman

00:23:08.080 who was applying for our school at seminary I shared the gospel with him in his interview as

00:23:14.740 he was trying to become a pastor and he came to Christ over the phone he wrote me a letter

00:23:20.420 three weeks later

00:23:22.720 telling me that the Spirit of God

00:23:25.460 crushed him on that call.

00:23:32.880 This passage should bring comfort to those

00:23:34.700 who can see the leading of the Spirit in their life.

00:23:39.220 This is a testimony of your identity.

00:23:42.180 It's who you are.

00:23:45.920 Your natural affections have been changed.

00:23:48.420 Your heart loves holy things.

00:23:54.260 Paul continues with one more statement of explanation in verse 15.

00:23:58.300 He says, for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again.

00:24:02.480 But, contrast, right?

00:24:04.000 But you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

00:24:11.440 you are not under the law you're not under the reigning and ruling power or the condemning

00:24:21.740 power of the law you're not under sin you're not under death any longer you are now

00:24:26.820 under the spirit you're not under the unbenevolent ruler of the flesh

00:24:32.120 you're now sons and daughter of the king and god's house has no fearful children

00:24:39.800 this is important

00:24:43.900 1 John 4

00:24:46.600 it says

00:24:48.800 there is no fear in love

00:24:50.320 but perfect love

00:24:51.120 casts out fear

00:24:52.140 for fear

00:24:53.900 has to do with punishment

00:24:57.100 and whoever fears

00:25:00.320 has not been perfected

00:25:01.520 in love

00:25:01.940 Paul reminds Timothy

00:25:04.980 in his second epistle

00:25:05.980 that God has not

00:25:06.940 given you a spirit of fear

00:25:08.400 but of power and love and a sound mind.

00:25:15.380 When a person comes up to me or they're in the church

00:25:18.520 and they struggle with the regular experience

00:25:24.160 of fear of punishment,

00:25:26.500 when they view God as this wrathful father,

00:25:31.360 and this is common,

00:25:34.940 when someone comes up to me this way,

00:25:37.240 I think that they are either ignorant of the mechanics of the gospel or they are not saved.

00:25:43.560 When someone views God the Father as a wrathful and vengeful God against them, these are people

00:25:50.680 who say they're saved, by the way, because God will put his wrath upon those who sin. 0.67

00:25:57.340 But when someone calls themselves a Christian who dwells in the house of the Lord, 0.78

00:26:01.540 who calls God their father, 0.76

00:26:04.900 but views their father as a vengeful and angry father.

00:26:10.640 They either do not understand the gospel

00:26:13.160 or they are actually not saved.

00:26:18.340 John says, fear has to do with punishment.

00:26:23.320 And Paul says, therefore, there is no condemnation

00:26:28.080 for those who are in Christ Jesus.

00:26:31.540 there's a conflict going on in the mind of this Christian.

00:26:39.360 There is no punishment coming for the Christian 0.54

00:26:42.000 because God put the punishment on Christ. 0.80

00:26:45.760 Do you understand this?

00:26:49.140 Christ was punished for your sin.

00:26:54.780 Isaiah 53, 5.

00:26:57.560 What an incredible passage of scripture.

00:26:59.380 Let me read it to you.

00:27:00.100 But he was pierced for our transgression.

00:27:04.600 He was crushed for our iniquities.

00:27:07.420 The punishment that brought our peace was laid on him.

00:27:18.520 There is punishment, but it's not on you.

00:27:24.220 I can't tell you how many Christians I've spoken to

00:27:29.480 that even after repentance,

00:27:33.200 even after a heartfelt state before the Lord,

00:27:39.280 they are still wallowing in shame and guilt.

00:27:44.440 And I have to remind them that Christ paid for all of it.

00:27:49.880 All of it.

00:27:53.380 In fact, to be born again

00:27:55.220 and to live in fear of punishment

00:27:59.140 is a suppression of grace and mercy.

00:28:04.900 And I would say that grace suppression

00:28:07.720 is just as evil as truth suppression.

00:28:13.240 The suppression of grace and mercy

00:28:15.180 is not good for your soul.

00:28:19.280 In fact, it actually leads to pride.

00:28:23.380 It's a denial of the mercy of the gospel.

00:28:26.100 It's not grasping the reality

00:28:28.320 of what happened to Christ on your behalf.

00:28:33.440 It's to say to Christ,

00:28:35.020 your work on the cross was not sufficient

00:28:37.660 to pay for all of my sins.

00:28:39.420 I'm going to do the rest.

00:28:43.380 Do you have any idea 0.99

00:28:44.960 how ridiculous and how evil that thought is? 0.99

00:28:49.640 That you're going to sit here in guilt 0.99

00:28:51.640 while Christ paid for everything?

00:28:55.720 And you're not going to receive the mercy and grace

00:28:58.240 that is true of the gospel it's wrong it's wrong the gospel says that all of

00:29:07.540 your sin for the person that is repentant for the person that does not

00:29:13.360 trust upon their own righteousness for the person that will stand before God on

00:29:17.680 judgment day and him say why are you here and he'd point to Christ and say his

00:29:23.840 righteousness is my righteousness through faith. That person, that person, all of their sin has

00:29:34.740 been paid for. And it's been paid for by the consequence of death for the wages of sin is

00:29:41.760 death, but not the death that we die, but the death that Christ died for us on our behalf

00:29:45.980 As our substitute, Christ died for us.

00:29:52.420 So that perceived guilt that you have,

00:29:56.860 that perceived shame that you have,

00:30:01.360 it needs to turn to gratitude.

00:30:04.840 That perceived fear that you have,

00:30:09.760 it's wrong and it needs to turn to peace.

00:30:15.980 And if you have this right, if you have an understanding of the gospel right, it'll crush you.

00:30:28.740 It'll crush you.

00:30:32.220 And it should crush you.

00:30:36.100 To think about the sin that you're going to commit willingly next week was paid for.

00:30:45.980 That should crush you.

00:30:50.800 That Christ willingly took the punishment

00:30:54.180 for the things that you willingly did

00:30:57.760 in the face of mercy and grace.

00:31:01.180 That should crush you.

00:31:05.100 And to humble your heart even more,

00:31:07.640 Paul speaks of adoption.

00:31:10.060 To go even further than just forgiveness,

00:31:12.660 he says, I'm bringing you into my house.

00:31:15.980 He contrasts those who are under this unbenevolent ruler of the flesh,

00:31:26.480 where fear and shame and guilt, and they hide from the wrath of God.

00:31:32.920 And he contrasts it with the Christian who has received the spirit of adoption

00:31:38.660 that leads to the embrace of a loving father.

00:31:43.080 Look at the scripture.

00:31:45.980 Ephesians 1, 4 through 5 says,

00:31:51.680 In love, he, that is God, predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.

00:32:04.060 You could spend years on that passage of scripture.

00:32:09.080 the adoption of God is a struggle for us because it implies to us that we were wanted

00:32:19.640 in all of our moral sin and all of our filth and all of our wickedness

00:32:28.920 and all of our guilt and all of our hatred for God and love for the world

00:32:35.320 this doctrine says that you were wanted.

00:32:42.840 God who saw in you before the foundation of the world

00:32:46.460 every possible wicked thing that you would do

00:32:48.780 stops and says, that one.

00:32:52.820 I want that one. 0.94

00:32:56.200 That should crush you. 0.83

00:32:59.760 Unless you are just blind because self-love is blinding 1.00

00:33:03.040 and you don't really understand how wicked and filthy you are. 0.96

00:33:08.060 But when you see the absolute depravity of yourself, 0.99

00:33:13.920 and you see that God says, I want you, that should crush you.

00:33:25.820 He didn't do this because of any moral value.

00:33:28.120 He didn't look through the corridors of time and say,

00:33:29.840 oh, this one's going to be so obedient.

00:33:33.660 I'm going to grab that one because of how good he is.

00:33:36.440 Look at Dale.

00:33:37.280 He's wonderful.

00:33:40.260 No.

00:33:41.580 2 Timothy 1.9 says of God, quote,

00:33:45.980 who saved us and called us to a holy calling,

00:33:48.600 not because of our works, but because of him

00:33:50.480 whose own purpose and grace was fulfilled,

00:33:53.860 which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

00:34:00.840 Now this adoption, this adoption is not artificial.

00:34:06.040 It's not second rate.

00:34:07.540 It's actually legal.

00:34:08.900 It's binding.

00:34:09.940 It's a real adoption.

00:34:11.120 It's transactional.

00:34:12.120 It confers all the rights of Christ to us.

00:34:17.660 The love that the Father has for Jesus, he has the exact same love for you.

00:34:26.760 Just sit on that for a second.

00:34:29.840 The love that the father has for Christ through adoption, he has the exact same love for you.

00:34:43.260 The security of eternal life that's bestowed upon the son is the same degree of security

00:34:48.280 that has been bestowed upon you.

00:34:54.880 That should change you.

00:34:58.840 That should change the way that you live.

00:35:04.280 In Christ, we can come to the Father and say, oh, Dad, Father, not out of fear, but out

00:35:14.960 of peace.

00:35:17.800 We can come informally.

00:35:19.460 We can approach the throne with boldness.

00:35:21.560 We can speak with him as one who loves us.

00:35:34.440 I'll close with this.

00:35:36.200 This should be a great assurance to those who walk in the Spirit.

00:35:41.140 It should inform us to the degree of security and love that we have from the Father in Christ.

00:35:48.820 It should produce a holy confidence and peace in us.

00:35:54.440 It should lead you to a life of worship and obedience.

00:35:59.160 It should have you say no to the things of the flesh.

00:36:06.520 One pastor concluded the passage this way.

00:36:10.320 He said, what does all this mean?

00:36:12.800 What does all this mean?

00:36:16.980 He says, you are rich, don't live like a poor man.

00:36:20.740 You have the Holy Spirit, don't live in the flesh.

00:36:23.920 You have access to God, use it.

00:36:26.400 You have brothers and sisters, lean on them.

00:36:28.760 You have spiritual gifts, put the work to Christ.

00:36:31.680 You have been set free from the flesh, flee from temptation.

00:36:34.720 You have a new family, stop living like you're alone.

00:36:40.220 This is the beauty of the gospel, let's pray.

00:36:44.400 Father, we thank you for the work of your son, Jesus.

00:36:53.360 We thank you also for your will to save

00:36:56.440 and for the work that you did before the foundation of the world,

00:37:01.360 a covenant of redemption in the Trinity to save us.

00:37:04.780 Lord, we ask that you would give us just a little bit of understanding

00:37:08.400 that we might glorify in that reality.

00:37:14.400 we thank you father for the work that you're doing in this church

00:37:18.940 and we ask that these truths will be implanted in us in jesus name amen amen

Dale Partridge - January 18, 2024

The Adoption of Unworthy Sinners - Romans 8_12-15

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