Two Journeys

Turn in your Bibles if you would to Romans 8:28-30. We have been moving our way through this, the most assuring and encouraging chapter of the Bible. We have seen that from beginning to end, God is speaking to us as his people a word of consolation, a word of comfort, a word of assurance, a word of certainty in an uncertain world. And as we've moved through this chapter, we have seen a building crescendo of assurance, of things that will give us assurance, starting with the historical fact of the giving of Jesus Christ on the cross, the fact that he died on the cross, his blood was shed. Right from the very beginning. It says, "What the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his Son in the likeness of a sinful man to be a sin offering."

And so we have right at the very being of this chapter Jesus Christ portrayed before us on the cross. Dead on the cross, as an atonement for our sins. But it also speaks of the new life that we have in Christ. Not only are we dead with Christ spiritually but we're also risen with Christ spiritually. We have a new life, and it speaks of that as well. It says, "In order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit." And so we have a new life in the Spirit, and for those people, there is therefore now no condemnation, for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because of the death of Christ, and because of the assurance we have of the new life in the Spirit, we know that there's no condemnation for us.

And so Paul works his way through and gives us a solid assurance. From verse 1, "There is no condemnation," to verse 39, "There is no separation." God is speaking a word of consolation, a word of comfort, a word of assurance. And I'd like to ask you today: on what are you basing your confidence? What are you basing your assurance of salvation on? A building is only as secure as its foundation. What is the foundation of your assurance of salvation? Are you looking to yourself? Are you looking inward? Are you looking at your own faith, your own trust, your own life, your own achievements? And if so, I submit to you today that your foundation is weak. It's like quicksand and it will not stand up the trials and testing of life. A building is only as secure as the foundation.

And I believe that God gives us in the verses we're looking at today an eternally secure foundation that our salvation is based on his eternal saving purposes in Christ. Purposes that were laid out, that were worked out before the foundation of the world. And that's a solid, secure foundation. Another way to look at it is that our assurance has a root system. A tree, a great tree is only as healthy as its root system. And our assurance is alive, isn't it? It's a living thing. And we are to be drawing nourishment from the doctrines we're looking at today. We're to be kind of sucking moisture and nourishment up out of the soil of doctrine so that we can stand up against the storms of life. How healthy is your root system? If you're looking inward, it's not healthy, it cannot survive, but if you're looking to God, the author and finisher of your faith, then you will survive every trial that you face. And so we're looking at the foundation of our assurance. We're looking at the root system of our assurance, and we're supposed to be drawing on it. Look at the first phrases that we're looking at, at verse 28.

Roman 8:28, it says, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." We know that. What is Paul doing? He's saying, we've learned this. We've come to understand these things. We're drawing on the doctrine. We know this. We are meditating on it. We're thinking about it. And based on that, we have a full, a healthy, a strong assurance of salvation.

And so we're looking today at the foundation of our assurance, the foundation of our salvation really. We're looking at its root system. Our ultimate security comes from this. If you are a Christian, it is because God chose you before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. That's what Ephesians chapter 1 says, and Romans 8 teaches it too. If you're a Christian, it's because of God's eternal decree, his choice. And that means that God set his love on you before the foundation of the world. You personally. He knows you by name and he set his love on you before the foundation of the world. Before your ancestors crossed the ocean to get here, whenever that was, before the Pilgrims set foot on the Mayflower and crossed the Atlantic. If your ancestors were the Pilgrims, all the better for you.

But before that even happened, before Columbus set foot on the Santa Maria, before the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, before Alexander the Great swept across Asia Minor, before the pyramid Cheops and the Sphinx, the timeless sphinx were built, before any of that. Before God said, "Let there be light," before any of that, he set his love on you in Christ. Amen. And that is the foundation of your security, it's the foundation of your assurance, and it will not be shaken no matter what happens to you in life.

Now, Christianity is a mysterious religion. Is it not? We teach mysteries, aged-old ancient mysteries before the foundation of the world we're talking about. What other religion talks about these kinds of things? But we preach a mysterious gospel. We preach that God who created the ends of the earth, all the distant nebula and all that, took on a human body as a baby in a manger and grew up as a regular flesh and blood man. Is that not mysterious? How many of you sitting here can say, "I fully understand the incarnation of Jesus Christ, how he could be fully God and fully man." It's a mystery. We can't understand it. Can you understand how his coming to earth and the details of his life could have been written down on parchment and ink 600 to 1000 years before he was born. Can you understand that or is that not a mystery as well? We preach a mysterious religion.

Can you understand the mysteries of Jesus's miracles? How he could speak to the winds and the waves, and instantly they would be still, or how he could walk on water, or even more risen from the dead on the third day, having something called a resurrection body that can suddenly appear and disappear and move through walls. Can you understand that? This is a mysterious faith that we have a mysterious religion, and I think of all the mysteries, perhaps the mysteries surrounding our salvation are the greatest, and we're not going to understand them all. We're going to try to plumb the depths today and the analogy I've used before we're out in a dingy over the Marianas Trench, seven miles down below is the bottom of that trench, and we're all going to pay out our string today and we're going to see if we can find the depth. We're going to find the bottom or we're going to run out of string. This is a mystery, the things we're talking about are mysterious, and yet God wants us to know them, doesn't he? Because he had Paul write this so that we would understand.

The remarkable thing about the way Paul comes at assurance here, is this starts in the middle of our daily lives, all the suffering and struggle that we have. And he says that in the midst of all of that, all of those things that we struggle and suffer with in the midst of all of that, God causes it to work together for good. So he starts right in the middle of our lives, and then what does he do? He reaches back before the foundation of the world to something called predestination, before the foundation of the world, and he goes back there and then he goes across where we are now to the end of the world. Something called glorification.

And so with starting where we are he reaches back in eternity past and out to eternity future, and then gathers this up into assurance. Isn't that remarkable? And he does it in three verses. You realize how difficult what I'm trying to do is today? I assume you hope to get out of here somewhere around noon. I know that. I can see it on your faces. I know that there are things that you're interested in but you realize that some pastors preach 17 or 18 weeks on these three verses? We are talking about the three great doctrines on which our assurance is based.

Predestination, predestination before the foundation of the world. We're talking about providence, God's sovereign rule over everyday life. And we're talking about perseverance right to the end. That God is going to stick with us until he's finished with us. And we're going to do that in about 11 minutes. How can we do it? But that's what we're looking at today. Providence, predestination, perseverance, and all of this adds up to total assurance of salvation. God is at work in you and the things he's doing in you he's going to be working at until they're finished and it's going to hurt. It's going to be hard. There's going to be suffering. There's going to be struggle, but in all of this, God is working to accomplish his eternal purpose.

And what is that purpose? That you be perfect in Christ, that you be conformed to Jesus Christ, that you're with him forever in heaven. And that is the highest and greatest assurance there is. I want you to understand differently and more strongly what it means when it says that nothing else in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. That's very specific theological language of a kind of love that was set on you before the foundation of the world.

And it's not finished yet. The Love has got hold of you and he's working on you and he's going to keep working until he has finished and nothing will separate you from the love of God. And that's the basis of your assurance. Now, this is a difficult doctrine. Some people have a hard time with it. There was a poem written in 1894, you've heard it before, I'm sure some of you anyway, by William Ernest Henley. He was going through suffering. We all go through suffering. Christian and non-Christian alike go through hard times in life, and Henley was going through suffering. He lost his 6-year-old daughter, Margaret. She was the love of his life, the light of his life. He had already gone through a great deal of suffering. I won't bring you through the ups and downs, but he was not a believer in Jesus Christ. And he wrote a poem called Invictus, which means 'I have not been conquered'.

And the first and last stanza runs like this, "Out of the night that covers me, black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."

Well those are beautiful words, but they don't ring true to Scripture, do they? Now in one sense, we navigate the ship of state, the ship of our souls through all kinds of things, but are we able to navigate to heaven? Are we able to get through the trials of life, through Judgment Day, through all of the punishments written on the scroll? Are we able to get through all that and go to heaven? No. We must be saved. We must have a savior and we are not in fact the master of our fate and the captain of our soul if we hope to go to heaven, but rather that there's a savior and his name is Jesus Christ. The great Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon spoke about this doctrine, the sovereignty of God. And this is what he said,

"There is no attribute more comforting to God's children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their master over all creation, the kingship of God over all the works of his own hands, the throne of God and his right to sit upon that throne. On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne. They will allow him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow him to be in his almonry to dispense his alms and bestow his bounties and goodness.They will allow him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends his throne, his creatures then gnash their teeth, and we proclaim an enthroned God, and his right to do as he wills with his own, to dispose of his creatures as he thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that we are hissed and execrated, then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on his throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon his throne whom we trust."

The thing that I want to say to you today is that God sitting on his throne, guarantees you salvation if you're one of his children. That is the solid foundation because God takes his sovereign power and puts it at the disposal of his church that they may be saved.

Now what is the context of this word of assurance? Well, it is our present suffering, as we already talked about. We live in difficult times. September 11th opened the eyes of many people to the possibility of instant death quite frankly. And also of something as great as The World Trade Center, a landmark, really a symbol of New York City, instantly removed, and I think people were struck by that and they're still kind of reeling to some degree about it.

But there have been other tragedies since then. You heard about the volcano that erupted in the Congo displacing 400,000 people from their homes, many of them are Christians. Your brothers and sisters in Christ displaced from their homes. Ongoing war between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Day after day after day we see the suffering in that small area. And then there's localized suffering.

Duke Hospital and Durham Regional, every day little sagas of suffering and tragedy are being played out. Sometimes it touches you. Sometime in the future it may touch you. There's suffering in this world and in the middle of that suffering comes this word of assurance. Paul is speaking to people who are struggling and who are suffering with tragedies. Look at Romans 8:23. It says, "We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan inwardly." There's an internal groaning in the Christian life. There's a struggle and a suffering. And in the middle, we're tempted when a loved one is suddenly struck down or we ourselves receive a bad report from an oncologist, cancer has struck us, we're going to cry out, "God, where are you in all of this?"

That's the time you've got to pull on your root system. You got to go back to the foundation and say, "God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love him." There is Christian suffering. Look at verse 18: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." And so there is present suffering, but there is also a future glory and so the apostle is lifting our eyes off of our immediate circumstances of suffering to look upward to future glory. And so we are called to consider and to know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purpose.

Now let's fly over the peaks of God's sovereign plan. Verse 28, it says, "We know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."

The text proclaims to all believers there is a purpose for everything you go through. No tear is shed in vain, no pain is felt for nothing, everything works together to accomplish something. God's activity here is assumed, it's proclaimed. And so therefore the faulty idea of deism is excluded. The idea that God just created the world and lets it run, that he's somehow remote, that he's too busy or too strong or big to be involved in your small everyday affairs, that is false. God is actively involved in the minutia of your life. So deism is out. We have an active energetic God who's involved in your life.

Also blind atheistic evolution is excluded, that posits a world that's just running like a machine all the time. I read a story recently about a farmer that got the leg of his trousers caught in a piece of farm equipment. It was in Reader's Digest. I won't tell you what happened, you don't want to know. But he survived as a heroic story. But there's a picture of the world just grabbing hold and pulling and chewing you up, it's all blind force. The machine doesn't know it's doing it to you, it's got nothing against you. It's just doing what it was designed to do. And so some people look at the world that way. It's a machine that chews and spits people out. But that is not biblical.

God is alive and he rules. A sparrow doesn't fall to the ground apart from the will of God. It's a difficult doctrine but it's true. God is alive, he's a king, he's at work and so we exclude deism and we exclude atheistic evolution. Instead we look at a God who's sitting on his throne. And that leaves us with a problem, right? Why did this happen, or this thing occurred that was contrary to what seemed good for me? And it's hard to figure it out and I don't know that I will ever figure it out; none of us will.

The other day I was doing a science project with my kids. And we took apart a Sony Walkman. Have you ever taken apart a Sony Walkman? But I am interested in this kind of things. I see some of you laughing. I know a mechanical engineering interest. But I wanted to see what was in there. The thing didn't work anyway. Batteries were dead, and it just wasn't working, so I wanted to take it apart. And so we did, and we snipped some wires, and that did it. Once the wires were snipped it would never work, again. And we took it apart. And on one side of it were electronic components and on the other side were mechanical components. And on the electronic side, I went through with my kids and I identified the little components that I knew and there are many I don't. And we looked at them and the tiny little things on the circuit board and all kinds of stuff. And then on the other side there are all these marvelous gears and pulleys, and all this stuff that attracted me into Mechanical Engineering to begin with.

And I said, "Look at that. Look at that motor and how the pulley. And you notice how this turns clockwise, but then this one turns counter-clockwise. And some of the gears are big and some of them are small. And yet they all work together for a purpose, don't they? It's all been worked out by somebody very intelligent. And we don't always know why the motion moves this way or why it moves the opposite direction, but we know that it all works together for a purpose. And so it is with our lives, isn't it? Do you know why every little gear fits in, how it fits into your life? No you don't, and some of those it seems, work opposite to what you want, opposite to what you expect. Look at the circuit board. I asked my kids, I said, "If we took this out and threw it away, do you think it would work right?" They said, "We don't know." And I said, I don't either but the designer thought it needed to be in there. And so we don't really have the right to pull that little component out. It's very tiny, but it serves a purpose.

And so it is with our days. Every little thing has a purpose. We don't know what that purpose is. We don't know why it's there. We don't have the right to throw it all out. If you had your life the way you wanted it, it would be all success, wouldn't it? It'd be all joy and mountaintop experiences and all that. And would you be conformed to perfection in Christ, thereby? I don't think so. God has marvelously mixed together, like a pharmacist, the chemicals of what you need to accomplish his purpose. And what is his purpose? Conformity to Christ. How do we know that that's his purpose? Well, he tells us. Look what he says, "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who are called according to his purpose."

And by the way, that is very specific, isn't it? It's not that all things are working together for good for everybody. It's working together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. It's very clear. And who are those that love God? Well, I can tell you, none of us love God naturally. Romans Chapter 3 said that. There was no one righteous, no one who seeks God. So we didn't love God naturally. He saved us to love God. And he called us it says, according to his purpose.

Well, what is that purpose? Look at verse 29. Now what's the first word in verse 29? Do you notice? It's the word "for." And what does that word 'for' teach you to do? Look backward at verse 28. Alright, what's the last thing in verse 28? His purpose. So verse 29 is going to tell us what that purpose is. You are called according to a purpose. What purpose? What is he doing in your life? What is he doing in the world? Look at verse 29. "For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Verse 30, "And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified."

So that is the purpose of God, to take people like you, sinners like you, through a process so that you end up perfectly conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. That's also called, in verse 30, glorification. He has a purpose of glory for you. And he's bringing you through that purpose. Isn't that marvelous? And isn't it worth anything to go through, in order that that purpose might be accomplished? Not just for us, but for all of God's people. Of course it is, and that's the purpose that he's working it out. God is working an eternal purpose. Paul goes back to the beginning of time and he talks about the purpose of God. And he looks ahead to the end of time and that purpose is accomplished. The glory of his people.

And then, there are steps in verse 30. Specific steps. Those he predestined, it says, he also called and those he called, he also justified, and those he justified, he also glorified. Well, the those in there are people. So it says, and the people he predestined, those people he also called, the people he called, those people he also justified, the people he justified, those same people he also glorified. He's working with people here. People like you and me. He's working with people.

And what is he saying? God foreknew those people. He predestined those same people that he foreknew. He called the same people he predestined. He justified the same people he called and he glorified the same people he justified. That's the logical connection here. Some have called it the Golden Chain that connects us forever to God. I think it's beautiful. I like to think of the image of a train. When I was in Japan, my children and I and my wife got on one of those bullet trains called the Shinkansen. And, boy, those things… They move. Incredible, but one of the key things you need to know before you get on the Shinkansen is, what your destination is? Where you're going to end up? Especially if you don't speak the language, that's very important. Very important to know where are we getting off?

Because if we end up on the other side of the island, I want to know how to get back. And so, the destination is important. The destination is where you're getting off. Predestination is that the destination is been determined ahead of time. And so, we get on a train and then we go through certain stops. We go through from foreknowledge, to predestination, to justification, to glorification through these stops, and nobody gets off the train. The same people that begin, finish. And that is a solid foundation of assurance, is it not? Nobody jumps off. You don't want to jump off anyway. But we all make it through.

I've used this illustration before, but I think it's beneficial. How would you feel if you are parents of children and sent them off to camp. And you went there for Parents Day and said, "We want you to know that 95% of your children are still alive and with us. So be comforted." Would you be comforted with that? 95% of the children that we entrusted to your care are still alive? Is that comforting? Not at all. We need a 100% or else we're going to be anxious. We need to know, "Is our salvation guaranteed, or am I going to end up in hell?" That matters. That matters a lot. It affects the way you live your life. God wants us to have assurance, and so, he's saying 100%, "Those that are foreknown go all the way through to what? Glorification." That's what the Scripture says. And that gives us our assurance.

Now we've overlooked this whole thing. We've seen this whole thing in a big way, but I want you to see God's activity in it all. There's no room for human pride here, is there? Look at it again. I'm going to put the word God in there instead of he. "For those God foreknew, God also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those God predestined, God also called, and those God called, God also justified, and those God justified, God also glorified." God is the actor here, and no one is powerful enough to break up what God is doing.

Says in the Book of Isaiah 14:27, "his hand is stretched out and who can turn it back?" Our sovereign God. Now, let's look at details specifically in these steps.

Foreknowledge

Let's start with foreknowledge. It says, "Those whom God foreknew." First of all, the thing to notice here is that God does not foreknow in this particular verse, programs, methods, procedures, possibilities. What does he foreknow? Or I should ask, who does he foreknow? He foreknows people. Those people whom he foreknew. He knows people. Now, what does this mean foreknowledge? Well, there are two different ways of understanding foreknowledge. One is that God knows things about people and the other's that God knows people themselves. In the one sense God foreknows things about people. This is a kind of a man-centered way of looking at it, that God looks through the corridors of time and picks out people that will someday believe in Jesus, and based on that foreknowledge of what they will do he chooses them. Thus his choice of people is based on their prior to some degree choice of him.

So he looks down through the corridors of time and says, "Oh there's one, and there's another one, and there's another one." And based on what he discovers in you, he chooses you. But the problem is that Jesus himself said, "You did not choose me, but I [what?] chose you." "This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." So I don't think it's that God foreknows things about you, although he does know everything about you. David said, "Before a word is on my tongue, you know it altogether, Oh Lord. All of the days of my life were written in your book before any of them came to be." David knew about that. There is that kind of foreknowledge, but that's not what's discussed here.

I believe instead, he foreknows you in a covenant relationship. I love the King James version on some of these things. It says back in the Old Testament, you remember that story about Adam and Eve, and after the fall, and then it says that Adam knew Eve and she conceived and gave birth to Cain? When you read that, you say, "what do you mean he knew her?" Well, that's a simple translation of the Hebrew word, Yada is the word. It's just simple word for know. Adam knew his wife, but we all know what it means, don't we?

Okay. You just have to read it in context. Do you know what it means? Well, the interesting thing is that same knowledge is taken over into the New Testament twice. One of them is in Matthew 1:24 and 25. This is in the King James version. "Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel had bidden him and took Mary home as his wife. And he knew her not until she had brought forth her firstborn and he called him Jesus." What does it mean that Joseph knew her not. Well, you know what it means. It doesn't mean that he didn't know anything about her. He knew her very well, but he didn't know her with covenant love. It says the same thing in Luke 1:34. Mary answered the angel, "how shall this be seeing that I know not a man?" Well, she knew lots of men. She knew all about them. She knew Joseph. She knew men, but she didn't know a man not in this covenant love sense. And that's what I believe this foreknowledge is. God looks through the quarters of time and sets his love, his covenant love on a people.

Same thing is true of Judgment Day. There are things Christ knows and there are people he doesn't know. What does Christ know on Judgment Day? Everything. Everything. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed or hidden that will not be made known. He knows it all. You'll have to give an account on Judgment Day for every careless word you've spoken. He knows it all, but yet he will say, "I never knew you. Away from me you evildoers." Those that he has not set that covenant love on. "I never knew you." Not "you never knew me. " He’ll say "I never knew you." That's a mystery, isn't it? But I believe it's the same knowledge that Paul's discussing here with foreknowledge.

Predestination

The next step is predestination. I want you to look down at the Bible open in your lap, and I want you to see that word there. There you go. Some of you are looking. Predestination is a biblical term, is it not? Therefore, if you want to be a biblical Christian, you have to believe in predestination. Now, I'm not saying that it's not mysterious. I said at the beginning, there are many mysteries, but there's this word, predestination. It's simply not possible for a Bible believing Christian to reject the idea of predestination. It's taught in the Bible. It's deep. You'll never fully understand it. You're going to run out of string before we hit the bottom, but it's there and it's biblically taught. Even worse, I think we have a natural predisposition against it. We want to be the master of our fate. We want to be the captain of our soul. We want to feel that we're free. The Bible teaches our freedom. We have free decisions that we can make, and we are responsible for those decisions but yet, at the same time, the Bible teaches predestination.

Now, that was clearly operating concerning the death of Christ. The night that Jesus was arrested, Peter drew his sword to protect him. You remember? What was Peter protecting Jesus from? Peter was protecting Jesus from his own salvation, because if Peter had succeeded in Jesus not dying, what would've happened to Peter's soul on Judgment Day? He'd have died in his transgressions and sins. Thankfully, Jesus knew exactly what was happening. He said, "Peter, put your sword away. If I wanted to be saved, I wouldn't be saved by your sword. I would call on my Father and he would send angels. But how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" What does that mean, it must happen in this way? "I've got to be arrested." "The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him," Jesus said.

Acts 2:23, Peter picked up on this. In preaching on Pentecost he said, "this man [Jesus] was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." And then in their prayer in Acts 4:27-28, "Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had predestined should happen." Same word. So the death of Christ had been figured out before the foundation of the world. Thus, the Book of Revelation calls Jesus the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, and so he was.

Now, it says here in our text, that we were predestined for something. The idea is that the destination of the train has been figured out. Those God foreknew he also predestined for something, predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, or in verse 30, to be glorified.

What does that mean? Well, it means very plainly that you were not chosen to start your race, you were chosen to finish your race. He who began a good work and you will carry it on to completion unto the day of Christ Jesus. You're not chosen to start. You're chosen to finish, and you will finish.

Somebody say, "Praise God." We're going to finish. You're going to go to heaven if you're a child of God, because you're predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Now, who is predestined? Well, look at verse 33. It says, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen," or the elect is another way to translate that. "It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns?" There are these people whom God has chosen, and those are the ones that he has worked on. His ultimate purpose, his final glory in the image of Christ, that Christ "might be the firstborn," it says, "among many brothers." It says the same thing in Ephesians 1, "For he chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will."

The highest end though, isn't your salvation. It actually isn't. It's the thing that brings you most joy and we should all look forward to it, but the highest end is his own glory, that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brothers. For the glory of Jesus Christ, all of this was done.

Calling

The next step is calling. It says in verse 28, "Those who are called according to his purpose," and verse 30, it says, "Those he predestined he also called." What is this calling? Well, the Bible talks about two kinds of calling. One of them is happening right now. When I speak the Word of God, sound goes through this auditorium, through the air, and hits your eardrums, and your eardrums vibrates, and what happens after that? I don't know. We'll have to get the doctors to tell you, and they'll explain it. But the eardrums vibrate and into the brain, come the words. That's one kind of calling. And many people receive that calling. Many people hear the open proclamation of the Word. That calling goes out to the ends of the earth. That's one kind of calling. There's a general invitation of the proclamation of the Gospel, but then there's a second kind of calling and Jesus showed that by saying, "Many are called, but few are" what? "chosen." "Many are called," said Jesus, "but few are chosen."

So the Word goes out, the voice goes out to the ends of the earth. But then there's a second kind of calling. 2 Corinthians 4:6, "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." And so what happens is, as the sound of the Gospel goes out, the Holy Spirit moves and suddenly, you're regenerated. It's similar to the calling that occurred when Lazarus was laying on a slab, and Jesus stood in front of Lazarus' tomb and said, "'Take away the stone…." "'But Lord,' said Martha, the sister of the dead man, 'by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days. ' Then Jesus said, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God? '" And so, they moved the stone and then Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I know that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of those standing near here." And then what happened?

He called Lazarus. Do you know what I'm talking about? What did he say? "Lazarus, come out!" Now, if I had been there and said Lazarus come forth, what would have happened? That's right. Nothing. But if the Holy Spirit says it, if Jesus says it, now, that's something else entirely, isn't it? And so, when he says, "Lazarus, come forth!" Something happened to Lazarus, something different. He's not dead anymore. He's alive. And then of his own free will, he obeyed that command, didn't he? And, yes, he did. He swung those legs out, and he came out, and he said, take those grave clothes and let him go. Lazarus was... He was given a choice there, wasn't he? Let's see, I can stay in the tomb, or I can come out and be with Jesus and have a victory celebration party at my house tonight. Stay in the tomb, or victory celebration with Jesus. Tomb vs Jesus. Choice, free choice. May I ask you a question? Billion people in that choice, how many are going to stay in the tomb? Zero, none. Would you? Think about it. Would you stay in the tomb or would you come out in the sunshine and be with Jesus? Of course, he obeyed of his own free will, but God's call came first, and he moved, and they had that victory celebration that night. And that's what happened to you. The called according to his purpose. He spoke, you heard the sound waves of the Gospel, but you've heard that before. Suddenly something happened by the Spirit and you were regenerated to newness of life, and you swung your legs off that slab and you started to walk with Jesus. You're the called, according to his purpose.

Justification

Well, justification, we've already talked about the moment that you swung your legs out and started to walk, at the moment you believed, you were justified of all your sin, we've covered that already. All of your sins forgiven, and then the future we've talked about as well.

Glorification

Glorification, instantly conformed, so that Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers. Then the righteous will shine and says like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. On what are you basing the confidence of your salvation? Is it on your own believing, your own strength, your own convictions, you're such a strong person? Or is it because God set his love on you and he will not let you go? I think it's the second, and because of that, I have tremendous joy in my salvation.

What application can we make of this? Well, so much, but I want to focus on four.

First of all, joy. I want you to rejoice even in your sufferings. You know, the gears of your life are turning. God is accomplishing things in you. It's not all going to be cake and ice cream. There's going to be suffering, there's going to be struggle. Paul said, "It's through much hardship that we enter the kingdom of God." It's hard, and God is working that in you for his purpose. Have joy in the middle of it.

Second, I want you to have assurance of your salvation. That's the whole purpose of the chapter, but it is the purpose specifically of these doctrines. Assurance of salvation, realize that if you're a child of God, your salvation is guaranteed.

Thirdly, humility. Do you realize this is not of you, so that no one may what? Boast. Let him who boast, boast in who? The Lord. We get assurance and we get humility. 

And then finally I want you to have wisdom. I want you to look at your life and the life of everyone in the world differently. Once you realize that God is wise and he's working things out even in September 11 terrorist attacks, and in earthquakes, and in volcanoes, and in your own private sufferings as well. God is doing all things for his wise and eternal purpose.

That's a word to Christians. But if you've never given your life to Jesus Christ, can I urge you today to not leave this room without trusting in Christ? If today you hear the call of God, don't harden your heart, but listen, and follow, and walk with Jesus that you might have eternal life. Trust in him. If you're hearing Jesus calling you today, follow him.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Romans 8:26-27. The main subject of the sermon is that the Holy Spirit assists us in lifting up our prayers to God.

Please take your Bibles and open to Romans 8:26-27. We heard those two powerful verses read for us earlier. Today we are going to talk about the mystery of prayer, and specifically how the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer. When I was in seminary I learned about a man named John Hyde, a missionary to India and one of the greatest men of faith and prayer that this world has ever seen. And when he went as a missionary to India, he was soon, as you can well imagine in that populous nation, overwhelmed by the needs that he saw. Being a man of God and being a missionary and a preacher of the Word, he understood that the most significant needs of the people were spiritual. They did not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. And he began to be burdened. And he was not satisfied with the progress that they were making. He was not satisfied with the Word going out and not coming back with conversions. He wanted to see people saved. And so he began to pray. And God led him in a significant way to begin to trust Him for one soul a day. That he would have the privilege of leading one person to Christ every day. And God answered that prayer.

And it wasn't long before he added another and started praying for two a day, that he might have the privilege of leading two people to Christ every day. By the time he was finished with his missionary work he was up to four people a day. Trusting God for their salvation, and seeing repeated answers to prayer. So that's what he prayed for, but it doesn't touch how he prayed. And I have an account here of a way that this man prayed related by Dr. Wilber Chapman who wrote about it to a friend. Now Dr. Chapman was an English preacher, and they were having a revival service. And this is what he wrote.

"I have learned some great lessons concerning prayer. At one of our missions in England the audience was exceedingly small, but I received a note saying that an American missionary was going to pray for God's blessing down on our work. He was known as 'praying Hyde.' [That was his nickname, 'praying Hyde']. Almost instantly the tide turned, the hall became packed. And at my first invitation 50 men accepted Christ as their Savior. As we were leaving I said, 'Mr. Hyde I want you to pray for me.' He came to my room, turned the key in the door and dropped on his knees and waited five minutes without a single syllable coming from his lips. I could hear my own heart thumping and his beating. I felt hot tears running down my face. I knew I was with God. Then with upturned face, while the tears were still streaming, he said, 'Oh God.' And then for five minutes again, at least, he was still. And then when he knew he was talking with God, there came from the depth of his heart such petitions for me as I had never heard before. I rose from my knees to know what real prayer was. We believe that prayer is mighty and we believe it as we never did before."

Now that's a prayer meeting. Have you ever prayed like that? I really can't say that I have. I've had times in which God has lifted me up and I've prayed in a more significant, in a more Spirit-filled way, but never like that. And I think to myself, all of us feel our weakness, especially in prayer, don't we? Don't you feel your weakness when it comes to prayer? Can any of you testify and say, "I am a hundred percent satisfied with my prayer life? It's everything that I want it to be." Can you say that? I can't. And so I feel my weakness.

And it's a beautiful thing that this passage on prayer and specifically on the Holy Spirit's ministry to us in prayer begins with a testimony to our weakness. Look what it says in verse 26, it says, "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness." Do you feel your weakness today? Do you feel the weakness of your faith? Do you feel your weakness in prayer?

Well, I want you to know that God has made promises concerning prayer, lavish promises. I think he means to fulfill them in you individually and in us corporately through the power of the Holy Spirit. And only by the power of the Holy Spirit can we pray as God intends. It says in Zechariah 12:10, this is an old Testament promise, an ancient promise, and this is what it says, "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me the one they have pierced." That's a powerful testimony isn't it. A promise that God will pour out on the Jews a spirit of grace and supplication.

What is supplication? It is prayer. And not just any prayer, but prayer from the heart. And I will pour out on them a spirit of prayer. We receive these promises, this promise given to the Jews. We receive it by extension, we who are Gentiles, we've come in to all the promises of God, they are yes and amen in Christ. And so we also receive the Spirit of supplication. And this Spirit is fulfilled even in our text.

In Romans 8:15 it reads, "You have received the spirit of sonship, and by Him we cry out, 'Abba Father."' We cry out to God Abba Father. What is that, but prayer? It's a fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10 for us who are Gentiles. Every Christian, the moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are given the spirit of supplication, the Holy Spirit. And immediately as a child of God, a newborn child of God you begin to breathe prayers to God. You begin to speak to Him and call him Abba Father. but yet God is calling us (I believe) to a deeper a fuller and a richer prayer life than we've ever experienced before. Jesus Christ commanded lavishly in Matthew 7:7-8, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Lavish promises, and a command to pray.

John 16:23-24 it says the same thing. "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. Until now you've not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." Jesus said that if you believe, you'll receive whatever you ask for in prayer. These are lavish promises and commands aren't they, for prayer? And we have throughout

Church history many examples of those who have believed these promises. Not just praying Hyde, we've talked earlier about George Müller. This man trusted God for over 10,000 orphans; on his knees every day praying for daily bread, and for the needs of these people. 10,000 orphans. Prayed for them daily, and in good Prussian style kept a careful record of all of his prayers. Every single one of them and all that had been answered. Wouldn't it be great to go through those notebooks and see what God did? The details and how strong was his faith at the end of his life.

David Brainerd, the missionary to Indians during the 1700s poured out his heart daily in longing for Heaven. "Oh that I might not loiter in my Heavenly journey" he would say. He was praying that his heart would be wrapped up, so wrapped up in Heaven that he would care nothing for the things of this world. That was David Brainerd. Then there was Martin Luther who said he was so overwhelmed with all the work and the business of a certain day that he had to pray twice as long that day. What would we do? Pray half as long if at all. But he believed in prayer and he lavished prayer on God and God lavished answers back. And then there was William Carey who had a world vision in prayer. Many examples of those who have taken these promises. What about you? Where's your prayer life? What about me? Where is mine?

As we look at the Apostle Paul, he also is an example of this. Put your finger here in Romans 8, and look back at Romans 1:9-10. And this is a tendency I've seen in the Apostle Paul and confirmed in numerous places. Actually beginning at verse 8 it says "First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world." Isn't that marvelous? What does he thank God for? The faith of the Romans. "Thank you God that they're believers, and not only that but their reputation is spreading all over the world. Thank you God for that." But he goes on. He says "God whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the Gospel of His Son as my witness, how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times, and I pray that now at last by God's will, the way may be open for me to come to you." And so Paul is praying constantly for the Roman Christians.

Now, look over at Roman's 15:30 and following. Romans 15:30 "I urge you brothers," he says there "By our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you, be refreshed. The God of peace be with you all. Amen." What is he doing there? He's saying "Please pray for me. Pray for my mission, pray for my work. Pray that I might be delivered and rescued from those who would attack me."

And so at the beginning of his letter to Romans, he says "I pray for you all the time," at the end of his letter, he says "Please pray for me." He does the same thing in many other epistles, he says "I pray for you." He asked, "Will you pray for me?" And so he is dependent on prayer as he is also faithful in prayer.

But my question is, "What is prayer? Or why are we so weak in it? And, specifically from this text in Romans 8:26-27, what is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us in prayer?"

Let's look first at our weakness and prayer in verse 26, it says "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness." Well what weakness are we talking about? Well you have to understand the phrase, "In the same way." He's connecting this to what we have just talked about. What did we just talk about? Well in Romans 8:18-25, it talks about our physical bodies and how they're breaking apart, and how the physical world around us is groaning. We ourselves groan and the creation around us groans. And so we learn here in Romans 8:26-27 that the Spirit groans with us. Do you see how that works? We're in a time of groaning. We're in this present age of suffering and physical trial and death. This is a hard world for a believer.

And so we're in a time of present weakness and our enemies, which are arrayed around us, are too strong for us. They're too mighty. And so we have indwelling sin, and we have external enemies that are fighting us. And so it's a time of weakness, but it's also weakness for ourselves in prayer. He goes on to say "We do not know what we ought to pray for." And so we have a weakness, we're ignorant, we don't know what to pray for, we're weak in terms of our desire to pray, we don't want to pray. We're weak in every way and so the Spirit has come to help us in our weakness.

Now, prayer is part of the work that the Holy Spirit does in us to assure us that we are Christians, right?  The whole chapter, Romans chapter 8 is given that we may know with a full certainty of faith, a full assurance that we're going to heaven. God wants you to live that way. And as a matter of fact, if you really understood the reality is what we're talking about heaven and hell, eternity in heaven, or eternity in hell, and you had no assurance of salvation, how would you live? Everything would be different. All of your good works would ultimately be self-focused, I believe. And so God wants to give you assurance of salvation and then send you out to do the good works in a whole different way. And so He's working assurance of salvation in us. Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:39 says that nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. No condemnation all the way to no separation.

I've repeated that about five or six times, but you get it. Romans chapter 8, it's assurance. It's giving a message of assurance and right in the middle of it is this issue of prayer. And so a healthy Spirit-led, Spirit-endowed prayer life is great assurance for the Christian. Is it not? But what's remarkable to me here is that it doesn't tell us to pray. Have you noticed that? As with much of what Paul does, is there any command in here that we should pray? He's just telling us what is... He's telling us what the Holy Spirit does. He's not telling you to pray, he's telling you actually you're weak in prayer, and so the Holy Spirit is given to help. We have a weakness in prayer.

Jonathan Edwards, preaching a sermon in the 1700s, entitled it, "Hypocrites Deficient in Private Prayer." That's a potent title, isn't it?  What's a hypocrite? Somebody who claims to be a Christian, but they're really not. And what is he saying? He's saying, there's no secret or private prayer. They don't go into their room, close the door and pray to their Father who's unseen. That's not part of their life. They may pray publicly, they may pray at dinner, they may pray when called upon, but there's no secret private prayer. It's not a part of their lives. But I began thinking about that title, and I said, "Hypocrites Deficient in Private Prayer," who isn't deficient in private prayer? Isn't that all of us? Aren't we all deficient to some degree in our private prayer lives? And so we must understand again, the ministry of the Holy Spirit given to strengthen us in our prayers. How are we weak? Well, first of all, we don't pray. In James 4:2 it says, "You do not have, because you do not ask God."

How many things come along in your life and you realize later, I never prayed about that? Whether it be a financial situation or a health issue, or a friend had a problem, you've even perhaps promised to pray and then you realize later you didn't pray. I've tried to get it in the habit of praying immediately for needs that are given me because of this problem that I have. I've sometimes kept a little notebook with me in my pocket to write them down immediately because I feel so ashamed when I see the person later and that situation has been resolved and they thank you for praying and you think, "Gee I hope somebody prayed because I didn't." James 4:2. Oh no, I'm a pastor, this is on tape, isn't it? Sometimes I don't pray the way I should. You don't have because you don't ask God. We also don't pray for the right things. "When you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures," said James. So not only do we not pray, we also don't pray for the right things. We're weak in prayer. He says it here in verse 26, "we do not know what we ought to pray for."

We don't pray in the right way, we don't pray in faith believing, we don't pray in humility, recognizing that we're not the king of the world. We don't pray with boldness, the boldness of a child of God, and we don't pray with thankfulness, we don't pray as we ought to. And more than that, we don't persevere in prayer. We pray for a little while and then fizzle out, and so we're weak in prayer. I guess, as we look at it, we have trouble both in the matter and in the manner of prayer. In the matter of prayer, whether we pray at all or what we should pray for and in the manner of prayer, mainly how we go about praying, and in this way, the Holy Spirit has been sent to help us.

Now, the Holy Spirit helps us in prayer, but I think to be honest with you, the burden of this text is not how He assists us to pray better. The burden of this text is how He just prays for us. Look at it again in verse 26-27, "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we are to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Do you see that? It's almost by contrast, we don't pray well, but the Spirit does, do you see that? The Spirit does, He prays for us and He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

So really to some degree, it's a little bit trickery for me to be talking anything at all about your prayer life here. I'm really talking primarily about the Spirit's intercession for you, because that's what the text talks about. But I want to talk about your prayer life because the Spirit does help you to pray. We are commanded elsewhere to pray in the Spirit, and so I think this is a vital text for understanding that. Jesus Christ has not left us as orphans, He says that in John 14, the night before He died. He was about to die, the disciples were about to see their Savior dead on the cross, and they didn't understand what was going on. They were filled with grief, they were filled with struggle, and Jesus is so compassionate for them. In John, He spends time with them, He teaches them, He gets them ready. He said in John 13:19 "I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He." And so he's getting them ready, and one of the things He does is talks to them about the Counselor, the Comforter that He's going to send. He says, "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you." Do you realize you have the indwelling Holy Spirit in you as a result of prayer? Jesus prayed for you.

And the Father sent the Counselor, the Comforter, to you as a response to Jesus' prayer for you. "I will ask the Father and He will send the Comforter." Do you see the confidence that Jesus has? I will ask and He will send. That's the confidence that Jesus has in prayer. "…the Spirit of truth, the world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him or knows Him but you know Him for He lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." Neither has He left us as orphans in our prayer life either. We have fellowship with God through the Holy Spirit and in prayer and so the Spirit prays for us constantly.

"The Spirit," it says in Verse 26, "intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." And it says again in verse 27, "The Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." Well, who does He intercede to? Well, He who searches our hearts is God the Father. He intercedes to God the Father for you. The Holy Spirit is speaking to God the Father for you. He's interceding right now that you will listen to the Word. He's praying for you right now, the Spirit is interceding to God the Father for you and what power is there in God, the Father. He is Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. He is king of the universe and the Spirit has free access right into His throne and He prays in accordance with God's will. There's a perfect intercession here. In the NIV it says "in accordance with God's will…" But literally in verse 27 it really just says "in accordance with God."

The Spirit intercedes for the saints according to God. What does that mean? I think probably two things. Number one is that He was appointed to that task. The Spirit was given the work to do. He's assigned the task. He's given the place, the position of prayer for you and so He's praying for you. It's His place to do so and He's going to be faithful to do that work until the end comes.

But in accordance with God also means what He prays for. He knows what to pray for. He prays for you in accordance with God's will for you. What does that mean? Well, in 1 John 5:14-15, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know that if He hears us whatever we ask we know that we have what we asked of Him." What is that saying? If you pray according to God's will, what do you get? You get a yes. A yes and Amen. I will give it to you.

I've thought often about this. I love sports. What is my batting average in prayer? How often do I get the things that I asked for? I don't know. I'm not George Muller. I'm not a Prussian. I don't keep careful records of all my prayer requests. I wonder what it would be, what my batting average is. How about you? What is your batting average in prayer? How many times do you get the thing you ask for? Now, let me turn it around. What is the Holy Spirit's average in prayer? How often does He get what He asks for? Answer: every single time without fail. And why? Because He prays according to God. In accordance with the will of God, He prays for you. That's how He prays a perfect intercession and He's praying according to God's will.

Well, what is God's will? Big picture. Understand what is the big picture of God's will. Read verses 28-30. We're going to look at it more carefully next week, but look, this is the will of God. This is what He's doing. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." I'll read that again. "That He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined He also called and those He called He also justified and those He justified He also glorified."

So the end of verse 29 and the end of verse 30 are the same thing. You being conformed to Jesus perfectly and you being glorified are the same thing and that's what the Spirit is praying for ultimately for you and not just for you but for all the chosen of God. We'll talk about that next week but that's what he's working toward. And He gets what He asks for. He prays for you in accordance with God's will that you may be glorified and He knows that there are steps along the way. He knows every step of the journey and He knows not only the big picture but all of the minor pictures along the way and he prays for everything in accordance with God's will.

But it's also intimate intercession. It says "He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will." There's a searching of the mind. The spirit moves through the mind of God and the Spirit moves through our minds and brings them together in a marvelous and mysterious way. There's an intimate intercession. The Spirit knows the Father's thoughts completely. The Spirit brings the Father's thoughts to you. The Spirit takes your thoughts and brings them to God. There's an intimate intercession. It's also a spiritual intercession. Look at verse 26. "…the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." The word here in the Greek is usually translated mute. What is someone who is mute? They cannot speak words. There aren't no words when the Spirit intercedes. You say, "How can He do that for millions of people praying for absolutely everything we need, big picture and in details for everybody all over the world that He's praying for? How could He do it? They're just isn't time in the day."

Our thoughts of God are too small. I am speaking to you in words now, I'm speaking English, that's the only language I'm fluent in and I used to speak Japanese. If I were to speak some Japanese here you would get nothing out of my sermon. I know because I sat through two years of Japanese sermons and got nothing out of them because I couldn't understand a word. And what do we do? We take truth and we encode it in words, nouns, and verbs and adjectives. And it's like a train, like a freight train, and it pulls into the depot of your mind and dumps its truth in there, word by word, line by line. It's so pedantic, It's so human. The Holy Spirit doesn't need it. He just intercedes for you. Just like that. Do you understand? Just like that, everything you need has been prayed for. Completely. You don't need words, you don't need nouns and verbs and adjectives to talk to the Father. That's our thing. He can speak that in 1 Corinthians 2:9-14, I urge you to look at it. It's a parallel passage to one we're looking at today. It says that, it has not entered in the mind what God has planned. Eyes not seen, ears not heard. Neither has it entered into the mind of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.

Read the next part, "These things God has revealed it to us through His spirit." And He who searches them, the mind brings the truth of God to our minds directly. Do You see what I'm talking about? So he can speak English words to us. He can do that. Sometimes He speaks to your mind directly without words. Just boom and you get the truth. But He can speak words and he can put spiritual truth into spiritual words so that we understand. So it's a spiritual intercession as well and it's also a passionate intercession. He groans with you. Do you understand what that means? He's groaning with you. He's feeling your passions. He is a passionate being. The Holy Spirit is not a force. He's a person and He has passion and His intercession for you is passionate. Do you understand what I'm saying? There's a passion there. He rejoices over your successes. He grieves over your disobediences and He prays accordingly based on what you need. Now later in this chapter, not today, we are going to be talking also about Christ's intercession for us. Look down at verse 34. "Christ Jesus, who died, more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." Do you see that?

So you have the Holy Spirit praying for you and you have the Son of God praying for you. Are you not covered in this chapter with prayer? You are just prayed for. You are thoroughly prayed for. Now we as children of God should pray for each other, but you are well prayed for all the time. The Spirit prays for you and the Son prays for you and they do not fail.

Well, that's the center of this message, but I want to talk a little about how He helps you in your prayers too. The Spirit prays for you but the Spirit also assists you in your prayer and He helps you in the matter of prayer. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean what to pray for and whether we should even pray at all. He helps us there. Verse 26, "We do not know what we ought to pray for." We don't have the sense of the purpose of God, do we? The big picture? What is God doing in the world? We don't have that. Nor do we have the detailed understanding step by step of how to get there. We also don't believe or don't understand, or even know the promises of God. So we don't pray according to the promises of God. We don't know the procedures along the way. Those minor things and we don't look to the source the way we should. Now what is the source of information?

How do we know what to pray for? Two things; number one, the Spirit instructs us through the Scripture. As you read the Scripture and saturate your mind in the Bible, you will know what to pray for. William Gurnall said, "The mightier anyone is in the Word, the mightier he will be in prayer." Some believe, and I think it's true, we should only pray those things revealed in Scripture or in accordance with what's revealed in Scripture. Christopher Nice put it this way, "Where God has not a mouth to speak, men must not have a tongue to ask." I believe that. I think we should pray according to the promises and the purposes of God as revealed in Scripture. But secondly, the Spirit also directly communicates to you what to pray for sometimes. In Acts 13 it says, "In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers," and it lists them and then it says, "While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" And so after fasting and praying, they sent them out.

Don't you think after the Spirit spoke that. They prayed differently than they had been before that, They started praying for Paul and Barnabas' first missionary journey. You understand? So the Spirit communicates and navigates through history as new things come up, we start to pray according to the Spirit. We pray in the Spirit as He leads. So He helps us in the matter of prayer, namely what we should pray for, but even more He helps us in the inclination to pray. What does that mean? He helps you to want the things God wants. He helps you to be hungry for what God's hungry for. He helps you to yearn for what God is yearning for. How does He do that? By changing you and moving in you, by working in you. He gives you, as one black preacher put, I love this. "You gotta have the 'want to.'" Do you have the want to? Do you want to pray? When given a choice of the way to spend the afternoon, do you spend it in prayer or something else? Do you have the want to? The Spirit gives you the want to. He gives you the inclination and to want the things that God wants. And I think that's why we need to pray. We are not done yet, are we? We were not finished in our salvation. Do you want what God wants for you? Or do you want something else? The Holy Spirit moves in you to want what the He wants for you and to give you the inclination to pray.

Well, the Holy Spirit also helps us in the manner of prayer. Not only do we not know what to pray for and not only are we not inclined to pray at all but when we pray our prayers are weak and lifeless, they lack zeal. What is the model of our prayer? Is it not Jesus, how did Jesus pray in Gethsemane? You remember that? In Luke chapter 22 it says and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

Hebrews chapter 5 says during the days of Jesus' life on earth He offered prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death and He was heard because of His reverent submission. And so He prayed fervently. James 5:16 says in the King James Version "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Are your prayers effectual and fervent? Are they prayers on fire? Do you pray in the manner of the Spirit? Well the Spirit helps us, He gives us empowerment. Our prayers are weak because they are faithless. We don't believe that God will answer and so we don't receive answers.

Thomas Watson said this, "Prayer that is faithless is fruitless." If your prayer life is fruitless, could it be that you don't believe that it's going to do anything? The Spirit works faith in us. Jude 20, "But you dear friends," write that one down. That's such a great verse Jude 20. "But you dear friends build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit." Do you hear that? I think build yourselves up in the faith means read the Scripture. And then pray accordingly. Pray in the Spirit. He gives us faith. He also gives us endurance, He works endurance in us. Colossians 4:12, "Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you that you may be matured and fully assured." He's wrestling, would you like to have an Epaphras praying for you? He's wrestling in prayer for you. Images of Jacob wrestling with the angel, wrestling, he's not giving up, he's going to keep at it, he's going to keep praying.

How's your endurance in prayer? Is it good? The Holy Spirit can work endurance in you. The Holy Spirit can also work passion in you. He impassions you in prayer. Cold and lifeless prayers are unwelcome in heaven. Thomas Brooks said this, "Cold players always freeze before they reach heaven." I love that. We don't need cold players, we need prayers on fire, prayers like John Hyde prayed. Praying passionately. Hudson Taylor looked at a map of China and he knew that all the missions were along the coast, just along the coast and they were vast inland regions of China that had never been touched with the gospel and he just fell on his knees before the map and he said "God give me China or I die." Give me China or I die. Do you pray for anything like that? Maybe if your child had a dread disease or your spouse you might, but we could pray for the things of God that way too, Hudson Taylor did and John Hyde did as well. In passion.

And then finally the Holy Spirit works integrity in us. God does not listen to the prayers of people who choose sin. I'll say that again, God does not hear prayers from people who choose sin. And I'm not talking about stumbling, the Scripture says we all stumble in many ways, James says that. And this is how David put it in Psalm 66:18,"If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have heard my prayer." Do you hear that? If I cherish sin, if there's some pet sin, something I'm holding on to, God will not hear your prayers. Your prayers are ineffective. Isaiah 59:1-2, "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save nor is ear too dull to hear but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear." And so if you want a healthy strong fruitful prayer life, you must have integrity, you must be a consistent spirit-filled Christian following the Holy Spirit putting sin to death in your life and God will see that you receive answers in prayer.

1 Peter 4:7, "The end of all things is near, therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray." Turn it around, if you're not clear minded and self-controlled you will not be able to pray. John Bunyan put it this way, "Prayer drives sin out or sin drives prayer out." They're mutually incompatible. Has sin driven prayer out of your life? Ask the Lord by the power of the Spirit to bring it back and then chase sin out of your life.

Today we've looked at what the Holy Spirit does for us in prayer, He prays for us according to God, He also moves in us that we may pray according to God's will as well. He instructs us what to pray for, He gives us an inclination to pray, that's the matter of prayer, and in the manner He gives us empowerment through faith, building our faith. He gives endurance to stay with it and pray daily sometimes for years. He gives us impassioned prayers, not cold prayers and He gives us a life of integrity so that God will hear our prayers.

Now I've given you some applications on your bulletin, you can look at them when you get home, but we're coming now to a time with the Lord's Supper. And this is a good time for you to humble yourself before God, to just bow down right in the pew where you are, and to take advantage of some quiet moments to allow the Holy Spirit to search your heart. To allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you, about your life, about your prayer life, yes but about everything. And that you might be clean through confession of sin and ready to receive the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is for Christians, it's for people who have been baptized, who have trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, welcome at the Lord's Supper. It's for sinners, but sinners who have been forgiven through faith in Jesus Christ. But we must come and eat in a manner worthy of the Lord. Take advantage of these few minutes or a few moments to allow the Holy Spirit to search you, that you might be prepared to take the supper of the Lord. And then after a little while, I'll lead us into the Lord's supper.

Please take your Bibles and look with me at Romans 8. We're going to be looking at verses 18-25, and the issue of present suffering and future glory. Recently I've thought much about a particular question. I'm not meaning to be dreary, but the question's been pressed on my mind and that is, "Andy, will you die well?" "Will you die well? Will you die filled with faith? Will you die filled with hope in our Lord Jesus Christ? Will your death be a testimony to those standing around of the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Will you die well?" Now that question came to my mind because of reading Pilgrim's Progress, a book I love and I allude to frequently. You know that in that allegory of the Christian life, Christian and Hopeful come to the end of their journey and there is a river, and they have to cross the river, and the river symbolizes death. And they're looking left and right and everywhere for a place or a way to get across that doesn't include going through the river and there is none. And the angel that is there to counsel with them at that time, answers their question, "Is there another way?" And he says, "There is another way, but only two have gotten across there and none since that time.

Only two, Enoch and Elijah went to heaven directly without passing through that river of death. Now we know it's possible the Lord could return in our lifetime, and that we will not have to die. That is a mystery discussed in 1 Corinthians 15. But if He does not, we will have to cross through that river. The question is, will we do it well? Now, when they looked at the river, they wondered how deep it was. Isn't that a natural question? You look and you say, "How deep is the river? Will it overflow me? Will it overwhelm me? Will I suffer? What is it going to be like?" And the angel said, "We don't know. We don't know, it's going to be as deep or as shallow in proportion to your trusting in the King of that place." It's as deep or shallow as your faith makes it. Now, how strong is your faith? Will you be like Hopeful who went across and found it to be like a little stream, a trickle barely that kind of came up to his knees and he went... Started going right across. But then there was Christian who started to suffer and struggle and drown and sputter. And needed all the help that his friend Hopeful could give him.

Is your faith going to be strong at that time? And if not, you need to get ready now. You need to prepare now and how do we get ready? How do we strengthen our faith? How do we become hopeful? By reading the Scripture and believing the promises. The outcome of our text today is Christian hope. That you may have hope as Hopeful did. And ultimately as Christian did as well.

Now, we live in a world in which we are surrounded by physical beauty. We see around us all the time, the beauty of God's creation, and it is beautiful. We also look at our own bodies and we confess with David that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Our bodies are astonishing, and they are amazing and yet there is tremendous suffering. Both in the physical world and even with our own bodies. Recently, I was going up to Duke University Hospital, and actually I was coming out, I visited somebody. And I'll tell you, since I've been pastor, I've never been to a hospital so much as I have in the last three and a half years. And it's made these issues very real to me. It's helped me to realize that I myself someday will be in a hospital bed probably. And that people will be coming and visiting me and that it's going to be me facing my own end. But I've thought about these things.

And so Romans 8:18-25, it's very sweet to me, it's very strong. It's on this that I'm basing my hope and other promises as well. But I was coming out of the hospital and I saw a woman, and she was pushing a stroller. And I caught her eye and our eyes met, and we looked at each other and she looked very, very care warren. And she looked sad and I don't really know why, but I thought going into the hospital, maybe she's visiting somebody who was sick. And then I looked down at her child and the child was too large really to be in a stroller and was completely bald. And I realized then that the child probably had cancer and they were going in for some more treatments and more consultation. Just looking at that symbolized the kind of things that we're talking about in Romans 8:18-25. Namely the physical suffering we see in the world in a sense of where is God in all of this? On September 11th, when those airplanes crashed into those buildings, there were many people questioning God. They were wondering, "Where is God in that physical suffering and all that death?"

Handling Human Suffering Essential to Worldview

It was shocking to people. And so as we come to the issue of suffering in this world, we're coming to what I consider to be one of the number one doorways or portals the church has taken into heresy and false teaching. It's when we get to physical suffering that we start to adjust things in our theology accordingly. And that's the very thing we must not do. We must come to the Scripture instead and say, "You teach me about suffering, help me to understand what death is, help me to understand the things that are going to happen to my body." Now we know that Romans chapter 8 is given for assurance, it's given for comfort, it's given a word of encouragement, and it is a tremendous word. We've seen it right from the very beginning to the very end in verse one it says, "There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And then at the end, "Nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." No condemnation all the way through to no separation, a tremendous word of encouragement. But yet in the middle, there's a word about suffering, isn't there? And that's the thing I love about Scripture.

We would never want a comforter who you call up that person, maybe a woman or a man who just cares about you and you start to say some situation that's come up. Maybe you received a medical report or maybe some other issues come up in your life. And they immediately cut you off and say, "It'll be fine." "It'll be okay, everything's going to work out alright." See, we haven't even heard my problem yet. You haven't felt the weight of what I'm dealing with yet. You don't feel the weight of the issues. How can you tell me it's going to be fine if you don't deal with what really is facing me? Romans 8 doesn't do that, does it? It's not singing a few of your favorite things that's going to get you through this. Rain drops and roses, and pink satin sashes. I don't know the rest of it, but you know the song I'm singing. Singing a song like that is not going to get you through this kind of suffering. You need solid meat, you need doctrine. You need teaching that will get you through this. If you want to be a mighty Redwood, that's going to survive all of the storms and trials of life and not a little sapling that's going to get blown over when things come, you need to take in the word of God.

Take in Romans chapter 8 and understand. Now, we have seen the context of Romans 8, he's speaking a word of assurance and comfort, but only to a certain category of person. He's speaking it to Christians. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." You see that? It's for those who are in Christ. And he's very careful to delineate what that means. You're not controlled any longer by the flesh, your mind is not controlled any longer by the sinful nature. Rather it's controlled by the Spirit. You are in the Spirit, you're not in the flesh any longer. You've been rescued, you've been transferred, you're a new person in Christ, and therefore you can have this comfort and this assurance. And in the first half of this chapter, the focus has been on the indwelling Holy Spirit. The work, the energetic work of the Holy Spirit within you, a great sense of assurance and comfort to you as a Christian. But then at the end here in Verse 17, he strikes a dark final cord.

Look what it says in verse 17, "If we are children…" To be a child of God, what a title? We've talked about that for two weeks, to be a child of God. Oh my goodness, the privileges and the joys of being a child of God. "But if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory." Boil it down at the end, no suffering, no glory. You will go through suffering. Jesus said, "In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world." Therefore, what is before us here is, what is the nature? What is the origin? What is the purpose of this suffering? And how can we as Christians, as children of God face it?

Now, in order to answer this question, we have to look back... We have to look back in time to the origins of creation itself, and what has gotten us into this present situation. We have to look back in the Bible. Now, the physical universe itself was created perfect by God. Now, this is contrary to the way that other religions or philosophical systems deal with the problem of evil. What they do... Like Greek philosophy, some types of Greek philosophy or Buddhism say that the physical world is intrinsically evil. And you're going to have evil as long as you are in the physical world. You understand that. So what you need to do is get away from the physical world, deny all physical things, become hyper spiritual, not physical, and in this way, you will be free from suffering. This is not what the Bible teaches, not at all. Rather, the Bible teaches that the physical world was created perfectly good. God created the world in six days, and at the end of it, He declared all that He had made to be good. And so the world is a good place, and much of that goodness is still around us, isn't it? It's a delightful thing to see. The cosmos, the Heavens declare the glory of God. Do they not? The sun, the moon and the stars. They just declare the brightness and the glory, the beauty of God and His creation.

Lofty mountains, rolling hills, sweeping planes, deep valleys, hot deserts, grasslands, savannas, swamps, ice lands, all of them together sing the praise of God. Don't they? Just the variety on this earth, and they are delightful. The clouds, oceans, seas, rivers, springs, all of them trickling down ultimately to the ocean. They declare the glory of God and the goodness of God. It is a good world that He's made. And the variety of plants, Palm Trees, Oaks, Maples, Rhododendron, Roses. All of these things declare the glory of God. How much more the physical, the birds, and the animals, and the fish that He's made, and all the variety there? And then all the way up to human beings created in the image of God, male and female, created in the image of God. And when God saw all that He had made, He declared it what? He declared it good. It is a good physical world that He's made it. And if you don't understand that, you will not understand what God is doing in redemption. He's bringing us back to, actually even better, a perfect physical creation, a new heaven and a new earth. That's where we're heading. God is restoring and renewing, actually, even surpassing what He originally made.

Physical Universe Cursed Because of Humanity

The physical world, therefore, is not intrinsically evil because it's physical. That's a wrong way of thinking. Well then what happened? Well, the physical universe was subjected to humanity. God took the physical world, this Earth and everything in it, and subjected it to the human race. Remember what it said in Genesis 1:28 and following, it said, "God, blessed them and said to them, male and female, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule over the fish and the sea, and the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves on the ground." So the earth and everything in it was subjected to man. Now, the cosmos was not subjected in the same way, but still, we read in scripture that when human history ends in this earth, the cosmos history will end as well. The stars, the sun, the moon, all of them will cease, and God will make a new Heavens as well as a new earth. And so even they focus on what's happening on the earth. So what's happening with the human race has a tremendous impact on the physical universe. And so, the creation in all of its glory was wrapped up and subjected in one sense to the human race. That's an important step, because what happened next? The human race sinned in Adam.

We fell, we sinned. And so as a result of that sin, God cursed the physical universe. Do you see that? The physical universe was put under our dominion and therefore, God just sees it that way and curses the physical universe under Adam and Eve. You remember that curse in Genesis 3:17, and following to Adam, He said, "Cursed is the ground because of you." Do you hear that? Cursed is the ground because of you. And so the ground was cursed and therefore, it would produce thorns and thistles for him rather than the abundant harvest that God originally intended. And death entered the world as a result through one man.

The first record we have of death was of the animal that was killed in Genesis 3 to make the skin for covering for Adam and Eve. And so death enters because of sin, as a result of sin. Now sin spread and multiplied and God had to judge it in Genesis chapter 6. There's a worldwide flood. Does that not establish also the connection between the human race and the physical world? What perished in the flood? Everything that breathed the life through its nostrils, all the animals died, except those that were on the ark. And so there is a bond, a link between what happens with human beings, and God and the physical universe. The physical universe, therefore, has been subjected, it says, to futility.

Now, this bond is going to be even clearer at the end of the world. Some of you think, well, I hope that we are the final generation and I don't have to die. Well, have you not read what the final generation is going to have to go through? It's an amazing thing. Now, I know we can talk about the pre-tribulation rapture. That's another topic, but the fact of the matter is the world is not going to end easily. It's going to be a very, very difficult end. And so we're going to see very plainly, again, the bonding or the uniting between the physical universe and what's happening with the human race. Earthquakes are going to rend the surface of the earth. Stars are going to fall to the Earth like ripe figs from a tree. Rivers, lakes, seas and oceans are going to be poisoned.

Every living thing in the sea will die. Trees, grass burned up. Therefore it makes sense that redemption, namely the death of Jesus Christ, will have a physical effect on the universe. Do you see that? And so what happened on the day that Jesus died, you remember from the sixth hour until the ninth hour what happened? Darkness came over the entire Earth. Do you remember that? Over that entire area there was darkness. Some think it was an eclipse. It doesn't say. It just says there was darkness for that period of three hours. And the moment Jesus died, we already had eluded Bill mentioned about the curtain being torn in two from top to bottom, but what else happened? The earth shook and the rocks were split.

That's a little foretaste of the effect of the cross of Jesus Christ on the physical world. There is a connection, therefore, between redemption and the future. Now look down at verse 19-22. This is clearly described in the verses we're looking at today. It says, "The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation will be itself, will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time." And so creation is waiting, it's waiting, waiting for what? Waiting for us to finish, waiting for the children of God to be revealed, to be finished.

Creation is waiting and groaning, it's been subjected to it, says "futility." The word means vanity or emptiness. A sense of purposelessness. You get the same thing in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 1:2-8, "‘Vanity! Vanity!’ says the Teacher.  ‘Utter vanity. Everything is vanity.’ What does man gain from all this labor, at which he toils under the sun. Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north, round and round it goes ever returning on its course. All the streams flow into the sea and yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from there, they return again. All things are wearisome more than one can say."

That is a poetic representation of what Paul says here in Romans eight. That everything physically has been subjected to vanity or frustration, futility, and therefore we see the Principal of death and decay ruling everything under the sun, right? Everything under the sun. Look at verses 20-21 again. "The creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay." Now, the word decay means, corruption, and anybody who knows anything about biology knows that everything's breaking down all the time. There's a principle of rotting and breaking apart all the time. Things are not getting more and more complex. They're always breaking down. Water attacks things and makes it rust. Sunlight affects, and destroys things so that your cells... Even the cells in your own body, because of radiation don't replicate perfectly. And so we rightly can say, we begin to die the moment that we're born, and that's because of this curse that everything physical is under. Well, that's the past, and that's why we're in what we're in now.

The present suffering, therefore unfolds as a result. Look at verse 18, it says in the NIV, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing..." That's not really a good translation. I like it better this way. "I consider that the sufferings of this present age are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." This is a time of physical suffering and you can't escape. There's no way to escape it. God has not promised that to you. It's part of the age, the era, the time that we're in now, and he will not remove it. He enables us to bear up under it, but he will not remove it. And so we have present suffering. The physical universe groans and labors, (verse 22) we know that.

The whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time. It's not just the physical creation that's groaning. Human beings groan as well. Infants die in the Third World from malnutrition, and from poor medical care. Infants die in America from accidents and from other problems. Loved ones die. They face terrible sufferings and death. Malaria, and pneumonia, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and heart disease. And from that hospital bed comes a lamentable cry of suffering, and you say, "What is going to free us from this?" There's a sense of groaning. If you're in the medical community, you know what I'm talking about. There's a sense of groaning and you wonder, "What is God doing? Where is God in all of this?" Surprisingly, given the joy of this chapter, Children of God suffer too, don't we? We groan as well. Look at verse 23, "Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit we groan inwardly as we await eagerly our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." How can it be that we are exalted by the title, Children of God, and yet we groan and die the way that beast die. Really? How can that be? And so we groan inwardly. Well how do we respond? What is the answer? Well, the answer is words. Words from God. Promises that tend to actually run contrary to what we see and hear and experience in our lives.

Promises of God. That if you believe, alleviate the suffering we go through. We have two here, future promise, number one, namely our glorification. We have an aspect to our salvation presently today. And we have an aspect to our salvation that we haven't received yet. There's an already and there's a not yet. And actually much of it, we haven't gotten yet. The best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. And so, we have a future salvation and future promises. It says in this text we have the first fruits of the Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit now. If you don't have the Holy Spirit now you're not a Christian. We already learned that in Romans 8. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ, verse 9. And so, we must have the indwelling Spirit, that's just however the first fruits of the Spirit. We have an experience with God based on the indwelling Spirit that's called the first fruits. What does that mean? Full harvest later. We get the rest of it later on. Ephesians 1 says the Holy Spirit is given us a down payment or deposit guaranteeing the final inheritance. So we get most of it later. Right now, we get the indwelling Spirit. He testifies that we're children of God, helps us when we pray. Talk about that next time, God willing. He does all these things. He leads us and guides us, helps us to put sin to death.

That's what we get now, but that's just the foretaste. That's just part of it. That's just the first fruits of the Spirit. We have a future glory, yet to come. More than that, we have been raised from the dead, spiritually. Look at verse 10 again, this is by way of review, but we've already talked about it. "If Christ is in you, [look at what it says] your body is dead because of sin and yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness." Physical death is already at work in you and nothing will stop that. But your spirit is a new creation entity. It exists at the Word of God. God spoke it into existence. Let there be light, He said, in your soul and you got a new creation spirit. If anyone is in Christ, therefore he is what? A new creation. The old is gone, everything's become new. That new creation spirit, that person you are in Christ, can never die.

Amen. It can never die, it will survive the inoperable tumor statement from the doctor. It will survive hospice. It will survive your last fleeting breaths as you lay on your back. It will survive any accidents you face in this world. That new creation entity cannot be killed. And that is glorious good news. You have been raised from the dead spiritually and you cannot die, again. You're alive with Christ, and you have the first fruit of the Spirit. But you have something better promised. Future physical bodily resurrection is promised here in this text. And why? Because Jesus received a physical body. If you don't believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, I don't think you're a Christian. I don't know how you could be. If Christ has not been raised, then we're still in our sins. But Christ has been raised what, the first fruits from the dead. What does that mean? He's not the only one that's going to get a resurrection body. Now that resurrection body that was special, wasn't it? It could appear and disappear, remember the road to Emmaus? He's eating with the disciples, and then after He gives thanks, their eyes are open, they realize who He is. And then what happened? Boom. He's gone. Resurrection body. Remember? On the night of the resurrection the doors were shut and locked for fear of the Jews and Jesus came and stood amongst them.

How did He do that? I don't know. But He did. And Jesus made us a promise, "Because I live, you also will live." "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in Me will never die." Jesus is the resurrection and because of His resurrection, we have a promise of future glory. Now, here's the beauty of it. Look at verse 18 again, "I consider that the sufferings of this present age are not even worth considering to be equal to the glory that will be revealed in us." Now, I love the NASB, but I think they have it wrong here. The venerable NASB has it wrong. It's not glory that will be revealed to us. What does that mean? Well, we get to see it. We'll get to see the streets of gold. We'll get to see the new Heaven and new Earth. We'll get to see Jesus. All of that is true.

We Shall Not Only See Glory, but We Shall Also Be Glory

But this says more than that, it says that the glory will be revealed in us. How do I know that? Well, look what it says next in verse 19, "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God." You see that? The sons of God are going to be revealed, the children of God are going to be put on display. The word revealed is “apokalupsis.” We're going to be unveiled, we're going to be revealed. What does that mean we'll be revealed? In some sense now we're concealed. What we are has not been made known. And so the world doesn't recognize us, it doesn't see us the way it should. 1 John 3, it says very plainly. It says, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

So, the world doesn't see us right. The World sees us as people like in this jar of clay, but that's not who we really are, is it? It's not who we really are, we're going to be revealed. 1 Corinthians 4:7 says, "We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that it's all surpassing powers from God, not from us." What is this treasure? It's your new creation person, that new creation spirit is stuck in a jar of clay. It's stuck there, do you feel it? I'm stuck in this body and I'm dragging it around day after day and it doesn't want to go where I want to go. It doesn't want to do the things I want to do. I want to pray longer, I want to witness boldly, I want to give more, I want to serve, serve, serve, serve, but this body holds me back. What a wretched thing it is, but it's there and so we rely on God, we've got to stick with God, we got to trust Him and follow the Spirit and put sin to death and beat our body and make it our slave so that it can serve Christ. But that's where we are, we're stuck in this jar of clay.

And so meanwhile, we groan, Paul says, we want to be out, we want to be out, we want to be free, and we want that resurrection body. So we're not only going to see glory, we are going to be glory. Do you understand the significance of that? You are going to shine. Look at verses 29-30. We're going to get to these God willing in two weeks, but I've got to look at them now. Verses 29-30, it says, "Those God foreknew He also predestined," look, predestined for what? "To be conformed to the likeness of His Son." Do you know what that means? You're going to be like Jesus top to bottom. Perfect in your spirit, perfect in your body as well. He has a perfectly whole Spirit, Holy Spirit, and He has a perfectly glorified body, and you're going to be like Him. You are predestined to be like Jesus. You're going to end up like Jesus, perfect like Him. "And those He predestined, He also called and those He called, He also justified, and those He justified…" What? "He also glorified." You're going to be glorious, just like you were justified and you were called and you were chosen. All of these things were done to you, so also will glory be done to you. You'll become glorious for the resurrection body. Perfectly conformed to the body of Christ. And so, Jesus says in Matthew 13:43, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." You're going to shine like the sun if you're a Christian.

The Redemption of the Universe

Wow, that's the first promise. What about the second promise? Promise number two. Well, the perfection of the physical universe, the universe is going to get its day too. It's groaning now, but someday it's going to be free. It's going to be free from its bondage to decay, it's going to come into... It says the glorious freedom of the children of God, it's going to be a perfect place. Well, what's the process? Well, it's got to die first, just like us, right? And so, the universe, the physical universe has to go through death, a kind of a death. Hebrews 1:10 and following says, "In the beginning oh Lord, you laid the foundation of the Earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but You remain. They will all wear out like a garment, You will roll them up and throw them away." Why? So that He can make a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. He's going to roll up this place and throw it away, so don't invest in this place.

It's not just Enron, don't invest in this place. Enron is just a picture of what's going to happen to everything physical, it's going to go away, but the spiritual realm will last forever, 2 Peter 3 says, "The day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire and the Earth and everything in it will be laid bare." Don't invest in this world, that's application come later. Don't invest, the point is it's all going to go away. There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness, 2nd Peter 3:13. Revelation 21:1, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea." Future promise number two, a beautiful physical creation that God can look over and say, it is very good.

So how do we face suffering? What is our application? I want to bring it down to just a four letter word, the word "hope." The word hope. We end in hope. Look what it says in verse 24-25, "For in this hope we were saved." What does it mean? The hope I've been talking about, the hope that someday you will be perfect like Jesus physically and spiritually, and that someday the physical universe will be reclaimed and made perfect, in this hope you were saved. A hope that is seen is no hope at all, who hope through what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have we do what? We wait for it patiently. We wait for it patiently.

We yearn for it and we wait. We don't have it yet, we have some things already, but much of it we don't have yet, and so, we wait patiently. Well, what do we do while we're waiting? What should we do while we're waiting? Well, number one, I'd like you to consider the promises. We've had a short time together so far, a little over half an hour to consider the promises. You can do this all week long. Take Romans 8 and read over these things. Look again at verse 18, "I consider that the sufferings of this present age aren't worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed." What does consider mean? It's a weighing out. I don't think it's worth comparing. I've reckoned it, I've accounted... And like an accountant, I've accounted it, and it's lightweight compared to what we're going to get. It is nothing, but he has to do the thinking. It's not like singing the song A Few of My Favorite Things. We don't have Ostrich Assurance, do we? What is Ostrich Assurance? Stick your head in the ground and pretend that everything's wonderful, and then you can be assured. Not at all, get your head out of the ground and face it. Look at it. Look it square in the face.

I am going to die, physically. Praise God for that, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God anyway. So yes, let's pray for each other when we're sick, but pray even more for what God's doing through it. Pray for His spiritual work through it, but do your considerations. See, I don't even think it's worth comparing.

Secondly, believe the Word. Do you know that all that I've done here is just speak words? And if you don't have faith in Jesus Christ, this means nothing. If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you've been listening to what I've said, none of these things matter to you. There is no comfort therefore. And so, you're left to face death without any hope. Please come to Christ. Don't walk out of this place without having given your life to Jesus Christ. Without having trusted that His death was your death, that His resurrection may be, also, your resurrection. Believe the Word. And if you're a Christian, believe the Word. And have a strong hope in God. Don't use the word hope the way we usually do, like, "I hope it doesn't rain on our picnic," or "I hope that our team wins the city championship," or "I hope that my kids come visit me when I'm in the nursing home." That's the way we use hope. That's not the hope we're talking about here. This is a hope that's as secure as the truthfulness and faithfulness of God. He's made us some promises. Has He ever broken His word? These things will happen. This is our hope. This kind of hope we have. Not a weak and feeble earthly hope.

Then persevere and suffering, wait patiently and persevere. Remember Romans 5:3-5, "Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit." Let the trials do their work on you. Let your diseases do their work on you. Let the suffering of you and of your loved ones do its good work in your soul. Trust in God and realize that these are small problems, temporary, and this is spoken by a man who got beaten more times than he could count. Who was shipwrecked and who suffered. 2 Corinthians 13:12 talks about it. Suffering was part of Paul's everyday life, he says, it's not even worth comparing the future glory. Meanwhile, I know that this isn't an a joyful application, but groan. Don't pretend it doesn't hurt. Don't pretend it doesn't hurt when your loved one dies. Don't act that way. Of course it hurts when you don't have that person around anymore. Of course it hurts. Paul said, "Meanwhile, we groan." We go through it with our eyes open, and we do mourn with those who mourn, as though it were something we were going through. Jesus wept at Lazarus' tomb. We do mourn, and we hurt, and we go through it.

And finally, love the children of God. How can you look at each other just like people anymore? Don't you realize that, if you're looking at a child of God, someday he or she is going to be so glorious that you'd want to worship them, if you didn't know better? Just like John wanted to worship the angel that brought him revelation. You'd want to get down and worship them, because they're just so stunning and glorious. But we won't, because we'll be stunning and glorious too, and so, it should affect the way we treat each other. And everything you do, every interaction you have with another person, you're either helping them along toward Heaven or toward Hell, one or the other.

C.S. Lewis brought this out in a sermon, Weight of Glory. It says it may be possible for each of us to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter, but it is hardly possible for him to think too often, or too deeply, about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy, that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities that we should conduct all our dealings with one another. All friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. Do you understand that? There are no ordinary people. You've never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization, these are mortal, and their life to ours is like the life of a gnat, compared to us. Do you realize that? You'll spend eternity somewhere, but it is immortals with whom we joke, and work, and marry, and snub and exploit. Immortal horrors or everlasting splendors, said CS Lewis. We can't see each other the same way ever again. We are dealing with people who will someday be glorious, or someday, be under the wrath of God, eternally. We have to deal with these things with a weight that they deserve.

Pastor Andy Davis gives a review of all the spiritual gifts covered in this sermon series and makes us aware that God gave us a spiritual gifts package and expects us to use it to build up His church.

This is our final look at spiritual gifts and my desire tonight is to do two things. I want to go through some of the gifts with you and look at what they are and how they might function very practically in the body. There's no way we can get through all of the gifts that are listed and go through a detailed description of how they would function, but I want to do some teaching and some application there, but I also have the desire to motivate you to use your gifts. And as we begin our time tonight, I'd like each one of you to think about the answer to this question. What is your ministry here at First Baptist Church, especially those of you that are members that have covenanted with us? What do you do here that advances the life of the church? In other words, how are you using your gifts within the context of this church?

Now, those of you that come on Sunday evenings, you show a special level of dedication and I appreciate that. I'm glad that you come out on Sunday evenings. When I was growing up Sunday evening church was not part of my church experience and so we're grateful that you're here and I think it's so important to be part, regularly, part of church attendance and worship. But that is not a gift ministry is it? That's not a spiritual gift ministry. Now that could be a context of a gift ministry. In other words, as you come in here, you come in with a ministry to do with an attitude, with a desire, and you can use your time here on Sunday morning and evening to exercise your gifts. But my question to you, and it is a rhetorical question, we're not going to have people stand up and say what they are, but do you have a definable ministry here that you are thinking about and for which you would consider yourself accountable, that you're holding yourself accountable to others and that people perhaps even know what your ministry is and that you are doing a ministry here? And that is just so vital and so important.

My role here tonight is to just try to exhort you to do your ministry, whatever it is. It's God that's prepared you for it and it for you. He's the one that's married the two together. My role as a spiritually-gifted teacher is to just make biblical issues clear to you so that you're motivated. Take a minute if you would and look at Philippians 4. We're going to start there tonight. And look at Paul's attitude. And while I'm doing that, Andy, would you mind maybe Tim too, passing out the sheets that list the gifts. Now those of you that were here last Sunday evening, you got a questionnaire, a spiritual gift questionnaire. I hope you all went through it. Some of you have already told me how the outcome came and some of you were surprised at what it showed and others weren't, but I thought that was a useful tool. This is simply the final sheet in which it just describes a variety of gifts. Not all of them but just some of them so that we can really look at it tonight. But I'd like to begin that you not look at the sheet right now just as you're receiving them, but that you look with me at Philippians 4:17. In chapter 4, Paul is talking about a gift that was given to him by the Philippian Christians. He's talking about money there. Isn't he? They gave him money. They sent him a gift of money and you have to understand this about people that were incarcerated that were in prison in the first centuries, that there was no support system for them. The prisons didn't consider themselves responsible to feed the prisoners. That wasn't their job. In many cases, they had to have an outside system that would bring in food and clothing and whatever was needed and prisons were absolutely miserable places in the first century. And so Paul is really living hand-to-mouth and basically depending on the gifts and the support of others. He talks in 2 Timothy about the household of Onesiphorus that wasn't ashamed of his chains but showed up there and cared for him. And he said, "May the Lord repay them." He was very concerned about this. But here he talks about the Philippians gift and what I think is so interesting in Philippians is his attitude about the money, that it's just a remarkable attitude and I'd like to share it with you. This is not a money talk. We're not talking about tithing and offering and all that, but I want you to think with me specifically about the issue of stewardship and how Paul thinks about it. Look what he says. Start at Verse 14. Well, let's go back actually a little further. Verse 10. It says, "I rejoice greatly in the Lord. At last, you've renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you have been concerned but you had no opportunity to show it. I'm not saying this because I am in need for I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty." And then just a tremendous statement here, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." Isn't that amazing? How many of you have learned that secret, being content in any and every situation? And if you could get it from a pill or something you could drink a morning, a breakfast drink or something, what would you pay for a day's worth of full contentment in anything that you face? Wouldn't that be remarkable? I mean, you could be the president of a multi-billion dollar corporation if you could come up with something like that, but there is nothing like that. The contentment only comes by following and keeping in step with the Holy Spirit. But Paul said, "I learned the secret." And it's a remarkable statement and bears full weight at another time, but that's what he says. He says, "I am in need, but I've learned the secret." The point is not me. Isn't that the attitude that Paul's having here? “It's not me. My eyes aren't on myself. God is going to meet my needs.” So he goes on. He says, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." That verse frequently taken out of context, but it's just such a wonderful statement. And then he says this, "Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles." Notice the word yet. "For all of my joyful cheerfulness and my contentment in any and every situation and my attitude that I can do everything through Christ and all that, yet it was good of you to share in my situation." Isn't that interesting, the attitude that he has here? It was good of you. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, "When I set out for Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving except you only for even when I was in Thessolonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need." Now look at verse 17. This is the focus of our study verse 17, "Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account." very interesting statement. Now I looked it up in the Greek right before I came here and the word account is Logan, and basically there is a record being kept somewhere of things you do. Do you believe that? There's a record, there's an accounting of what you do and that it would include giving to somebody who is in need like Paul. But it includes so much more than that doesn't it? It includes everything you do, absolutely everything. And it certainly includes something as huge as your stewardship of your spiritual gift, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ has given you a gift package, a spiritual gift mix. He's handed it to you. It's given to you according to the measure of Jesus Christ. He's measured it out to you. Is he expecting anything back from that? Do you think? Do you think that that is a matter of stewardship? And are not all matters of stewardship going to be also matters of accountability on judgment day? Do we not have to give an account for the things that were done in the body, whether good or bad, and wouldn't that include our spiritual gift ministry?

What I'm trying to say is I feel very much like Paul here. I'm not looking for anything for myself in that you use your gift ministries but rather that you just multiply the good deeds that you have to show on judgment day so that when you stand before God, you will not in any way be empty handed. You will not be ashamed in any way but you'll have a full measure of good deeds that you can present to God. And I believe many of them are going to be done along the tracks or the lines of your spiritual gifts, whatever they are. And so I'm exhorting you to love and good deeds. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "We should consider one another how we may spur one another on toward loving good deeds." I'm trying to spur you on to consider your gifts and your ministry here that you might have a full compliment of good deeds to show. Paul says, "I'm not looking for a gift for myself. I'm looking for things that may be credited to your account." That's my concern here. And so also it is in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, you remember the story of Matthew 25:14-31. There's the accounting of a master who's going on a journey and he commits to his servants according to their abilities, one five talents, another two talent, another one talent. And then he goes off on his journey and you remember what they do, the one with the five talents put it to work and gained five more, the one with the two talents, put it to work and gained two more. The one with the one talent hid it in the ground and there was an accounting, wasn't there? There was an accounting. Now I think that there is in many churches a sense of that the spiritual gifts are really the purview perhaps of the ministerial staff or maybe the pastor in particular, the so-called myth of the omni-competent Pastor. I can assure you that I am living proof that it's false, all right? It is impossible for one person to have all the gifts. As a matter of fact, it isn't even good because we need each other, don't we? We need each other. We need each other's ministry. So it's not going to be the case that any one person has the full compliment of gifts, but rather we need what each other can give. And so we all need you to use your gifts, et cetera, one another or else we can't grow up to full maturity. But then there's the matter of judgment day, and that's what I'm saying as a teacher, I'm saying, someday you will stand before Jesus Christ, and I will not be with you at that time. I will be busy giving an account for my own life. And so each one of us must give a full account for the gifts given.

And so I returned to my original question, what is your ministry here? What is your ministry? What are you doing to help the church grow, numerically through evangelism and outreach and in spiritual maturity, through discipleship and the ministry of the Word? Now, there is a simplistic way of looking at church growth. I've said before, and I think it's still true, that you could look at evangelism and outreach and bringing people to Christ in one of two different senses. One is the kind of Alamo approach and the other is the D-day approach. The Alamo approach is a sense that "Hey, everybody's got to do evangelism. We all got to be busy out there outreach all the time." And you've probably been at churches like that or you've heard that kind of thing. And we all have a responsibility to reach out. Don't we? All of us are called to be witnesses. That can be easily proven from Scripture, from Acts and other places. But in that case, it doesn't really matter whether you're the cook or the bottle washer or the knife sharpener. You need to take your place at the wall because there's only 183 of you and there's 5,000 of them. And basically it doesn't matter what your name is or occupation, you need to be on the wall. You see what I'm saying? That's one view of outreach. Then there's the D-Day approach in which, "Hey, look, the Nazis have been there for over three years. They're well established. The only way we're going to get in there is if we are well organized so that the Quartermaster Corps does their part, the Navy does its part the artillery, the Air Force does their part. Air Corps does their part and those landing do their part." You see what I'm saying? It's a whole system. Now which of those two do you think more nearly approximates the New Testament approach toward outreach and evangelism? Is it not the second rather than the first?

And so what I would say is: we need to be put together like a body, like a church, and each of the gifts functioning well within the body, we're going to see maximum fruitfulness for Jesus Christ, maximum fruitfulness. All right? That's the plug. Use your gifts. That's all. I want you to use your gifts, discover, develop, use, discover, develop, use. Find out what they are, develop them to full maturity and then just crank it out. Just do lots of good deeds. "Store up treasure in heaven", Jesus said. What are you storing up in heaven? Certainly not justification. There's no storing up of justification. You're storing up good deeds done in righteousness for the glory of God, the good deeds that God has appointed for you to do, and I believe you're going to do them along the track of your spiritual gifts. It says in 1 Peter 4, "Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its manifold forms." We are to be faithful stewards of these spiritual gifts.

Now you all have a sheet, and I would like you to take a look at it. And we're going to talk about these gifts specifically. We're not going to follow the order on that sheet because I had my own sermon, my own message. But I think all the ones that I want to talk about are on this sheet. And I think it's important for us to understand. Now, realize that these gifts listed here on this sheet, service, intercession, teaching, hospitality, leadership, et cetera, these are not an exhaustive list of possible spiritual gifts. There are others besides those listed on these two half pages here. And as a matter of fact, I don't even believe that there is an exhaustive list given in Scripture. We've talked about before that Romans 12 gives us seven gifts, prophecy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leadership and mercy. First Corinthians 12 adds without counting the repeats, wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, apostleship, the gift of helps and administration. Ephesians 4 adds without repeating, evangelist and pastor. Now as we put all those gifts together, that's 20 gifts that are listed without repeat. Some of them are repeated, but there's 20. And then if you go across and start looking at some other things, you may be able to add to it from the Scripture. But I think that these lists are meant to be suggestive, not exhaustive. But the point is it's enough to go on, isn't it? And if we had all of these gifts fully operative in our church, what kind of powerhouse would we be for the gospel? It's remarkable if all of these gifts were being used to their fullest. Now let's look at them individually and see if we can figure out exactly what they are.

Let's start with the gift of service, the first one listed in Romans 12, “If someone's gift is serving, let them serve.” The sheet that you have says "The gift of service is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to identify the unmet needs involved in a task related to God's work and make use of available resources to meet those needs, thus helping accomplish the desired goals." Now, the word literally means ministry. We get the term deacon from it. So it wouldn't be surprising, for example, if someone were called to be a deacon that they might have the spiritual gift of service. That would not surprise us. That really does line up. I'm just telling you that that's the word in the Greek that we would use for the gift of service. You have, of course, the seven original servants in this way in Acts 6, you remember the widows being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. These were seven gifted men, all of them I think Greeks, if you look at their names, who had I think pretty evidently the gift of service, the ability to marshal resources to meet a specific need in the body of Christ. And so there's this gift of service. Now realize again with all of these gifts, I think it's easier to see with some than with others that all of us are called to be servants to each other, aren't we? And so when we read that deacons are to be servants or that the pastor to be a servant, that's not surprising. We're all supposed to be servants. Every last one of us is to serve one another. But the gift of service is somebody that just has an outlook to find ways to move resources around in the church to meet a need, and I think it's a marvelous thing.

Closely related to that is the last one they describe here, the gift of helps. This is listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28. "The gift of helps involves the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to invest the talents they have in the life and ministry of other members of the body, thus enabling them to increase the effectiveness of their spiritual gifts." So basically you're coming alongside somebody and just pumping into that person and helping them along. Does this sound like a discipler, for example, a discipleship relationship? I think that that might be a good example of how the gift of helps might work. You're coming alongside somebody and you're saying, "I would like to help you be everything you can be for Christ. I would like to help you mobilize your own gifts, your own resources to the building of the body of Christ." And so you would find this kind of person involved, I think in discipleship a great deal. Sometimes it's just a simple matter of helping in the simplest way. I think an example of that would be the stretcher-bearers in Capernaum, in Mark 2. You remember those men that brought that paralyzed man? They're just carrying him on the mat. And do you remember what it says about that? It says, "When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed, man, your sins are forgiven." Why the plural? Well, he's looking at the whole group of them as they come and bring Jesus, all of them carrying him had faith as well, not just he himself. And so they had the gift of helps I think, or at least it's an example of one, somebody that would be willing to take their resources and put them to the specific need of an individual.

Now related to this... And as I'm looking over, I don't see it here on your sheets, but I'm just going to describe it as the gift of mercy. Now, the gift of mercy I think is a special ability to feel genuine empathy and compassion for individuals, both Christian and non-Christian who are suffering physically, emotionally or spiritually. And to translate that compassion into cheerfully done deeds which reflect Christ's love and alleviate the suffering. How many times does it say of Jesus that he had mercy on someone and healed them? You see what I'm saying? As he walks by, he sees a blind man and he has mercy on him, or they're even crying out for it, “Lord, have mercy on us!” What it means, I think in this specific sense is alleviate our suffering. Bring resources to bear so that our suffering in this world is alleviated, the gift of mercy. A good example from scripture might be the Good Samaritan. The good Samaritan goes by and sees somebody lying in a ditch and he has mercy on him. And Jesus even says that. Now, which of those had mercy, the one who had mercy on him, which of them was a good neighbor? The one who had mercy; there was a sense of mercy there. And so these people with this gift just have an outlook to find suffering where it is and to alleviate it. Now let me ask you a question. How would somebody or even a whole operation or service of ministry, of the gift of mercy in a local church help evangelism? Think about that. Well realize that people with the gift of mercy are going to be going out into the world finding suffering and alleviating it. And they're going to, in the same way, be bringing those people, I think, into the life of the church. And so they have a very powerful impact I think, on connecting or bringing people into the hearing of the gospel. Now, they themselves can and should be sharing the gospel. But maybe somebody with the special gift of evangelism, the ability to communicate the gospel very clearly will be the actual one who leads that person to Christ. Maybe not. Any one of you can lead somebody to Christ as the Spirit leads, no question about it. But you see how the gift of mercy could work even in our church. We're a downtown church, aren't we? Aren't there opportunities for us to alleviate suffering around us? Didn't Jesus do that? And wouldn't it be that perhaps you have that kind of a sensitive, compassionate heart to see ways that our church could alleviate suffering, and then you can start getting things together, right? All right, you got somebody with the gift of mercy who's got that outlook, that compassion, and then somebody with the gift of service is able to put the thing together, also perhaps the gift of administration, to be able to figure out a good way to make it a viable ministry. You see what I'm saying? That's how it begins to happen, and it's already happening in our church. It's not like this is shocking or new. The Spirit's been working this kind of thing. The Caring Center for example, and other benevolent type ministries that we do are examples of it, but I think we can do more. And I think people with the gift of mercy are going to be able to do that.

The next gift on my sheet is the gift of teaching, which is third one down on yours and it says on your sheet, "The gift of teaching is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to communicate biblical information relevant to the health and ministry of the body and its members in such a way that others will learn, that others will learn." Now obviously there are many examples of the gift of teaching in the Bible. The apostle Paul is a great teacher. And we had teachers in the church at Antioch in Acts 13. These are people who have the ability to just take the written word of God and unfold it and just get things out of it, mind truths and pour them out for the strength of the body. And churches need many teachers, not just one or two, but many and all the more as the church starts to multiply. So we're going to want to see the gift of teaching.

The next one on my sheet is the gift of exhortation or encouragement, which is not on your sheet. I don't see it, but I think it's such a vital gift, isn't it? Think of somebody that had the gift of encouragement in the Bible. Wouldn't Barnabas be a great example? It's somebody... I'll read my definition, "The special ability to minister words of comfort, consolation, encouragement, exhortation, and counsel to other members of the body in such a way that they feel helped and strengthened." It's almost like this kind of person comes alongside and just breathes new life into you. You know what I'm talking about? Just when they speak, you just feel strengthened when you listen to them. Those kind of people are so valuable, aren't they? Don't we get worn down in the ministry? Don't we feel like we want to give up? Ministry's not easy. We just had an international ISM, International Student Ministry, team meeting, and it's just so easy to become discouraged in ministry, isn't it? If you don't see immediate results or fruit. And so at that point, people with the gift of encouragement come alongside and just breathe new life, say, "Don't give up. You're doing good work. God is helping you, and God has blessed you and God is calling you and we're going to see things if we don't give up." They'll quote scripture perhaps. Remember how Barnabas did that? Remember Barnabas, his name was actually Joseph, he was a Levite from Cyprus, but they nicknamed him “Son of Encouragement” because he was just such a lavishly, encouraging guy. Well, how did it function? We see it at least twice in the New Testament, once in the case of a man named Saul of Tarsus who nobody wanted around. He was the ultimate pariah and nobody believed his conversion, least of all the church in Jerusalem. And so along comes Barnabas and basically puts an arm on and says, "He's all right. He's with me. All right?” And he just brings him into the body, into the group, and he encourages him. And then later on he's going to go up to Tarsus and get him and bring him down to Antioch so that they can minister together. We see that encouragement ministry, and then we see it again in the case of John Mark where John Mark just blew it on their first missionary journey, he just cowardly, I think, retreated from the work. And Paul said, "That's it. No second chances with me. No way. You're not going on this second missionary journey." And he said, "No." And Barnabas said, "Yes, God has big plans for this young man." Well, as you read in Scripture who was right? Barnabas was right. The encourager was right. "Get John Mark", said Paul later. "Get John Mark and bring him with me because he's very useful to me in my ministry. All right, all right, I was wrong. All right? John Mark was a great guy and I sold him short." He still had... he made a mistake. But you see how Barnabas came alongside and encouraged and kept him going. Now, what would've happened if there'd been no gifted encourager at that point? John Mark would've wilted and think of all the good works that God intended to do through John Mark. And I think because of the ministry of Barnabas was able to do those. And so exhortation and encouragement, we're going to be looking for that.

All right. The gift of giving, the gift of giving, is that on the list there? You don't have it. See, I told you it was incomplete. The gift of giving, now, what is the gift of giving? Well, it's a special ability to contribute sacrificially material resources to the work of God with abundant generosity, faith and cheerfulness. That's a great gift in the body of Christ, I'm telling you right now. Now, there's some things, as we said at the ISM meeting there's some things that money can't buy. For everything else, there's the gift of giving, right? To paraphrase that commercial, all right? There are some things you just need money for. There are just some things you need resources for. And God has abundantly blessed some of these folks with a lot of material resources in this world. Is that for an accident? Not at all, but that they might take it and convert into heavenly currency by giving it away, by giving it away. And so we see that. But it's not just wealthy people. Sometimes it can be poor people with the gift of giving. The Macedonians are examples of that. 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, you don't have to turn there, but just listen. 2 Corinthians 8, it says, "We want you to know about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian churches out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability, entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service of the saints. They gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us." Now, I just listed out attributes of this. They gave even in the midst of severe trial. They gave even when they were poor themselves. They gave with overflowing joy. They gave with commitment to the Lord. They gave with commitment to the Lord's work. They gave with a sense of privilege and gratitude. They gave with incredible faith. They gave beyond natural ability and they gave it their own initiative. People with the gift of giving do that. They do it all the time, and not just money. They just take what they have and make it available to you, lavishly. I was reading about this Texas industrialist, R.G. Lurtenau. I can't pronounce his name. But he founded a secular corporation whose ultimate purpose was to make money for the gospel. Eventually, his company, Lurtenau Incorporated, gave 90% of its stocks and profits yearly to the advance of the gospel. 90% of the stocks and profits of that company went to the advancement of the gospel. At one point, his corporation was worth 40 million dollars. And this is what he said, "It is not how much money I give to God, but how much of God's money I keep for myself." Isn't that interesting? And that's the attitude of somebody with that gift of giving. And so we would like to see people with that gift of giving. And again, what is Paul's attitude in Philippians 4:17? “Not that we need it, but you need to give it.” Isn't that his attitude? So if God has lavishly blessed you with financial resources, you need to give so that you can convert that earthly stuff, which is of no use at heaven, I can tell you right now, they don't use that currency up there, but they use something else. And that's stuff done by faith for the advancement of the gospel. That'll be waiting for you on judgment day. And so every dollar you give by faith to the Lord's work, it'll be waiting for you. It'll be there. It's credited to your account in Paul's language. It's been multiplied to your account, so the gift of giving.

Now, another gift that I think is fascinating is the gift of faith. Now, it's interesting to me because obviously every one of you has faith or you're not a Christian. If you don't have faith, you're not a Christian. We're justified by faith. But this is something else now. See in the up right-hand side of your sheet there: “The gift of faith is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to discern with extraordinary confidence, the will and purposes of God for the future of his work.” Wow. These are the visionaries. It's like they can just see what God is going to do. You know what I'm talking about? And they're not making it up. And certainly they're not forcing or compelling God to do their vision. Faith is not an arm-twisting of God by men. It's not that at all, because we have enough faith and God's got to do what we want him to do. That's not it at all. Rather, faith is a sensitivity to what God is planning to do, and God starts to open up his plan and his heart to those people more and more. Isn't that remarkable? George Mueller is a great example of a man with a gift of faith. We've talked about him before. Remember the story about the fog? What a great story that is. The story about the fog, some of you are remembering. Some of you seem like you're in a fog. Others are nodding. And I remember... But what a great story. This is a man who trusted God for literally thousands and thousands of orphans over his 62 years of caring, literally caring for thousands, I think 13,000 orphans. All right. Think about... You think somebody with a family of six is a large family. He had a family of 13,000 and he cared for them by faith. And how many times did he get on his knees and ask God for things and trust God for bread and for clothes and shoes and a bigger place and all that so that toward the end of his life when he was on a ship and needed to be somewhere to do the Lord's work and the ship had shut down because of fog, he goes up to the captain and says, "Why have we stopped?" And he said, "There's a fog. It's impenetrable and we have to wait for it to move." He says, "Well then I need to find another way to get there. I've never missed an appointment and I'm not going to miss this one." Now he's in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You're going to find another way? This is before helicopters now, okay. "Another way to get there, you're crazy." He said, "No, if the fog needs to lift it, it'll lift. Let's pray." And the man looked at him like he was from another planet, but Mueller just kneels down and the captain started to pray and he stopped him. You remember that? He stopped and said, "Don't. First of all, you don't believe that he will. And second of all, I believe he already has." And so he prayed simply, "Lord, remove the fog so that I can get there in time." That's all. No magic words, just, “Lord do it.” Now let me ask you a question. Did Mueller move God to move the fog? Not at all. It was God communicating his special will to a man like George Mueller. People with the gift of faith are in communication with God in a way that they can see where God wants us to go. They can see the future. They can see the vision. And isn't that valuable? I mean, there is almost infinite ministries we could do. How do we know which ones God's leading us to do?

We need people with the gift of faith and we need people with the gift of administration. I feel this one most acutely. I think there are two gifts that I covet more than anyone else. I think I know what my gifts are, but the gifts that I'm just jealous over are the gifts of evangelism and the gifts of administration. Why evangelism? Because people like Bill Bright and DL Moody and all that, they have all these great stories. They just go to a Vietnamese restaurant and they lead three people to Christ and they go back and lead others to Christ, those Vietnamese. I mean it's just... Everywhere they go. I mean somebody sits... Everybody that sits next to Bill Bright on an airplane is going to come to Christ. It's just the way it is. I mean it's just there's no hope for that person. There's all hope for that person. It's remarkable. I try to witness every time I sit on an airplane, but I don't see those kind of results. And I have to just realize, listen, my gifts are different. I need to be faithful to be a witness and I will never give up on that. I'm going to try to witness because I really want to lead somebody to Christ and I have led some to Christ but not like them. And so I covet that gift of evangelism. Some of you have that gift. And I want to see you afterwards. I want you to come up and we're going to talk, right Steve? Get that outreach organized. We very much would like to see that. All of us have the responsibilities. Some of us have the gift, but also that gift of administration. I covet that one too. I'm just not a well organized guy. Look at this. Look at this. This is a mess. I've been struggling with this all my life. At any rate, the gift of administration, the ability to organize well and marshal and think through everything that needs to happen ahead of time. It's almost like a practical kind of prophecy where you're figuring out the future and well, "We'll need this and this needs to happen and we need to make these 15 phone calls. And if we don't do it by this time, forget it. It's over." And they think these things out. We need all of these gifts operative in the church.

The last one I want to talk about is the gift of intercession. It's there, second on the left. “The gift of intercession is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to pray for extended periods of time on a regular basis and see frequent and specific answers to their prayers to a degree much greater than as expected of the average Christian.” I believe that God wants great things for this church. I really believe that. But I believe they're only going to happen as we begin to pray for them. There are some blessings that God just withholds from a church until they really seek him for it and they'd just begin to pray. And who leads out? It's these people with the gift of intercession. They feel it more acutely than anybody else that we need to pray for these things. All of us should feel it, but some just... They just have this gift. And when they pray you, don't you... Have you ever prayed with somebody like this? You just feel like you're being lifted up into the presence of God. And so we have that group of people who have the gift of intercession and they ignite a fire in the rest of us as we all have the Spirit within us crying out “Abba Father” and we can cry out to him. But some have that gift. So we've gone through some of these. There's more that we can talk about. But the question is, what is your gift or what is your gift package? And therefore, from that, what is your ministry going to be here at First Baptist? Life is short. You don't know how much longer you have on earth. Make the most of every day. Make the most of your gifts that you've been given. Let's close in prayer.

Father, it's been a wonderful study to look at spiritual gifts and how they function in the body. And Father, for us to understand more about what the church is and how we function together. Father, I thank you for each of my brothers and sisters here and how much I feel very much my need of them. Father, I need them and they need me. We need each other, Lord, very, very much. Father, we need those with the gift of encouragement to step up and encourage one another. We need those with a pastoring and a shepherding heart to look after one another in brotherly love. A sense of, “How are you doing and how is it going with you?” We need those with the gift of intercession to be faithful in prayer. Those with the gift of evangelism, Lord, to just go out in a remarkable way and lead many, many to Christ. And those with the gift of helps or perhaps discipleship, to take those new ones and encourage them and exhort them and those with the gift of teaching to teach so that they grow to full maturity in Christ. Oh Lord, we need all these things. Father, help us that nothing be wasted. You set us that example when you fed the 5,000, Lord Jesus, and you gathered all of the broken fragments and pieces, and you said why and the answer was that nothing would be wasted. God, I pray that not a moment and not a gift would be wasted. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you would, take your Bibles and open to Romans chapter 8, a magnificent passage of Scripture. We're looking this morning at verses 14-17, but in a little bit of a different way. Last week, we went through the verses, verse by verse, and we tried to understand the privilege, and what it means to be called a child of God, and specifically, in one sense: How do we know if we are children of God? And we drew out five questions, and we applied those to ourselves, that we might understand and know, whether we, ourselves, are children of God. Nothing could be more important than that. There is no inquiry more significant than to determine, are we children of God? Am I a child of God?

"I believe the reason why so many poor souls," it says, William Gurnall said, "The reason why so many poor souls have so little joy in their hearts, is that they have so little light of Gospel knowledge in their minds. The further a soul stands from the light of truth, the further he must needs be from the heat of comfort." I guess, in a way, I'm inviting all of us to come into the cottage and sit right by the fire. Get right close to the Scripture truth, that we might be warmed by it, that we might understand the light and the heat that come from the promises of God. Because the fact of the matter is, we don't experience, in our physical world, in our physical lives, all the blessings of being a child of God. Most of them are deferred, aren't they? And we're not going to experience them all, until we die, and go to Heaven.

And so, we actually have to read, constantly, the Scriptures, and renew, again, our minds in them, that we might understand the privileges of the child of God. I'm hoping that joy will enter your heart this morning. I'm going to be going over a list of privileges of being a child of God. I'm hoping that, as you read each one, the promise, the lavish promise that comes to you, as a child of God, might bring joy into your hearts. Thomas Watson said this, "Here, in this world, joy enters into the saints, but in Heaven, the saints enter into joy." Here, we just get a little foretaste, don't we? We get a little drink, and hopefully, it'll be enough for you, as you face all of the trials, and the things that you're going to face this week. But think, someday, perhaps, even soon, for some of you that are listening to me, joy won't enter into you, you're going to dive into an ocean of joy.

As Jesus said, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful in a few things. Now, I'll put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master." What kind of joy does God have? Well, it's an ocean of joy, and someday, as a child of God, you're going to dive in. But today, I'm praying that just joy will enter into you, as you consider the blessing of being a child of God. I believe that when we first come to faith in Christ, all of these things are given to us in totality. They're all ours. They're part of our inheritances, as a child of God. They're given to us in lump sum, and then time, the purpose of time, among other things, is to unfold each of those blessings, as we walk along, as children of God. We're going to unfold them a little bit this morning. Thomas Watson said this, "God is ever giving to His children, yet, has nonetheless forgiving. His riches are imparted, they are not impaired. And so, as God doles out these privileges, these riches of the Gospel, He doesn't have any less to give."

We're looking, this morning, in terms of adoption, and the fact that we are adopted children of God, at what I think is the highest, the most surprising honor and blessing of the Gospel. Now, Romans chapter 8, as a whole, is given to us, to give us assurance of salvation. The very first sentence in Romans 8, namely, verse 1, gives us a sense of that assurance. Look, again, at it. It says, "There is, therefore, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." What an incredible promise that is. But realize that, even there, it's delimited. It's stated very clearly who gets that blessing, "Those who are in Christ Jesus." For them, there is no condemnation. And so, all the way through to the end, in Romans chapter 8, at the very end it says that, nothing, "neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, that is in Christ Jesus." From the beginning to the end of Romans 8, from 'no condemnation' all the way through to 'no separation,' there are incredible blessings given to us, but all of them come to those that are in Christ Jesus. Or, to zero in the way we've been looking, last week, and this week, to those that are adopted children of God. All the blessings of the Gospel are given to those that are children of God.

Those Who Receive Christ by Faith

Now, last week, we zeroed in on that question, the central question of your existence. We could put it this way, "Am I or am I not a child of God?" We looked at five questions. A child of God are those who have received Christ by faith, so have you received Christ by faith? In John 1:12, it says, Those who are justified by faith are children of God. They're adopted by faith into the family. Simply by receiving Christ, by trusting in Him, that He is God in the flesh, that He died on the Cross for you, that He rose from the dead, that His death was your death, the death you deserve, that His resurrection from the grave is really your resurrection, spiritually now, physically later, that there is a union between you and Christ. Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior? If so, you're a child of God.

Those Who Are Led by His Spirit

Secondly, the text says that, "Those who are led by His Spirit are children of God." Look at verse 14, it says, "All who are being led by," is a good translation, "All who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." Now, we saw last week, that that meant, specifically, if you look back, if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die, but if by the Spirit, you are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you put it all together, basically, you are a child of God, if you are daily putting sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the second test and the second way you can know, whether you're a child of God.

Those Who Cry “Abba, Father” by His Spirit

Thirdly, children of God are those who cry, "Abba Father," by the Spirit. As we began our prayer time today, as I stepped up here, I had the privilege of addressing God as Abba Father, daddy. A sense of intimacy, a sense of love. We're going to talk more about that this morning, but those who have the Spirit moving us to cry up to God, "Abba Father," those are the children of God. It says in verse 15, "You have not received a Spirit of slavery leading to fear, again, but you have received a Spirit of adoption, as sons, by which we cry out, 'Abba Father.'"

Those Who Receive the Internal Witness by His Spirit

And then fourthly, those who receive the internal testimony of the Spirit, that you're a child of God, those are the children of God. Look at verse 16, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." If you're a child of God, the Holy Spirit's going to be telling you so. Over and over, He's going to be speaking to you. He's going to be addressing your spirit. He's going to be talking to you and saying, "Child of God. You're a child of God." It's like a homing beacon. "A child of God." He's just speaking and communicating to you, "You're a child of God," the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Those Who Suffer With Christ by His Spirit

And then, fifthly, we said, those who suffer with Christ, by His Spirit, these are children of God. Look at verse 17, "And if we are children, then we are heirs also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him." In other words, you boil that verse down, "No suffering, no Kingdom." If you don't suffer with Christ, by the Spirit, you will not go to Heaven and reign with Christ. It's a clear teaching from Scripture. Well, what kind of suffering? Again, we talked about that last week, but I think there are two specific kinds of suffering that are in mind here. Suffering from temptation, as we resist sin and say, "No," and suffering persecution from a world that cannot understand Christ. These are the types of suffering, I think, that are in view here.

Those are the questions that we have to ask, to determine, am I a child of God? We did that last week. But I think it's still good for us to review it.

Now, what I'd like to ask, secondly, this week is, what are, specifically, my privileges, if I am a child of God? Boy, isn't this joyful? What a joy to go through a list like this. I've written out 11 privileges. You might wonder, "Why didn't I squeeze it out and get 12?" I didn't count them, until this morning. I guess I might've worked at it and we could've found more. I'm not saying these are all the privileges there are for a child of God, but these are some that we can find most naturally in the New Testament. And here, we're going to digress a little bit from my ordinary method. Usually, I'm just going verse by verse, word by word, looking through, but I have to tell you, that the New Testament is so filled with rich teaching on the idea of us as children of God, that it's really quite a delight to go through the New Testament, to try to understand the privileges, and also the responsibilities, of being a child of God.

Well, the first privilege that I'd like to bring to your attention, as a child of God, is that of life, mainly eternal life. Look what it says, again, in verses 13-14, "If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." That's the life that we're talking about. Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly." There's an abundant rich, spiritual life that Christ has come to give.

Now, the opposite of that life is spiritual death, and the confirmation of both of those, is either condemnation in hell, or a rich welcome into Heaven. The life that we're talking about is the life of a child of God, namely, an intimate love relationship with God. We're going to talk more about that in a minute, but a life that can never be snuffed out. Children of God cannot die. Therefore, we have eternal life. That's the first privilege of being a child of God.

The second is a title. Now, in America, we've kind of turned our back on titles and privileges, haven't we? We left all that behind in the Revolutionary War. We're a free and open society, and we don't think much of Dukes, and Duchesses, and Lords, and Ladies, and all of that. That's part of the old world. But I think there is still a sense of a title being significant, that we should be called by the title 'children of God.' Isn't that incredible? And what an honor and a privilege it is. It says in 1 John 3:1, "Behold, how great is the love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God." There's a sense of a delight, in just having the title 'child of God,' that we could be called 'children of God.' It's incredible. And it's an honor, isn't it? It's not something we deserve. We can't say, "This is my birthright as a created being." No, not at all. We've already said, in John 1:12, "As many has received Him, to them, He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name." It's a privilege to be called a child of God. It's not for anyone, but for those who have faith in Christ, and they received this privilege.

Hebrews 2:11, it says, "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy, are of the same family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers." What an incredible verse. He's not ashamed to own you as a brother or a sister. We've been meeting on Thursdays, and discussing Hebrews in a Bible study, and we've turned the whole thing around, saying, "Jesus is not ashamed to call you a brother. Are you ever ashamed of Jesus?" Isn't that a stinging question? We should never be ashamed of Christ, or of this Gospel that gives such blessings. Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel," not at all, but sometimes, I think the world wants to make us feel ashamed of Christ. Well, let me tell you something, on Judgment Day, if you're a child of God, he is going to own you as a brother or a sister. He's going to say, "She's mine. He's mine. I've paid with my blood for them." 'Child of God,' it's a title that's bestowed and it's an honored title.

Thirdly, there is a precious and a special, an intimate love relationship with the Father. God could've sat as a Judge and with his robes on there, just merely justified us very coldly, "Based on the blood of Jesus Christ, I absolve you of all of your sins. You're free." But there's no relationship there, is there? That's why I think adoption's the most incredible thing in the Gospel. He hasn't just sat there with his black robes on and discharged justice, but rather, He has adopted us into His own family. And so, we have a love relationship with the Father. Verse 15, again, "You received the Spirit of adoption, and by Him, we cry out, 'Abba Father.'" Romans 5:5, "God has poured out His love into our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us." There's a sense of God just taking a huge cistern, and a pitcher, and just pouring love into you, because of His love for you in Christ. He loves you in the same way that He loves His own Son. "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." That's the way that Jesus loves you. There's a lavish love here, isn't there? A love relationship with the Father. "How great is the love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!"

Can I ask, just for a moment, are you taking advantage of that? Do you have a sense of the richness of your relationship with the Father, that He has loved you? It says in Jeremiah 31:3, "With an everlasting love." He set on you a love which cannot be broken. We're going to talk more about that at the end of Romans 8, but there's no enemy that can come, that can separate you from the love of Christ, nothing. Oh, you should be filled with joy, filled with a sense of security, a sense that, "I belong to the family of God," a sense of protection in that love relationship.

Well, along with that, fourthly, we have free access to the throne. Your Father runs the universe, isn't that incredible? You ever hear a little son or daughter boast about what his or her dad does? "Well, my dad's this. My dad's that." Well, your Heavenly Father runs the universe, runs the universe. I remember a story, Christy Wilson, one of my heroes, a missionary in Afghanistan, and he trained me and many others, in terms of missionary theory. But one of the best things about him, was he was a great storyteller, phenomenal storyteller, just from experiences. And he was there in Kabul, that very same place we've been thinking a lot about, and it's bombed out now, and we're praying. He was the one that enjoined on President Eisenhower, that a church building be built there, and it was. He was a great man of faith and a great man of prayer.

Anyway, they had a hospital for the blind, and it was very renowned in that whole area, and people would come from all over to come to this hospital for the blind. And it was very difficult to get in, because there were so many people. And one poor person, who was losing her sight, came to Christy Wilson, and said, "I need to get in there. I need to be able to get in." Now, Dr. Wilson had nothing to do with the hospital. He prayed for them and knew the people who ran it, but he had nothing to do with it. He said, "Well, I want you to know that I know the person who's in charge of this hospital. Why don't we ask him, if you can get in?" And then he stopped, and prayed. And he interceded with God, that this individual would be able to get in, and she did, that very same day.

Now, he had no power over the queue, and the line, and where people were, but an opening worked out, and so she was able to get in, and her eyesight was restored. You should have that same attitude toward anything, "I know the CEO of that company." "I know who's running that country." "Oh, I know who's in charge of that particular wing of the government." It is God, your Heavenly Father, and you have access, right to the very throne room of God in prayer. If you're a child of the King, you can just go right into His presence with a holy boldness and ask Him for anything. Listen to what it says in Ephesians 3:12, "In Him and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence." Do you approach God with freedom and confidence? Do you have a sense of the freedom of access, right into the very throne room of God? You should, if you're a child of God. It says in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help us in time of need." You have free access to the one who runs all things.

Now, the fifth one, you may say, "What? What is that? Discipline is a privilege of the child of God? Well, first of all, let's understand discipline properly. Discipline, in this case, would be a holy spanking when you do wrong. And that's a privilege from a child of God? The Bible thinks so. The Bible speaks of it that way. If you're a royal prince or princess, you're trained from an early age, how you are to behave, and there is a training program, isn't there? And so, also, for the children of God. Deuteronomy 8:5 says this, "Know then, in your heart, that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord, your God, disciplines you." "As a man disciplines his son, so…God disciplines you." And then, of course, Hebrews 12:7-8 says, "Endure hardship as discipline. God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his Father? If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are illegitimate children, and not true sons." In other words, if you're walking along in your life and start to stray from God, start to sin, start to disobey, expect a response soon from your Heavenly Father. It is a privilege of the child of God, and why? Because He loves you. He's not going to let you stray. He's not going to let you roam or wander. He's going to discipline you. You're a child of God.

Sixthly, He's also going to provide for you. If you're a child of God, it's His job to take care of you, isn't that right? If you're a slave, it's the master's job to care for the slave. If you're a servant, the master's job to provide for all the needs. It's a servant and slave's job to just do what the master wants. We are also servants of God or slaves of God, it says in Scripture. And so it's up to God to provide for all our needs. Why then do we be anxious about these things? Now, fess up, have you been anxious at all about material needs this week, about money, about taxes? I don't know. It's coming up. Sorry to remind you. I saw that pained look on some faces. It's true. Are you concerned about these things? Are you anxious over them? Your Father has promised to provide for you. He's promised to provide for you. Psalm 37:25, "I was young, and now I'm old, and I have never seen the righteous forsaken, or their children begging bread, never." Royal children get to eat from the royal table, don't they?

There's a story about David adopting Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, into his own family, and he got to sit at the King's table every day. What does that mean? No more worries. You don't have to worry anymore about where your next meal's coming from. "I get to sit at the King's table." Isn't it that exact way of thinking, that Jesus uses in Matthew 6, to banish anxiety forever? Why do you worry about your life, what you'll eat, or your body, what you'll wear? Your Father's going to take care of you. He's going to meet all your needs. Seek first, the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well. He also said in Matthew Seven, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or, if you ask for fish, he'll give him a snake? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?" He knows how to take care of His children, and so provision, rich provision is part of being a child of God.

So also, protection. Royal children are the apple of the King's eye. "You better not touch him, because if you touch him, you're going to rue the day." And anyone who wants to get to you has to go through God first. Do you realize that? Is that not one of the many lessons of the Book of Job? Remember, Satan’s frustration in front of God? "I can't touch him. You've got this hedge around him all the time, and I just can't get at him. Would you just give me a chance, to just get a pop at him?" And he said, "Yeah, I'll give you a chance, but this far, and no farther may you go." Remember, how it worked? God controls all of these things. And so you have protection. Now, you might say, "How does that line up with the sufferings we have in this world?" We're going to talk about that, God willing, next time. There is suffering in this world, physical suffering. But what God is protecting you from, ultimately, is ultimate spiritual ruin, do you understand that? He's protecting your faith, that it may not fail. He's protecting your spirit, that you may not be attacked and go down, but rather, that you may stand firm in the midst of your temptation and your struggle.

Jesus, in praying the high priestly prayer in John 17 says to the Father, "I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world." Do you know what that means? They're in a place of danger. Everything of this world system hates your faith. You're in a dangerous place. Jesus said, "I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves, but don't worry about it, because I'm Sovereign and I will protect you. I will keep you safe." He says, "Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name… While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe, by that name you gave me. None has been lost." Do you understand how Jesus is thinking about protection? "Protect them by your name, Father, that none may be lost." And so also, God will protect you. If you're a child of God, you're not going to drop out of the family, He's going to keep you safe.

Well, along with that comes fellowship with the Royal Family. Now, again, you're going to say, just like the discipline, "That's not always such great shakes."

But to be honest with you, it really is one of the richest blessings in this world, isn't it? Fellowship with the children of God. As a matter of fact, the more that we go on in this world, and if our culture continues to go non-Christian, who do you think are going to be the most precious people in the world to you? True believers in Jesus Christ. Isn't that what David said in Psalm 16:3? "As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones and whom is all my delight." I love being with them. I love to be with true children of God, who love the Word and who love Christ, and who are growing in their faith, don't you? Isn't that precious? But not only that, we get fellowship with dead people too.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not talking about seances or anything weird. Those things are cut out from Scripture. But what I'm saying to you, specifically, is that we are part of one family of God, and many of them have already died, and gone on to be with the Lord. You're in rich fellowship with the same God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Someday, you'll meet them too. They still are Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. They haven't lost their identity. We're not Hindus, who believe that the water drops into the ocean and loses its identity. There's still Abraham, there's still Isaac, still Jacob. They're still the same ones. David's up there, also Nehemiah, also all the saints of old. Aren't you looking forward to meeting them? And then all the ones from church history, from when the Bible ended on to our present day, 2,000 years of godly women and men, and they're waiting, rich fellowship, fellowship in the Royal Family.

And ninth, freedom. You're free. If you're a royal son or daughter, you're free. There's a freedom that comes there. Freedom from what? Well, freedom from law. You don't have to obey the law anymore. Is that what I'm saying? Well, in one sense, yes. Think of what Jesus said in Matthew 17:25-26. You remember, there was the question about the taxes you had to pay to go into the temple? You remember that? And so they asked Peter, "Does your teacher, [Jesus] pay the temple tax?" "Yes, He does," Peter said. Then they go into the house, and Jesus sits Peter down, and said, "I want to teach you a lesson about what it means to be a child of God. From whom do the kings of the Earth collect duty and taxes, from their own sons or from others?" "From others," said Peter. "Then the sons are exempt," said Jesus. Did you hear that? Exempt from paying taxes.

Now, don't misunderstand me. It says in Romans 13 that you need to pay your taxes to the secular government, but the point is, you have freedom in this matter of spiritual access to God. Why should you have to pay to go into the house of your Father? In one sense, we are free from the law. Why is that? Because law is given to transgressors, not to sons. What do we get instead? We get the Spirit from within. We're not under the law anymore, but rather, under the Spirit.

We're free also, therefore, from sin. Romans 6:18, "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." You're free from fear of condemnation. Isn't that wonderful? Look, again, at Verse 15, "You did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave, again, to fear." You don't need to be afraid anymore of condemnation. You don't have to be afraid of death. It says in Hebrews 2 that by faith you should be free forever from the fear of death. You're free from these things. You're free, also, from fear of earthly catastrophe. Now, understand what I said. You're free from fear of earthly catastrophe. I did not say you'd be free from earthly catastrophe. You're free from fear of earthly catastrophe.

Listen to this. This is from Robert Leighton. He was a Puritan. He said this, "How can you make a child of God afraid? Bring him word that his estate has been ruined and he'll say, 'Yet, my true inheritance is safe.' " Did you hear that? "Bring him word that his wife, or child, or dear friend has died, 'Yet, my Heavenly Father still lives.' " Do you hear the response? "Tell him you, yourself, will soon die. He will answer, 'Well, then, I go home to my Father and to my eternal inheritance.' " Do you see that? There's an attitude. You're free from fear of these things, because they have no ultimate harm for you.

Also, as a child of God, you have an immense inheritance. Look at verse 17, "Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory." And Revelation 21:7 says, "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his Father, and he will be my son." And so we have this incredible inheritance. Well, what are you going to get? What do we get as children of God? Well, you get the Kingdom. You get the Kingdom itself, and you get to rule on the Kingdom. You will sit down and rule with Jesus.

Listen to this one, Revelation 3:21, "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne." John Piper gets this image of lap, and lap, and lap. Father on His throne, Jesus on the Father's throne. We're on Jesus' throne, ruling with Him. What is that going to mean? I don't know. But, boy, is that rich? And an inheritance of your own possessions. Jesus said, "If you're not faithful with worldly mammon, who's going to give you true riches? If you're not faithful with little things that belong to somebody else, who's going to give you," listen, "Possessions of your own?"

The Book of Hebrew says that, they were willing to not even worry about their houses being destroyed, because they had their own lasting possessions. You're going to get an inheritance in the Kingdom of God, if you're a child of God. Well, those are all the joys that come from being a child of God, and they culminate in the greatest, and that is in glory. Look at 17-18, "Now, if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed, we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory."

And then, again, verse 18, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Someday, you're going to be glorious. You're going to, it says in Matthew 13, "Shine like the sun in the Kingdom of your Father." You're going to be like Jesus, and you're going to radiate with a brightness that can't even be measured.

Well, 11 privileges of the child of God. Maybe to make it a round 12, just like the number of the tribes of Israel or the apostles, you could find another one today, but this is a rich inheritance, isn't it? But along with that, comes some responsibilities.

Look at verse 12, it says, "Therefore, my brothers, we have an obligation." We are debtors, aren't we? We have an obligation. There's a story that James Baldwin tells about King Alfred, King of England, and the Cakes. I read this, this morning. I found it interesting. He was King of the West Saxons in England during the ninth century. He was called King Alfred the Great, because he was able to defeat the Danes in battle, and drive them out of England. He also was a very enlightened ruler, and that he taught common people how to read, and so was an early advocate of public education.

Well, the Danes had invaded England and they were winning one battle after another. After one particularly fierce battle, his own army was defeated, and he had to flee for his life. He put on a shepherd's outfit, and managed to escape, and was fleeing through the woods and the bogs, and he went that way for a long time. He was hungry, and tired, and came to a little clearing in the woods, and there was a cottage there. Just being in need, he went up and knocked on the door of the cottage. It was a woodcutter's cottage. His wife opened the door, and she looked at him, and said, "What can I do for you?" And he said, "I'm very hungry. Is it possible for me to have a morsel of bread, and maybe warm myself by your fire?"

She was a kindly woman and said, "Well, I'm cooking some hearth cakes now. If you'll sit down, and tend the cakes, and watch them, care for them, I'm going to go out, and milk the cow, and we'll share what we have with you." Well, he agreed to do that. And he sat down, and started to tend the cakes. She went out to milk the cow, and he just, through fatigue, and through his concern and worry for England, didn't pay attention to his work, and let the cakes burn. Well, she comes back in, and smells the smoke, and looks down, and they're burned to a crisp. And she loses her temper, she said, "You lazy, good-for-nothing fellow, I left you with a simple task to do, taking care of cakes, and now, none of us has anything to eat, because of you. I couldn't entrust you with a simple task." And he just quietly hung his head in shame.

Well, at that moment, the woodcutter comes in, and immediately recognizes who he is. And he had caught the tail end of his wife's rebuke, and said, "Do you realize who this man is? This is the king." She was immediately afraid for her life. And he said, "Don't worry, you were right to scold me. I told you I would watch the cakes, and then I let them burn. I deserve what you said. Anyone who accepts a duty, no matter how small the duty or how great the person, should perform that duty faithfully. I have failed this time, but I shall not fail again. Now, I must leave. My duties as King await me."

Now, I've given you a list of 11 privileges. How could it be then, that you are called on to do something as humble as sweep a floor, or wash the feet of a brother or sister in Christ, or some humble task, if you're this exalted child of God? Well, God has given you many tasks to do, and just like King Alfred The Great, with this great task, and this great inheritance and responsibility, sometimes called on to do simple tasks. And Jesus said, "He who is faithful in little will be faithful in much." He wants us to be faithful, both in little and much, and He's given us some responsibilities, and we need to be faithful to them.

Imitating the Father’s Nature

The first responsibility of a child of God, is that we need to imitate the Father's nature. The basic principle in the New Testament, as in the Old is, "Like the Father, like the Son." Whatever the Father is, that's what we must be in this world. We must imitate our Father. It says in 1 Peter 1, "As obedient children, do not conform any longer to the desires you had while you lived in ignorance, but just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" Do you hear that? "Imitate me. Be like me." He's calling on us to imitate Him. That includes love. It says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in Heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Do you see that printed in your outline? "Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Is that not a challenge? Well, that's the responsibility of a child of God.

Bearing the Father’s Name

Along with that, secondly, we bear the Father's name, don't we? We carry the Father's name. Do you know one of the Ten Commandments says, "You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain?" What do you think of when you think of that? Isn't it a sense of not letting a word slip out of your mouth? Don't say 'God' or 'Jesus,' unless you're praying or meaning to address God. But I think it means more than that. We are, in effect, carrying or taking the name of our God everywhere we go. Do you hear that? Everywhere we go, we're taking His reputation with us. Don't bear His name in vain. Do you hear that? Everywhere you go, His reputation goes with you. It says in Jeremiah 15:16, "When your words came, I ate them. They were my joy and my heart's delight. [Listen] For I bear your name, O God."

Obeying the Father’s Commands

Thirdly, along with that, we need to obey our Father's commands. First John 5:3-4 says, "This is love for God, to obey His commands, and His commands are not burdensome. For everyone born of God overcomes the world." If you're born of God, if you're a child of God, you're going to obey His commands. You're going to do the things that He's told you to do. You can't tell your Father, "I love you," and then you don't do what He says. Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like a father who had two sons. He went to the first son and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard.' And he said, 'I will,' but he didn't go. And then he goes to the other son, and says, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard.' He says, 'I won't,' but he later changes his mind and goes. And He says, "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" The point is, we need to obey our Father's command.

Doing the Father’s Work

Along with that, we need to do the Father's work. Jesus lived constantly to do the will of the Father. He said, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and finish His work." We also should be doing the Father's work. We should be about the Father's business. 1 Peter, it says we should live such good lives among the Pagans, that though they may accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and, do what? "Praise your Father in Heaven." As you're doing good deeds, serving God, obeying Him, doing His work, they're going to think about God, they're going to understand Him differently.

Well, what kind of work are we going to do? How many of you read Henry Blackaby's book, "Experiencing God?" He talks about being where the Father's at work, working where the Father's working. Jesus put it this way, "The Son can do nothing by Himself. He can only do what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does."

Facing the Father’s Enemies

And the fifth responsibility, is we need to be willing to face our Father's enemies. We need to be willing to face our Father's enemies. A child of God has to bear the reproach and scorn of a world that hates Him. If you're going to carry His name, you are going to be reviled and persecuted. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, who wants to carry the name of God into a world in rebellion against Him, will face that persecution. Jesus said in Romans 15:3, it says, "For even Christ did not please Himself, but as it is written, the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me." And Jesus put it this way, "If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how do you think they're going to treat the members of the household?" If you're in His household and He's your Father, be willing to bear the reproach that Jesus bore.

Now, the last two weeks, we've asked three questions concerning being a child of God. The first is the most important of all. All of you have heard me talk about the privileges and the responsibilities this morning, of being a child of God, but none of it means anything to you, if you are not, in fact, a child of God today. The first and most important question I want to ask you is, are you a child of God? Have you come to personal faith in Christ? Are you, moment by moment, step by step, following the Holy Spirit, to put sin to death in your life? Do you have the internal welling up of the Holy Spirit, to cry out, "Abba Father," from your heart? Is He speaking to you and testifying to you, that you are a child of God? Or is He actually convicting you right now, that you are not a child of God, and that you need to become one?

These are the questions you have to ask. Are you, in fact, a child of God? If you are, do you understand your privileges? Do you know all the things that you get as a child of God? Eternal life, a title, love relationship with the Father, free access to the throne, discipline from a loving Father, provision and protection, fellowship within the Royal Family, freedom, immense inheritance and glory. Do you understand these things?

And finally, are you fulfilling your responsibilities as a child of God? Imitating the Father's nature in holiness and in love, bearing the Father's name, obeying the Father's command, doing the Father's work, and being willing to face the Father's enemies? As we close in prayer, I'd like to ask any, who you feel like the Lord is convicting you, that you are not a child of God, please come and speak to me. Don't let today go by, without knowing, for sure, that these things are yours. And if you are a child of God, look over this list of privileges, and thank God, and look over, again, the responsibilities, and ask to be faithful.

Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon through 1 Corinthians 12:10 with a focus on the spiritual gifts of prophecy and speaking in tongues.

All right. Ephesians 4, just by way of review. Beginning at verse 7, Paul says, “To each one of us, grace has been given us Christ apportioned it.” This and a corresponding verse in first Corinthians gives clear indication that God has given to each one a gift of grace. Here he calls it grace. In 1 Corinthians 12, he calls it spiritual gifts, “Now, about spiritual gifts, brothers, we don't want you to be ignorant.” So either way, they are the same thing. Grace as Christ has measured it out or apportioned it. Now, we know this can't be the grace of God and salvation, because that is given without measure. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. This is a different kind of God's grace, and it's the grace, thank you very much, of spiritual gifts. So he has apportioned these spiritual gifts to us, and it becomes clear in verse 8, “This is why it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.” So there he uses the word gifts. So we've got these grace gifts or spiritual gifts. And then in verse 11, he enumerates some here, 

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers. The purpose is to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him...

Verse 16, very important, “From him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.” Do you see that last phrase, “As each part does its work”? What that means is, the church will not grow to full maturity until each one of us does the work that God's given for us to do. And I believe that a lot of the work God gives individual Christians to do is done along the lines of this spiritual gifting that he gives us.

Now we've got things to do that are responsibilities of all Christians. You may not have the gift, for example, of intercessory prayer, but we're all called to pray. You may not have the gift of faith in particular, whatever that means. I think I have an idea what it means, but if you don't have faith, what's true of you? You're not a Christian. So clearly these gifts come in areas that all of us have some responsibility in. The gift of giving, well, that's not my gift. I don't need to give my tithe and my offering. I don't need to do that. That's just not my gift. And some people use that for evangelism. I don't. I'm not gifted in evangelism. We're all called to be witnesses, aren't we? But some have that gift of evangelism. So what we're looking at are special abilities given, spiritual abilities given according to the measure of Jesus Christ to each individual Christian for the purpose of building the body up. And if we do not use these gifts, we will not grow up to full maturity as a body. Conversely, if we do use our gifts, the body will grow up to full maturity. Interestingly, as you use your own gift, you're going to grow in maturity, aren't you? You're going to find yourself in more and more ministry situations. You're going to find yourself serving, stepping out in faith, doing things. And so they become a context for your own sanctification. So it all works together.

All right. That's the big picture. And you've got your questionnaire. Please use it. It's a tool. We're not going to be collecting them back, they're just for you. We're going to talk about the gifts, I think, in a big picture, just going through them and talking about what they would look like, God willing, next time, but now we have a little time to look at the gifts of prophecy and of speaking in tongues. Now, 1 Corinthians 12-14 is the most in-depth treatment of these two gifts in terms of the church and how they work in the church, prophecy and speaking in tongues. Now, what I'm going to do here is, I'm going to talk first about prophecy, because Paul himself gives preeminence to prophecy. He says, “I would rather somebody, a prophet speak one intelligible word than somebody speak many words in a tongue that's not interpreted.” So he gives prophecy preeminence. And so we're going to begin by looking at prophecy.

Now, what is the origin of prophecy? The origin of prophecy is in the Old Testament. What is prophecy? Let's start there. Prophecy is the word of the Lord coming to a human being, and then he or she speaks that word, because there were prophets and there were prophetesses both in the old and the new covenant. So it's the coming of the word of God to an individual so that that individual can say, “Thus says the Lord,” thus says the Lord. And so we see the word mentioned for the first time in Genesis chapter 20. You don't have to turn there, but it's referring to Abraham. Genesis 20:7, in that situation with Abimelech, you remember he was sojourning there, and he lied about Sarah. You remember the story. And he said Sarah was his sister, and he was doing that to protect his own life, I think in a cowardly way. I think that's the way that the text presents it. And so trouble comes to the household of Abimelech as a result of the fact that he's really interested, amorously interested in Sarah. Now, he didn't touch her, but he's heading in that direction. He wants to marry her. And the household gets afflicted with diseases, and finally it becomes clear that Sarah is Abraham's wife, not his sister. And so God speaks to Abimelech and says, “Now return the man's wife. It says, for he is a prophet…” So that's the first time we get that word in the scripture, “he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live, but if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all yours will die.” Wow, what a warning. And so with all haste, he returned her. But here's the message: Abraham is a prophet. Well, what did that mean? Well, what it meant is, as we see earlier, the word of the Lord had come to Abraham, the word of the Lord. It says in Genesis 15:1, for example, “The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abraham, I am your shield and your very great reward.’” This is prophecy. The word of the Lord comes to an individual.

Now, when we think of prophecy, we think of predictions, don't we? The ability to foretell the future. And that is clearly a very distinctive and unusual, a very interesting aspect of prophecy, but it's really just a subset of it, isn't it? Prophecy is any word given directly by God so that the one who receives it can say, “Thus says the Lord.” Now, we see the gift of prophecy developed with Moses in Exodus 4:21-23, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do, but I will harden your heart so that you will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, let my son go so that he may worship me. But you refuse to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son.’’" That is a very clear example of prophecy. The Lord says, go tell Pharaoh these words. And Moses doesn't have the right to rearrange them, change them, think about them. There's really no logic involved in his part. He doesn't need to decide what order to put them in or anything. It's just prophecy. He comes and just gives a message directly from God to Pharaoh. He actually has no right whatsoever to rearrange that message. It really is very much like the chef has prepared a meal, and the prophet brings it and lays it on the table. We're not looking when we go to a fine restaurant for the waiter to do anything to that food, are we? Not anything at all. He's not welcome to do that. He's welcome to set it down in front of you, and that's all. And what do you think that very finicky French chef would do if he saw any of the servers rearranging the food? Obviously that's not the server's job. It's the chef's job to prepare the food and the server brings it to the table without any right whatsoever to rearrange. That is prophecy. That's all. It's just a matter of taking a message from the Lord and bringing it to the people. We see it again in Deuteronomy 5:23-29. It says, 

When you heard the voice out of darkness while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leading men of your tribes and your elders came to me, and you said, “The Lord, our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire. Today we have seen that a man can live even if God speaks with him. But now, why should we die? This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the Lord, our God any longer. For what mortal man has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire as we have and survived? Go near and listen to all that the Lord, our God says, then tell us whatever the Lord, our God tells you. We will listen and obey.”  

This is the people speaking to Moses. They're basically saying, “We cannot handle God speaking directly to us. We won't live. We won't survive. Nobody can hear God's speaking directly and survive.” That's what the people said to Moses. What's interesting is what God says about that. In verse 28 of Deuteronomy 5, “The Lord heard you when you spoke to me, and the Lord said to me, ‘I have heard what this people said to you. Everything they said was good.’” Now, that's very unusual. Anybody who knows anything about the history of Israel and God in Israel, it's very unusual for God to put the stamp of approval on everything that the people said, but this time he does it. He said what they said is good, and then he goes beyond that, “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always so that it may go well with them and their children forever.” “I yearn that they would always fear me the way they're fearing me now.” But God granted their request, and so he spoke to the people through Moses, didn't he? Rather than directly himself. He develops this more in Deuteronomy 18:15 and following, “The Lord, your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him, for this is what you asked of the Lord, your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not hear the voice of the Lord, our God, nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.’” I'm in Deuteronomy 18:15 and following, “The Lord said to me, ‘What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth.’” Let me just stop right there. That is prophecy. Do you hear it? “I will put my words in his mouth.” Again, the images of the chef that cooks the meal and just says, take it to the people as is. That's all. No right to rearrange or work on it. There's no logic, no teaching involved. Prophets could be teachers, but I'm saying prophecy itself is, “Thus says the Lord,” and out it comes.

I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods must be put to death.

Wow. So it's very, very serious. If a prophet stands up and speaks anything that God did not command him to say under the title, “Thus says the Lord,” that one is a false prophet, and the death penalty hangs over his or her head.

Anyone who speaks anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods must be put to death. You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

So you had to have a batting average of 1000 basically. Anytime you say, “Thus says Lord,” it's got to be the word of the Lord. It's got to happen just as it is.

So the prophets would be raised up. So Deuteronomy 18 is very important. God says, “I'm going to raise up a prophet like you, Moses, and that prophet is the one that's going to speak to the people.” And he actually raises up many prophets, one after the other. There's a whole series of them in the Old Testament. Prophets end up becoming, in effect, covenant lawyers. They basically bring God's claims back to the people. “Hear oh heavens, listen oh earth, for the Lord has spoken,” said Isaiah, “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows it's master, the donkey, it's owner's manger, but Israel does not know. My people have not understood.” What is happening there? Isaiah is calling heaven and earth back into court, because God made a covenant before heaven and earth, and they were called as witnesses that God would give covenant blessings to them if they obeyed, and covenant curses if they disobeyed. And so in effect, Isaiah is calling the witnesses back in and saying, the covenant has been broken by these people. So in effect, more than anything, the prophets in the Old Testament were covenant spokesman, they were covenant lawyers standing before the people on behalf of God, who is aggrieved at their behavior. And so he raises them up one after the other.

We see the same thing in the life of a little boy, Samuel. Remember when Samuel was called as a prophet? You remember that whole story? It said in those days, the word of the Lord was rare, you remember? And so Eli was the priest, and Samuel is under his training. And so he comes in at night and says to Eli, “You called me, what do you want?” He said, “I didn't call you.” You remember that story. And so it goes on through finally Eli gets it and says, “You know something, if you hear that again, if you hear something again, just simply say, ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening,’ and then just wait and find out what happens.” And so little Samuel goes back and lays down and hears it again, “Samuel, Samuel.” “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” So clearly there was an auditory or something coming into his brain as though someone were calling him. The word of the Lord came to him. You see what I'm talking about? So the word of the Lord comes, and he knows it's the Lord. First he didn't. It was just like Eli had called him. But he had to get some instruction to find out it was actually God who was speaking directly to him. Now, you remember what message little boy Samuel had to give as his first prophetic message, “Go back and tell Eli, ‘You're finished, because you didn't discipline your sons.’” Wow, that's very, very difficult. I mean, it's always a temptation for the prophet to let some of the words drop to the ground, the unpopular ones. And it turns out at the end of Samuel's life, it says of him he let none of his words drop to the ground. He brought the whole message. He was a true prophet of God, Samuel was.

Jeremiah is another example. In Jeremiah 1:1 and following, it says, “The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, the word of the Lord came to him…” There's that phrase again. The word of the Lord comes to someone. He speaks. The Lord speaks right into someone's mind. “The word of the Lord came to him in the 13th year of the reign of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah. And through the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the 11th year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah.” So this is an actual historical occurrence that happened in space and time. At a certain moment, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, and it came repeatedly over a period of time so that you could measure out the history of the word coming to this man, Jeremiah. When the people of Jerusalem went into exile that was the end of it. And then in verse 4, “The word of the Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Very strong and clear call from God to Jeremiah that he would be a prophet. And so this is prophecy.

Now, in the New Testament, we get some instruction about Old Testament prophecy. Take a minute, if you would, and look at Hebrews 1:1-2. It says there, “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,” okay? So this is a summary of the prophet's ministry in the old covenants. Hebrews 1:1, in the past, God spoke to us. Now, that's the key to prophecy. It is God speaking directly to the people so that the prophet should say: “Thus says the Lord…” and then out comes the oracle of God. So God did this, and he did it in many times and in various ways. There was a variety to the ministry of the prophets, actually an incredible variety. And God would speak to the prophets in visions, he would speak to them in dreams, he would speak to them in direct words, lots of things. And the prophets were called to do a lot of things, weren't they? They were called to act things out, or make replicas of Jerusalem, were called to marry a prostitute in one case. They were called to act and live out certain things, but all of this was the word of the Lord through that prophet to Israel. And so these were the prophets. And then it says in the New Covenant, or, “in these last days, he has spoken to us through his Son.” Jesus also was a prophet, but a different kind of a prophet. Now, they called him a prophet. This is the prophet, Jesus from Nazareth and Galilee. And he was a prophet, but much more than a prophet of course, because he could say, “You have heard that it was said by people of old, but I say to you,” you see what I'm saying? Now, he does say, “I speak nothing but what the Father has told me to say.” So in that sense, he is the definition of a prophet. He gets words from the Father, and speaks only what the Father has commanded him to say. But yet at the same time, he's different than a prophet, because he can say with authority, “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.” So there's a difference with Jesus, but that's a summary of Old Testament prophecy.

We see the same thing in 2 Peter 1:19-21. Now, Old Testament prophecy, in sum, together points to Jesus Christ. You take all of it together, the spirit of the prophets is Christ. It's all pointing, you sum it all up, all the prophets testify to Jesus Christ in sum, as you put it all together, they're pointing ahead to Christ. And Peter points that out, and he speaks of it in 2 Peter 1:19 and following, it says, “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain…” What does that mean? Well, it's been confirmed now by history. That's all he's saying. It's happened now. We have the word of the prophets now fulfilled. How many times in Matthew's Gospel do you see the word fulfilled, that the word of the Lord that he had spoken through Jeremiah might be fulfilled, or that the prophecy through Isaiah might be fulfilled? Jesus is the fulfillment of so many prophecies. So, “we have the word of the prophets made more certain [or having been fulfilled is the idea] and you will do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” In other words, “You should pay attention to prophecy until you come to personal faith in Christ.” That's what he's saying. Once you've come to faith in Christ, you should continue to pay attention to prophets for other reasons, but the prophets were given to you so that the morning star might rise in your heart, that you might come to faith in Christ. And then he goes on from there in verse 20, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.” In other words, prophecy didn't come from that individual, that it didn't have its origin in man. It didn't start there. Verse 21, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Again, this is prophecy. They are speaking. They are people. Men spoke. These are human beings. They're speaking and they're speaking human words. They're living human lives. But the Holy Spirit carried them along like a wind blowing on a sailboat, and moving it very forcefully in the direction that God wanted the prophet to go. Now, it's interesting about prophecy. We have the prophecy, and here its speaking of the Old Testament prophets, but I think it can be extended to the new. I would like you to put a pen or some marker in second Peter. We're going to come back to it in a few minutes, but we're not ready for it yet. So just put something there, and we'll come back to it.

Now, we see prophecy happening in the gifted sort of sense beginning at the day of Pentecost. So turn in Acts 2, and there we have a promise given to us concerning prophecy. Remember what happens. They're together, they're praying, they're waiting for the gift from on high which Jesus had promised and which the Father had promised, the gift of the Holy Spirit. They're there waiting. And the day of Pentecost comes in verse 1: “they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” And verse 4 says, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” This is the gift of tongues. And so the gift of tongues comes at this particular moment. We'll keep reading. It says, “Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.” This gives a tremendous insight into what the gift of tongues meant on the day of Pentecost. Everybody who came from all of these disparate places, the diaspora where the Jews had been scattered... Listed in a moment, but all of them coming from all of these different places, they speak their own native tongues, and probably Aramaic too, or maybe Greek as they would come so there'd be a common language, but as they came, they heard them, all of them in their own language. These were human languages with syntax and grammar and vocabulary. It's remarkable. Fully-formed languages, and they were hearing them speaking in their own language. Verse 7,

Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Capadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts of Judaism); Cretans and Arabs- we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 

They understand what they're saying. It's languages coming out here. They're speaking in tongues that people are understanding them directly. And by the way, this is without question a reversal of the Tower of Babel and what happened there. You remember what happened there? They're building a tower of Babel, and all the world had one common language. They all spoke in one tongue. And so God comes down to see this tower that they're building, and he confuses their languages because of the heart attitude and the motive that they have in building this tower. They're seeking to exalt themselves, make a name for themselves, glorify themselves, and so God scatters their languages. He confuses their languages, and so immediately you have instantaneously languages. Now, remember when I preached in Genesis that I assumed that God in his grace gave to whole households the same language so that husbands weren't coming back from a hard day building the tower, and unable to communicate with their wives. Now, that would be a challenge. I mean, marriage is a challenge anyway, but how much more? I mean, you come home and you're speaking, suddenly, what are you saying? But that's the origin of languages. And it's remarkable how God is willing to do this, knowing full well how difficult the missionary endeavor would be in the 20th and 21st century as a result. He knew that it would be much harder for people going overseas to other countries, that they would have to take five years or more and learn the language in order to witness to the people. But he was willing to pay that price, I believe, to slow sin down because sin just runs rampant like a wildfire without it. So he's got to slow sin down. He's willing to confuse the languages. That's what he does.

Well, here we have an instantaneous and miraculous reversal of the Tower of Babel, don't we? And so they're speaking, and everyone can hear in their own language. Some made fun of them and said they've had too much wine, then Peter gets up and deals with this, “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet, Joel [and here it is]: ‘In the last days, God says, I'll pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.’” You see that? So prophecy is going to be widespread. Now, back in the Old Covenant, it was not widespread. There'd be long stretches of time in which there wouldn't be no word from the Lord. The time of Eli was such a time. You remember that? In those days, the word of the Lord was rare. That's what was said. So nobody would get up and say, “Thus says the Lord.” But after the effusion, the pouring out of the Spirit, there's not going to be a rare word from the Lord. There's going to be an effusion of the word of the Lord, “Your sons and daughters plural will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.” Remember how surprising it was, for example, when Saul, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he began to prophesy, remember? And so there came a saying, “is Saul also among the prophets?” It was rare. Prophecy was rare. But here in the effusion, the pouring out of the Spirit on Pentecost, it's not rare. It's widespread. “Your sons and daughters will prophesy.”

Even on my servants, [verse 18] both men and women, I'll pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

So we have this promise of prophecy, and it just starts to happen. We see prophecy acting then and moving in the book of Acts. For example, look with me at Acts 11:27-30. Here in Acts 11:27-30 we are introduced to a man named Agabus. Now, Agabus is not one of the more well-known people in the New Testament, but he's a very interesting individual, and he pops up twice in the book of Acts, and both times he speaks a word from the Lord. He prophesies. He's able to say, “Thus says the Lord,” and then something happens. Now in this case, it's prophecy the way you understand it. It's a prediction. He's going to speak a prophecy, a prediction. He's going to make a prediction. And this is what it says, “In those days [11:27] during this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.” 11:28 says, 

One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudias.) The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

So here's a prediction. It's very similar to Joseph. You remember how Joseph predicted that a famine was coming, and so therefore Pharaoh was able to store up grain ahead of time? I think that God was doing the same thing for his church at this point. He's giving some future information about a famine that's coming, and so they can begin to make provision and help out the churches living in Judea, because they were poor. The churches in Judea were always poor, and Paul was always working on the Gentiles to give money to help the Jews. I think it probably was a result of persecution. In other words, when a Jew would become a Christian, they would be de-synagogued, and they wouldn't be able to get any work, and they would be in trouble financially. And so he would be constantly wanting to send money from Macedonia and from these Greek areas down to Judea. Well, how much worse would it be if there were famine there, you see? So the famine is going to go over the entire Roman world, but there's a special concern here for Judea. And Agabus warns them, this is prophecy. It's provable or disprovable, isn't it? I mean, it's the kind of thing that, wow, Agabus has stuck his neck out here a little bit. What if there isn't a famine? Well, we didn't need to worry about that, because Agabus was indeed a prophet, and he was speaking accurately. And so they did not foolishly prepare, and it was a gift or a blessing from God that that warning came. They were able to get ready.

You see the same thing in Acts 13:1-3. Acts 13, we see it at work in a local church, prophecy at work in a local church. In Acts 13:1 it says, “In the church in Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While there were worshiping the Lord in fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’” Now, how do you think the Holy Spirit said that? How did he communicate the phrase, “Set apart for me… the work to which I have called them”? Through prophets, they spoke by the power of the Spirit. And so somebody with the gift of prophecy spoke these words, similar to Agabus. And what a blessing it was. This was the beginning of the great missionary endeavor that led to our salvation. Trace it back as the movement goes westward into Greece, and then onto Rome eventually. And so the Holy Spirit moves the church out here, but he does it, I think, through a prophet, because they're mentioned. In the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. And so it says in verse 3, “after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” And then in verse 4, “The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia, and sailed from there to Cyprus.” so they're sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, but I don't think it's a stretch to think that it was by the work of the prophets.

Now, interesting, if you look at 13:1, in the church in Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. I believe these are separate gifts. These are different things. I really believe that they're different things. Prophecy is the ability to speak the word of the Lord as a direct movement of the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Spirit says, “Tell the people this, thus says the Lord,” as I've been making the case. Teaching is different. Teaching is working over the existing prophecies of scripture, the things that we have had spoken to us from the prophets and the apostles, I think would be a good summary of the Bible, prophets and apostles, and taking that and working it through, using your logic, using your teaching gift to explain. And therefore, it has a lower level of certainty. It's every bit is useful in building the church. Very needful, very necessary. I'm doing it right now, okay? But it is not prophecy. I'm not able to say, “Thus says the Lord.” I can read Scripture to you, but we can all read Scripture. Not everyone who can read Scripture is a prophet. I'm trying to categorize these things. So I think that prophecy and teaching are different.

And another indicator of that is back in 2 Peter, where you stuck that pencil or whatever it is you did. Being good people, you did that. And I'm so encouraged, so we can go quickly to 2 Peter 2:1. Now, look what it says, “there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be...” Look. What? “False teachers among you.” Now, it's a very interesting verse to me. Why is it interesting? Well, it's interesting because he's ascribing to the old era, the old covenant, the old time prophets and their enemies, false prophets, and then a parallel to your time, what might be working in your church, teachers and their enemies, false teachers. You see? Now, that's not a hard and fast statement that there is not prophecy today. All I'm saying is that there is a distinction between prophecy and teaching. And so the normative, it seems, in 2 Peter 2:1, is that the local church would have teachers working among them, and the church, it says in Ephesians 2, is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ, Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. What does that mean? I believe the Scripture. The church is built on the foundation of the Scripture. I think that's what Jesus meant when he said to Peter, “On this rock, I will build my church,” on this rock. And I think I've made the case in my very first sermon to you. In Matthew 16... You remember that, of course. Matthew 16, Jesus, the confession was made. “‘You're the Christ, the Son of living God.’ ‘I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.’” And I connected that to Ephesians 2 and said that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That is the Scripture, and it doesn't move. Praise God. It's solid. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” And so we have the New Testament and the Old Testament complete, we have the word of God, and then from that we have teachers who take the word and explain it, and they are gifted, and that's one of the gifts given. But during the apostolic era, they had prophets as well.

Now, do we have prophecy today? I don't know. I don't know. That's my answer. Now, you come here and you're hoping that I'm going to answer about miracles, I'm going to maybe even do a miracle, and speaking in tongues, that I'm going to speak in tongues. I do not have that gift. So Paul says, do all speak in tongues? Answer, no. I'm one that does not. I am neither a prophet. And in this way, I part company with my beloved puritans who believe that prophecy or prophesying was preaching. Preaching, that's what they thought it was. And they said... And it's a great book, but they use the word prophesying, the Art of Prophesying, it says, “There are two parts to prophecy, preaching the word, and public prayer.” That's what they say. I would disagree. I think the book is useful, but I think they're using the word improperly. I think that preachers are teachers, and they are not able to say, “Thus says the Lord.” They're able faithfully to work out and to rightly divide the word of truth and should, but it's different than prophecy. Now, would it be beneficial for us to have somebody able to say, “Thus says the Lord,” or warn of a famine coming? Of course it would. Are there any clear indicators that prophecy will cease? Absolutely. Of course there are. In first Corinthians 13 it says, “Where there are prophecies, they will cease.” The question is, when does that happen? At the end of the worlds in heaven, or sometime before that? That's why I say, I don't know. But I'm trying to help you at least understand what prophecy really is. It's the ability to speak directly under the leadership of the Holy Spirit a message that has authority equal to Scripture, really. “Thus says the Lord,” and you speak it.

Now, what of tongues? Well, we've already talked about it some since we were already at Acts 2. I told you what they were. The word literally means languages. It's referring to languages. And let's get to the core issue. We know in Acts 2 that they were intelligible languages, right? They were able to be understood by the people who were there. We hear them speaking the wonders of God in our own tongues. And so this was a miraculous moving so that the people could hear the message of God. So we would not have an unintelligible, needing to be interpreted tongue at that particular time. Then we have throughout the Book of Acts, the gift of tongues coming on people as the Holy Spirit comes. For example, Cornelius in Acts 10:44, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came, and all who heard the message, the circumcised believers who had come were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” So it was the gift of tongues that told the people who were there, the Jews, the Jewish believers, “Hey, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.” And so the speaking in tongues in Acts 10 told the Jewish believers, the Jewish Christians, the Gentiles are acceptable to God. And so when they come back and report this in Acts 11, it really is at that moment when they say, “Look, they spoke in tongues, and they exemplified the gifts of the Holy Spirit,” that the people said, “Well, what can we say? God is moving among the Gentiles the way he's moving among us. Praise God.” They could say nothing more. God had done it. What could they say? And it was the gift of tongues more than anything that indicated that the Spirit had come to them.

We see the same thing in Acts 19:1-7,

While Apollos was at Corinth, [it says] Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we've not even heard there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John's baptism,” they replied. Paul said, “John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. [Verse six] When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

So they had both of those gifts working. Not only did they speak in tongues, but they also said, “Thus says the Lord,” and they were able to say prophecies. And in this way, again, there was a visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit coming on these folks.

Now, in first Corinthians 12-14, we have the most intensive handling of these two gifts, tongues, and prophecy. And why? Because I believe in the Corinthians church, there were excesses in these matters. The people speaking in tongues, it seems, were somewhat lording it over those that were not speaking in tongues. They were also doing it in a way that did not build the body, did not edify the body. And so Paul lays down some restrictions. We're not going to go through all this, but basically there are some clear indicators. First of all, the gift of tongues was active, even publicly active in the Corinthian church. No question about it, people spoke in tongues. Second of all, the gift of tongues was such that some people, if not most of the people could not understand what was being said, so that Paul would say, “If there's no interpreter there, shut it down.” So that, it was different than what happened at Acts 2 in one sense in which everybody could understand in their own native tongue what was going on there. God can do whatever he chooses, but there it was, the gift of tongues was operative, but nobody could understand what was being said. And so Paul sets up the rules saying, “If there's no interpreter, then tongues must not be used publicly.” And then he gives a hierarchy in which he says, “I would rather have you prophesy than speaking tongues, because I'd rather have that intelligible word working on the mind. I want my mind fruitful. I want to understand what's being said. I don't just want unfruitful thoughts.” He also says, “If anyone comes in among you and sees all of you speaking tongues, but nobody's interpreting, he'll think you're out of your mind. But if you're prophesying, he'll be convicted and fall down and say, ‘Surely God is among you.’” And so he sets up these priorities.

Now, the controversy about tongues today is a variety of sorts. One is that the certain Pentecostal denominations teach, that if you have not received the gift of tongues, you do not have the Holy Spirit. Now, they then break apart on that and some of them say, and therefore you're not a Christian, based on Romans 8, because if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not a Christian, or they'll say it's possible to be a Christian and not have the Holy Spirit. And they make an ultra fine distinction between the spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit, you see. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ, but you haven't been baptized by the Holy Spirit yet. So they start to get a little funny about the Trinity after a while. I'm not sure how many persons there are in the Pentecostal or the UPC Trinity or some of these other Pentecostal groups. And so they make a distinction there, but there's, I think, a wrong teaching there about tongues, namely the implication is that all Christians, healthy, right Christians should be using and experiencing the gift of tongues. Now, where does this come from? Probably from Mark 16. Now Mark 16, there's an indication there. I'm not going to go there, but you read it that, “These signs will accompany those who have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, have come to faith in my name,” and speaking in tongues is included there in Mark 16. So Paul has to deal with these problems. He has to work it through. And so I think as we follow these restrictions, what we're going to find is that tongues should never be operative in a corporate body publicly unless somebody interprets. That is clear. And we should never have more than one person speaking in tongues at the same time, but there needs to be order. God does everything decently in a good order he says in these chapters. So there's an order to this.

So that is one aspect of the modern controversy, namely that if you're not speaking in tongues, something is wrong with you spiritually. Paul asking the question rhetorically, “Do all speak in tongues?” implies the answer is no. Really, it could be translated, should be translated, all don't speak in tongues, do they? And so the implication is no. We have different gifts according to the grace given us. And so not everyone has this gift. So that dispenses with that falsehood. The second aspect comes with the idea of a personal prayer language. Is it possible that tongues could be a personal communication between an individual Christian and God? Some call it a personal prayer language. They get some strength from that in 1 Corinthians 13:1-2,3, it says there, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels...” You see that? “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.” Reading on, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” And so they get from this verse an idea that we can speak in the languages of the tongues both of men and of angels, you see. And so there's the tongues of angels, and that would be your private prayer language. The problem with that is that Paul is clearly in this section speaking hyperbolically. He's saying, “Even if I had the most extreme degree of all these things, but had not love...” The question about that that comes back is, yes, but are all these things possible? Is it possible to surrender your body to the flames? Is it possible to give all that you possess for the poor? Are these things that are at least available to us in the world? Yes, all but verse 2. Is it possible for us to fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, or do we just know in part and prophesy in part? And so I think Paul is using extreme language here to teach the priority of love.

One other verse that teaches this is Romans 8:26-27, or that people feel teaches it, and they turn to that. So take a look with me, if you would, at Romans 8:26-27. I'm going to be preaching on this in a couple of weeks, God willing, but I think we should look at it tonight in closing. It says in 8:26, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes with the saints in accordance with God's will.” What a deep and rich passage on prayer. And I'm looking forward… I've been working on it all week, and I'm looking forward to speaking about it. The Spirit helps us in our prayer lives. Absolutely. We couldn't pray without him. And so I'll look forward to that. But what they point to is, in the second half of verse 26, if you look at that, it speaks of these groans, “the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” And so they say that this relates to that private prayer language. The problem with that is that the person, the individual is not the one praying with those groans here. Who's doing the praying? It's the Spirit that's doing it. And furthermore, the words cannot express part, that word is every other place translated mute. Somebody's mute. There are no words at all. None. And so I think that the parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 2 is teaching that there are spiritual truths given, but no words needed. Do you understand that words are tools that we have to submit to, that there are truths that you don't need to put in words when you're communicating between the Spirit and the Father? And so the point is that, I mean, what are words? They're like freight cars filled with meaning, right? And you're talking about a long 300 car train, and you've got nouns and verbs and adjectives, nouns and verbs and adjectives, and syntax and grammar. And you've been through it. You know school. You all loved English, didn't you? And so you're submitting to grammar, you're submitting to words. God doesn't need that. It's a tool for us, but he doesn't need it. He can intercede for you totally instantaneously just like that, and it's done. And good thing, because there's lots of us, aren't there? And so he's always interceding for you, just whatever you need, totally covered in prayer instantaneously, because there's just a communication between the Spirit and the Father. I think that's what this is teaching here. Now, I didn't say there isn't a secret prayer language. I didn't say that all. I'm just saying that these verses don't teach that. That's what I'm saying. And so I would urge that we look at this verse in context, look a little more carefully and realize that it is the Spirit that's doing the interceding with these groans that words cannot express, and that they are not just words you cannot express, but they are literally mute. They have no words at all. It's just direct spiritual communication.

So in summary, what are we saying? First of all, we've understood prophecy to be direct communication from God to his people through a man or a woman so that that man or woman, the prophet or prophetess can say, should say, “Thus says the Lord,” and then out comes the dinner that God cooked, unmolested by the messenger. That is different than teaching in which the teacher is working over the Scripture, I believe. The apostles and prophets, the foundation of the church. There's a distinction between the two. Prophecy can involve future predictions, and did involve future predictions in the book of Acts. That may still be going on today, but we just need to understand what prophecy is when we're talking about it biblically.

All right, speaking in tongues, in Acts 2, it was intelligible languages given for the purpose of evangelism at that particular moment. Wouldn't that be beautiful? I mean; you talk about missionary learning center and all the years that friends of ours that we know personally have labored over languages. They've worked hard to learn very difficult languages, and they're still barely able to communicate. Wouldn't they love the gift of tongues to be able instantaneously to know that language that they're trying to communicate? But God doesn't usually do that. Usually he wants the servants of God to submit to the process of learning the language, but he could do that. That's the Acts 2 tongues. Then there's the identifying tongues that happened in Acts 10 at Cornelius's house, and Acts 19 at Ephesus, that identifier so that we could see immediately whether the Holy Spirit had come or not. And then there's the speaking tongues that went on in first Corinthians 12, 13, and 14 in which it was possible to communicate in such a way that no one in the building understood what you were saying. Still languages, not just gibberish, it's languages, but nobody there could understand, and so that was shut down by Paul. You needed to have an interpreter, somebody who could hear the words you're saying and tell us what the meaning was, because behind the sounds there needed to be meaning. There was meaning. We just needed to hear what it was. That's all.

Those are the gifts, and that's how they work. Now, I have not resolved for you whether those gifts are still operative today. I have to tell you, I don't know. I don't know, because there's no clear Scripture. I try to do everything by Scripture that these things have shut down. I know they were operative in the New Covenant era, but especially in terms of prophecy, I think the 2 Peter 2:1 is interesting to me. There were false prophets among them, just as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, okay? We have gone over. I thank you for your patience. I talked as fast as I could to get through these things, but next week, I very, very much want to go through a list of all the gifts that are listed in there, describe each one of them briefly, and then close our time, considering spiritual gifts.

Please, if you would, take your Bibles and look with me at Romans Chapter 8. We're going to be zeroing in this morning at verses 14-17, which testifies to us with joy that we are adopted children of God. Isn't that incredible, that we are adopted children of God. Now, it being Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, I think it's important for us to give thanks to God for His providence that this is exactly where we are in Romans, and the confluence of Biblical truth and the current events is just so beautiful. Our God is a sovereign God. There was a time earlier in my Christian life that I was involved actively in the pro-life movement up in Boston. There are many people up there who do not understand our position on this. They are not in favor of what we teach and I would go down every Saturday morning with other Christian men and women, and our purpose was only to engage them in discussion to try to change minds and hearts. We wanted to bring the truth of God there. We knew that if you didn't win the mind and the heart, you hadn't accomplished anything. And so, we desired to be there and to talk.

And one of the things that struck me more than anything was despite all of the pro-choice rhetoric of those that opposed us, so many of the women in that situation spoke of having no choice. Isn't that remarkable? With all the pro-choice rhetoric, they speak of having no choice. And when you're speaking of having no choice, you're really speaking the language of hopelessness. You feel like there is absolutely nowhere you can turn. You feel that there are no resources big enough to meet the life situation that you're in. It's a language of hopelessness. I was reading recently a book entitled Adoption Nation. It was in light of this truth that we're going to learn this morning about being adopted children of God. It's a secular book, but it talks a lot about adoption and it speaks about this woman, Donna. And many people are in the situation that Donna found herself in. She was lying on a surgical table at an abortion clinic in 1986 when she realized that adoption was the only alternative that she could live with. She could barely believe she'd walked into this place to begin with. Just a few years earlier, after all, she had been president of a Right to Life Chapter at her high school. "I was on my back there for what seemed to be the longest time talking to God out loud, asking Him, What am I doing here?" She recalls. When the doctor finally approached her, Donna bolted upright and raised her voice and said, "You will not touch me."

Donna had fallen in love with Mr. Wonderful while she was a 20-year-old junior at the University of Kentucky, two months later she was pregnant, he was gone, and her sister persuaded her to temporarily move in with her in Nashville, so that she would have some support while considering what to do. And after she left the abortion clinic that day, Donna began to learn about adoption. The thing about adoption is that it is a ray of hope into the midst of two hopeless situations, isn't it? The hopeless situation of the young woman who finds herself with no answers, and then of a possibly of an infertile couple that's been praying for a child forever and nothing is coming. And so, they turn to adoption. And so, in the midst of two hopeless situations, all of a sudden adoption speaks God's hope. And that's what Christians are meant to do in this world. We're meant to be hope bearers to hopeless people. And no greater word of hope could ever be spoken than the word of the Gospel that gives us an eternal hope that can never be shaken, no matter what we face in this world. We're supposed to be the messengers of that hope, that word of hope in this world. But I feel the church has retreated from that.

I'm going to urge us today to step back up to it and do it. That we would be messengers of hope into hopeless situations. And I would like you to bring the truth of Romans Chapter 8 when you go. That you speak of a hope that is unseen, but it's true hope that is an anchor for the soul that can never be moved, no matter what the circumstances. And I believe the truth of adoption, to be the very child of God, may be the highest, most stunning blessing of the Gospel. Now, the Gospel has many blessings, doesn't it? There's a whole treasure trove of blessings in the Gospel. And in a way, I feel somewhat week after week, especially in Romans 8, that we're just taking out all of these diamonds and rubies and goblets, and just looking at them one after the other. But this one, I think, shines the most brightly. It's stunning to me that the holy God would adopt people like us into His own family. Isn't that incredible? And that's the truth we get to look at. The adoption, the highest honor of the Gospel. Now, the Gospel promises us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms is given to us in Christ Jesus. Now, we've been talking for a long time about one of those blessings, namely, justification.

That because of faith in Jesus Christ, we need fear no condemnation on Judgment Day. Look again at verse 1 of this chapter, Romans 8:1. It says in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, no fear any longer of Judgment Day if you're in Christ Jesus," but then it continues, of course, and describes who that person is. For those who are in Christ Jesus, who in Verses 2-4, "Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." They don't live like they used to. They don't live like the world. There's been a transformation in their lives. And so, basically, I feel like the rest of the Chapter is describing the kind of life that is true of those for whom there is no condemnation, so that you might have assurance that it's true of you. It wouldn't be good to know that there was a banquet, a feast out there and know that you didn't have a place at the table. What good is that? You want to know, do I have a place? Am I invited, can I sit at that banquet?

Is there a place for me in Heaven? Well, Romans 8 testifies to how you can know, it's an assurance chapter. Verse after verse describes the kind of life lived by those who are not Christians, who are still under condemnation. Contrast it with the kind of life lived by those who are Christians, who are born again, and the center of it all, I believe, in Romans 8 is the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has been given by God to bring assurance right to you as a child of God. And He does that in a variety of ways. But we're speaking of the blessings of the Gospel, and this may be the greatest of them all. I think John thought so. In 1 John 3:1 and following, he says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us that we should be called Children of God. And that is what we are… Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is." Isn't that beautiful? He almost can't get over it, that we, we should be called children of God, can it really be? And I almost want to stress that. Who is the "we" that we're talking about? Have we not met ourselves in the Book of Romans, so we understand who we truly are? Haven't we had some law work done on us so that we can really understand who we are, apart from Christ? I know it's unpleasant, but it's true.

It says in Romans 3:10 and following, "There is no one righteous. No, not one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God, all have turned away. They've together become worthless. There is no one who does good. No, not one. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit, the poison of vipers is on their lips. Ruin and misery mark their ways. Their feet are swift to shed blood. There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Now, if you're a Christian, you look in that mirror and say, "That's me, apart from Christ. That's who I was, apart from Christ." It's true. That's who I was. And yet, and yet God has adopted me into His own family. How great is the love the Father has given to us that we, even we, should be called Children of God. Now, I believe God could've justified us, could've brought us to Heaven as His slaves, and we would've been honoring, amazing, we would still sing Amazing Grace, because we didn't deserve it. We are rescued from hell, from eternity and condemnation, and we would not have to suffer it. And just to be there, just to see it, just to hear the songs and not even to be allowed to participate would've been grace. Amen. Just to be there, but how much more that we should be adopted children of God. Incredible that God should do that for us.

Liberal Theology: A Misunderstanding on the Doctrine of the Fatherhood of God

Now, I think there has been a misunderstanding of this doctrine of the fatherhood of God, to be a child of God, what it means. Over 100 years ago, there was something in vogue called the Social Gospel. Liberal theology brought it to us, and the basic idea is the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man. You know what I'm talking about, that God is the father of everyone and that we're all brothers in God, brothers and sisters, all of us. And there were good things that came out of that movement. Good things. There was a lot of social work that was done, a lot of ministering to people's bodies. Soup kitchens were set up, agencies for the poor and the needy were set up. The widow and orphan were looked after greatly. There was an awful lot of ministry done to the body, but of course, there was no need for a ministry to the soul in particular, because if we're all children of God, then there's no danger of hell, is there? And so, we don't really need the Gospel message, we just need our physical needs met. That was the Social Gospel.

And I think that that is a false understanding of Christianity. It's part of it. Didn't Jesus minister to the body? Did He not feed the 5,000? Did He not cure diseases? Of course he did. He ministered to the body, but I think it's interesting, make a note of this. Mark 6:34, right before Jesus fed the 5,000 it says, "When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things." How did Jesus show His compassion for the needy? He taught them the Gospel, He taught them many things, and then He fed them. Of course, the next day they showed up for another meal, you know how it is. They were on the other side, and they bumped into Him, and they said, "Oh, when did you get here?" And He said, "I'll tell you the truth, you're not looking for me because you saw a miraculous sign, because you ate a meal and you've never had such a bread as that." There was never such fresh bread as those barley loaves that they ate that day. "Oh, it was delicious. Give us another meal." And Jesus said, "Don't work for the food that spoils, but for the food that lasts to eternal life, which I have come into the world to give you." They said, "What must we do to do the works of God?" He said, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."

And so, Jesus was always lifting them up off their concern for their stomach and their bodies, to their concern for their soul. And this is exactly where the Social Gospel fell apart. Now, the Gospel talks of the fact that we are children of God as an immense privilege, isn't it? And it is not true of every single human being on the face of the earth. Now, it is true that every single human being is created in the image of God, that is true. We are special creations of God. That is true, but not in this sense, in Romans 8 and in John 1, the sense of being an adopted child of God, that is not true of all. So therefore, with this immense privilege, the incredible promises, the great responsibilities of being a child of God with all of the whole status before God of eternity laying before you, does it not become obvious?

The most central, most important question of your existence is this, "Am I a child of God or not? Am I a child of God? Have I been adopted into God's family?  The Bible teaches that all of humanity is divided into two groups, children of the Devil and children of God. There's no third group, no third category. Jesus said to the Pharisees who sought to kill Him, John 8:44, He said, "You are of your father the Devil and you want to do the desires of your father, he was a murderer from the beginning." 1 John 3:10, "By this, the children of God and the children of the Devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is the one who does not love his brother." So you see John and Jesus both divided the human race into these two categories, children of the Devil and children of God. The amazing thing is that all of us at one point belonged to the Devil's family. We were natural born sons of the devil.

That's what it says, we were born into that. Ephesians 2:1-3 and I think the NASB has it a little better here. Ephesians 2:1-3 it says, "And you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working, listen, in the sons of disobedience." Verse 3, Ephesians 2:3, "Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and we were, by nature, children of wrath just as the rest." So, we're children of disobedience, children of wrath. We are children of the Devil naturally. And God rescued us and transferred us into His own family. He adopted us into His own family by simple faith in Jesus Christ. John 1:12-13, "As many as received them. To them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God."

Those Who Receive Christ by Faith

Note, the right, the privilege to become a child of God is given to you simply by faith. So, what are we going to do with Romans 8:14-17? We are going to take two weeks on it. Today, we're going to look simply at one question. How can you tell? How do you know whether you are a child of God? Romans 8 is given for that reason, 14-17. How can I tell? And we're going to look at five things. Five ways to know whether you're a child of God. Next week, God willing, we're going to look at the privileges and the responsibilities that come to you if you're a child of God, that's next week. But let's zero in on the first one, and that is the question, am I a child of God? And first, the answer to the question is, you are a child of God if and only if you have received Jesus Christ by faith.

I'm going to read John 1:12-13 again. It says, "As many has received Him to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of God." So simply by faith, you become a child of God. Now, there's no clearer statement of this in Romans, but the whole Book of Romans has been teaching the same thing, hasn't it? Romans has said that, "We are justified simply by faith." Paul says in Romans 3:28, "We maintain that a man is justified by faith, apart from observing the law." Romans 4:3, "What does the scripture say?" By the way, that's always a great question to ask. I know I'm taking it out of context, but you should always ask, Romans 4:3, "What does the scripture say?" Moving along, I know I want to keep to the point, but we've got to ask, what does the scripture say and what does it say concerning our justification?

"Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." Romans 5:1, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." So it teaches that we are made right, we are justified with God by faith alone, but Paul says it more directly in Galatians 3:26, "You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus." Did you hear that? You are a son or a daughter, a child of God simply by faith in Jesus Christ. So, how do you know whether you're a child of God? Well, have you accepted Jesus Christ by faith, by simple faith? Do you believe that He's God in the flesh? That He lived a normal human life doing miracles and free from sin. That He was a physical human being on earth, did miracles, walked on this earth, never sinned, died in your place on the cross, suffering the death, the condemnation, the wrath that you deserve? He died a physical death. On the third day, He rose again, bodily raised from the dead, ascended to heaven. That one and that one only is your savior. Have you received Him by faith? And if so, you're a child of God.

Those Who Are Led by His Spirit

Secondly, the Bible says that those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. And now we get right into Romans Chapter 8, those who are led... Look at Verse 13-14. It says, "If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die." That means go to hell. "But if, by the Spirit, you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live," that means go to heaven. It means far more than that, but it does mean that. Now, what is the first word of verse 14? "Because," or "for," that is an unbelievably important word, because here he's going to explain who the children of God are. What does it mean to be a child of God? It means that you are led by the Spirit. Well, what does it mean to be led by the spirit? Look backward. That's what the word "because" or "for" means, look backward to verse 13. What does it mean to be led by the spirit? It means to put sin to death. Do you see that? "Because those who are led by the spirit of God…" Go back to 13. To put to death the deeds of the body, those are the children of God. Do you see what I'm saying? And so therefore, if you are not led by the Spirit of God in the way that it means in verse 14, you're not a child of God. Those who are led by the Spirit of God, are children of God. You see that. And so, the word "because" or "for," tells us what the leadership's about, and it's about a holy life. It's about putting sin to death. It's about never waving the white flag before sin at all.

Where you say instead, "I will fight sin to the day I die. I'm going to battle, I'm going to struggle, I may stumble and fall." We all stumble in many ways. It says in the Book of James. It's not about sinless perfection, but it's about a war, isn't it? And we are never going to give in. And that's what it means to be led by the Spirit of God. And if you're not led by the Spirit of God in this way, you're not a child of God. You haven't been adopted. For or because all who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Now let's talk about this leadership, the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We know the Holy Spirit comes in, He dwells within us, He lives within us if we're children of God. But what is this leading about?

Well, I want to put some scenarios in front of you to help explain it. Suppose that you were in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th. You were on the fifth floor, let's say. And let's say the aircraft hits it, the lights go out, there's screaming, there's darkness, the emergency lights are going on and off and you're trying to make your way to a stairwell to get down, and you don't know where you are and there's all kinds of frenzy. Then suddenly, in the middle of all the smell and the smoke and the darkness and all of that, you see a uniformed New York fireman standing there. And he grabs you by the arm and says, "Follow me, I'm going to lead you to safety." Would you follow him? Oh, you'd better believe you will. And when you get out and you're on the sidewalk when that building implodes, you will thank him for your life. He saved your life. And that is some aspect, I think at least, of the leadership of the Holy Spirit. He comes and leads you down the five flights of stairs and out of the dangerous place. What is the dangerous place? Is there a dangerous place for us as Christians? Yeah, it's called Vanity Fair, it's called the world. You're still there. You're living here now. Do you need leadership through the world? Oh, absolutely you do. And He has been sent by God to lead you through this world until you come home, like that fireman who will lead you to safety.

Or another analogy, a military one. General Washington, one of the heroes of American history, December 26, 1776, he crossed the icy Delaware River to attack the Hessians at Trenton to win a minor victory, but major in terms of the morale of that army. They were falling apart. And he prepared the battle plan, figured it all out, figured what they would do, when they would do it. He trained his men, he motivated them, he told them what they were going to accomplish and then he got in the boat and led them to do it. And so also the Holy Spirit leads us in holiness. And He leads us into battle. He's not leaving you to sit back at home, He's leading you into battle with sin. He's going to say, "We've got to fight sin. And so we've got to cross this icy river, and we've got to fight at night, and we've got to do what's necessary." And so, He is General Washington to us. He's leading us. And not only that, but we're going to go on to Princeton a week later and we're going to fight there too. And He keeps moving, He keeps saying, "I'm the commanding officer, I'm the General. We're moving out, we're not going to take this lying down. We're going to fight sin." And so He leads us. Those who are led by the Spirit of God to put sin to death, those are children of God.

How Does the Spirit Lead Us?

Now, how does He lead us? Well, there's a highway of holiness, isn't there? It says in Isaiah 35:8, "A highway will be there. It will be called the way of holiness. The unclean will not journey on it. It will be for those who walk in that way. Wicked fools will not go about on it." And then Isaiah 20:21-22, "You will hear a voice behind you. Whether you turn to the right or left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it." That's the leadership of the Holy Spirit. There's a way of holiness, isn't there? Or there's a way to live through this world. It's a way of wisdom, a way of righteousness. He gets you on the path and He says, "This is the way, now walk in it." And so we're called to live by the Spirit. Galatians 5:16 and 25, "So I say live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature." "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Let us stick with Him as He marches. We're going to march too, we're going to stay with Him on the way of holiness.

Now, how does He lead? Well, the same Greek word is used in Matthew 21:2, in which it says, "Jesus said to His disciples, 'Go into the village ahead of you and at once you will find a donkey tied there with her colt by her. Untie them and lead them to me.'" Is that how He leads us? Absolutely not. It's the same Greek word, but there's a different sense of the leadership of the Holy Spirit. We know that because it says in Psalm 32:8-9, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or mule which have no understanding, but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you." Don't be like that. It's a leadership of understanding of wisdom, so that we see that sin is evil and terrible and we need to get rid of it, and that wisdom is beautiful and delightful and we need to walk in it. It's a way of understanding. He leads by a way of understanding. He instructs you and teaches you in the way you should go.

Psalm 23 says, "He leads us by paths of righteousness," what? "For His name's sake." He's leading us to live a certain kind of life. He leads by wisdom, by truth, by teaching you step by step. He also leads you and entices you by love and by goodness. There's a personal aspect now, isn't there? It's not just the law written on these stone tablets external to us anymore. There's now very much a person there all the time. And that has a tremendous influence. It says in Hosea 11:4, "I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them." Imagine, if you would, just by way of illustration, that you are in a room and you see somewhere a door and it looks interesting to you, and there's a big sign on the door, it says, "Do not Enter." That's called law. And immediately, you're wondering, what? I wonder what's behind the door? And so there's a struggle, back and forth. And gee, "Do not enter, you'll see all the things behind this door what you must not see." Oh, boy, this is getting worse, the more the law goes, the more you want it.

But suppose your best friend stood there and said, "Please don't enter that door." And kept standing there. Which of those two is harder to disobey? The personal one, isn't it? The person standing right there, it's not an affront against something printed on a page. It's an affront against a person. And the indwelling Spirit makes sin very personal, doesn't He? He makes it hurt. You get a sense of betrayal. Jesus is wounded by the sin, it hurts. And so, He's grieved by it and He includes you in His grief. You're going to feel what He feels when you sin. Conversely, speaking positively, you're going to feel a joy and satisfaction when you do right and put sin to death. It becomes very personal. And so He leads you that way.

Those Who Cry “Abba, Father” by His Spirit

Thirdly, those who cry, "Abba, Father" by His spirit are children of God. Look at verse 15, it says, "You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you'll receive a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out Abba, Father." So we have the indwelling Holy Spirit and He is crying out from within us, "Daddy, daddy, Abba, Father." There was a time a number of years ago, I don't remember exactly what church it was, but I went to pick up one of my children. And when you're at a strange church and they don't know you, procedures are important at that door. They're not going to just hand over a child to just anybody. Well, as I went to that door and started doing the procedure, the child looked at me and said, "Daddy," with her arms out. And it's hard to beat that as evidence. This came so naturally from within, but I still did the cards and we did all that, but there was no question in the heart of the workers there, who were doing their job, rightly so, that I was that child's father. And so that's what the Holy Spirit does within us. There's a testimony, a crying out that God is our daddy. He's our Father, it's the Aramaic word for daddy. It's not a spirit of slavery.

We're going to talk next week more about this, so I'm not going to leave it alone, we're going to go back to the freedom of fear that we have. But we've got this beacon within us that just keeps crying to God, "Daddy, Daddy, I want to be with you. I love you." And it just keeps beaconing again and again, the indwelling Spirit saying, "Heaven is my home. God is My Father, I want to be there." And He never stops that work in us. And so, if you've got that indwelling Holy Spirit crying out, "Abba, Father," then you're a child of God.

Those Who Receive the Internal Witness by His Spirit

Fourthly, those who receive the internal witness by His Spirit. Not only does the Spirit cry out through us, "Abba, Father," but He cries to us and testifies to us that we are children of God. Look in verse 16, it says, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God." This is a testimony from the indwelling Spirit. You are a child of God, and He speaks to your spirit. Now, what does it mean that He speaks to your spirit? Well, you have a new creation spirit. You have a new entity within you.

"If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come," 2 Corinthians 5:17. So you have a new creation entity within you, a spiritual entity. He speaks to that and says, "You are a child of God. You're a child of God." He testifies to your spirit and He testifies with your spirit because your conscience is bearing witness also that you're a child of God. A change has happened in your life. You are a child of God, but you know there's no limit to this testimony. Some of you may remember, a while ago when we were looking at Romans 5:5 that the love of God is poured out into our hearts by His Holy Spirit whom He has given us. He's just pouring out His love. And so I talked about that. Remember? I talked about the 'whoosh,' how the Holy Spirit can just take you somewhat into the Heavenly realms. There's no limit to what He can do.

And testifying that you're a child of God. 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talked about this, "I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third Heaven, whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And I know that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, but God knows, was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to talk about." Wow! Remember what we said at that time? Inexpressible things that people are not permitted to talk about. You can't put it in words and you're not allowed to try. Wow! And the Spirit can just bring that kind of a testimony directly to your heart, if He chooses. Remember I talked about the Puritan Thomas Goodwin who described this very thing. He described, remember? I'm going to tell the story again, because it's so effective, so powerful. A man and his child walking down through the woods in a path. And they're hand in hand and the little child knows that he's the son of the father. The father loves the child. There's a good relationship. There's no problems, they're enjoying the walk together, when all of a sudden, moved by some kind of hidden impulse, the father, swoops that child up into his arms, kisses him, hugs him, just gives him love, sets him back down. And they continue to walk hand in hand.

Is there a difference before and after in the experience of that child? You better believe there is. Have you had God do that to you? Just whoosh you, pick you up and just assure you that you are a child of God, maybe not like Paul. Caught up to third Heaven in paradise and all that, that's up to God if He wants to do something like that, He can do it. Blaise Pascal had an experience like that, Jonathan Edwards had one, DL Moody had one, many people from history have experienced this. If you haven't. Maybe you didn't ask for it. You don't have because you don't ask God. Ask Him for it. If you who are parents, you know how to give your children good things. How much more will your Heavenly Father give something like that to people who ask and ask and ask and ask and ask, He's going to give it to you. He's going to lavish blessing and love, and it will be different. Everybody's different, but He gives you an internal witness that you are a child of God.

Those Who Suffer With Christ by His Spirit

The fifth proof or evidence that you're a child of God is suffering. Not just suffering, but a special kind of suffering. Look at verse 17, it says, "If we are children then we are heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him." Suffering is required. There's no getting away from it, there's no escaping it. If you don't suffer with Christ you will not inherit with Christ, that's what the verse says. If indeed we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory.

Now, what kind of suffering is this? Well, there are sufferings common to all people, aren't there? Wrestling with the cursed ground every day to get thorns and thistles out of it, that's called holding down a job. And that's common to all of us. Suffering from decaying bodies and from physical sickness is common to everyone. Suffering from death of loved ones and friends is common to all of us, we all suffer that. Suffering from financial trials and from relational difficulties and from the myriad trials of everyday life, power outages, car trouble, floods, fire, famine, all of those things that are insured. All of those things, they're part of this world, but I don't believe that that's the kind of suffering that's in view here. That's common to everybody and we'll talk about that later in 8:18-25. This is a special kind of suffering, a suffering that only Christians go through, and I think it's of two kinds. Christian suffer things the world does not suffer in the way that the Christian suffers it. We suffer when we are tempted, and we suffer persecution. These are two things that Christians suffer that the worldlings don't suffer.

They don't suffer temptation the way we do. Now, yeah, I know they fight sin, they try to give up smoking or give up drinking, or a certain habit, but they do not fight sin the way we do. They don't wake up every day with the burden of you must be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. That's one of the responsibilities of being a child of God, imitating God's nature, and that leads you to suffering, doesn't it? You resist temptation all the time if you're a child of God. Hebrews 2:18 says, "That Jesus because He Himself suffered when He was tempted He is able to help those who are being tempted." There is a suffering in temptation, isn't there? Now, how do we avoid that suffering? Two ways. Number one, we persevere in it in holiness and eventually we resist the devil and he does what? He flees from us, but that may take a while. What's the other way to get out of that suffering in the middle of temptation? Sin, sin, and then, guess what? Temptation is over, but now you got other problems.

So we have to bear up under, we have to be willing to suffer temptation. We also suffer persecution from the world. John 15, 18 and 19, Jesus said, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belong to the world it will love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, that is why the world hates you." The world hates you. Don't expect a friendly, cozy, comfortable relationship with America. Don't expect it. 2 Timothy 3:12, "Everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." "Dear friends," 1 Peter 4, "Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you were insulted because of the name of Christ you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you." And so we've come full circle.

We started talking about the abortion question, and in my prayer I prayed that the church would wake up. I prayed that the church would wake up and be willing to bear the reproach of Jesus Christ outside the walls. Hebrews 13. And pay the price necessary to win the struggle. This is a Christian magazine entitled World. A little baby, isn't he cute, she cute? I can't tell. A little child, a little infant, obviously a new born in somebody's hand. Look at that, isn't that beautiful? It's incredible. The church is called to protect the weak, when the strong threaten the weak. Religion that our God and Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. Early Roman Christians used to go along the river and scoop up abandoned babies and raise them. They adopted them. They took them into their families. They literally adopted them, so that they might be adopted by their Heavenly Father.

And the tragedy here, it says, "Row v. Wade at 29," it's 29 years, and then the sub-title says, "The silent stalemate." That just pierced my heart. Is this really a stalemate or are we losing? Which is it? See, a stalemate is two equal forces, let's say, on a chessboard, and they can't get anywhere. They're equally strong and they can't get anywhere and there's no victory for anybody. Isn't that the case that we are losing this battle day after day, week after week, year after year because the laws haven't changed? And because we're not ministering to the needy the way we need to. I would urge you to be willing to bear the reproach of Jesus Christ, be willing to suffer the way He suffered. Not just the internal suffering of temptation, but the external rejection of the world, and you'll get it, believe me, if you're willing to speak up for Jesus Christ.

I just want to close by asking you a question. Are you a child of God? Are you a child of God? Have you by faith received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Was there a time that you accepted Him? Are you led by the Spirit daily to put sin to death, keeping in step with Him, moment by moment? Do you have that indwelling Spirit crying out from within you, Abba, Father? And is He testifying to you, that you're a child of God? And are you suffering with Jesus Christ, what He suffered? If you don't think that you're a child of God, please come and talk to me after the service. I'm going to be standing down here. Come and say to me, "You know, I don't think I'm a Christian. I'm afraid for my soul. I want to know eternal life. I want to know Jesus Christ." Come and talk to me. Don't leave this place without an absolute certainty that you are a child of God. It's free to anyone who asks for it. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened, this is for you. But if you are a child of God, ask, "Are you willing to stand outside with Jesus and bear the reproach, the suffering that He bore by upholding righteousness in our land?"

Please, if you would open your Bibles and look with me at Romans chapter 8, we're going to be zeroing in this morning on Romans 8:9-13, the indwelling spirit's invisible war. Now, I'd like to ask you to imagine if you would, that you were living back in the Middle Ages and you were in a walled city in a castle, and you had received news. The city had received news that your bitterest enemy had invaded your borders. And scouts had come back and said that there was absolutely no doubt whatsoever that sometime before dawn, the attack would come on your city. And suppose the commander of your city told you to stand on the ramparts on the wall and watch. With what kind of attitude would you watch that night? What kind of passion would keep you awake all night long? In effect, that's what happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus said to Peter and to the other disciples, watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is what? It is weak.

And so Peter was commanded that night to watch diligently, and to pray and to prepare for the onslaught of temptation. And you remember what happened to him, the same thing that happens to you, he fell asleep and he did not watch. He did not prepare himself for that battle and so he fell into sin. And so we have before us in the text here, described a war that God is calling us to. It is an internal war, a war with the flesh, a war with sin. And we are called to fight that war by the power of the Spirit. Look at verse 13, it says, "If you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live." As some might say, "Them's fighting words." That is the language of warfare, that is... You're being called to enlist and to fight a battle. You're being called to stand on the wall and watch, because the enemy will most certainly come. One Puritan writer said, "When sin let's us alone, we'll let sin alone, but until then we're going to fight." And so we're called to a war, we're called to a fight.

Now what is the context of this? Well, the context is glorious good news, isn't it? Isn't Romans 8 one of the greatest chapters in the Bible? Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." No condemnation for you, if you are Christian. And that's wonderful good news. But along with it in this chapter, comes a serious warning that while we may be free from sin's condemning power, we are not free from sin's indwelling influence and presence. We have a bitter foe that seeks our very life and we are not free from the command of God, "Be perfect therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." "You shall be holy, because I am holy." "Make every effort," it says in Hebrews 12:14 "to be holy. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord." That's an incredibly important passage. What it's saying is that there's a holiness that comes as a result of your spirit filled effort. And if you don't have that, what I call sanctification holiness, you're not a Christian. And if you're not Christian, you will not see the Lord. And so we're right in the business of sanctification here in Romans 8:9-13. I think these verses maybe the most important verses in the Bible on how you fight sin internally by the power of the Spirit. We are called to fight.

Living the Two Journeys

Now, I didn't want to give you a static impression like we are in a castle, as if we're not moving, or that we're kind of like stuck here. We're actually more called to journey out. A perilous quest, somewhat like the Lord of the Rings. Some of you have seen that movie or read the book. There's a sense that we're called to move out and to journey across a perilous quest. And we're given, I think, laid before, as I've said before, two journeys that seem to have no end. The journey of internal holiness, the way of holiness growing until you are perfect like Jesus morally. And how long a journey is that? And then laying out before us also is the journey of world evangelization. That we should take this Gospel message to the ends of the earth and proclaim it to those who haven't heard. And I have found that in the church life, the two intimately go together, don't they? Who is it that's going to be faithful to take the Gospel, who's going to be preaching, who's going to be proclaiming, but those who are putting sin to death in their own lives. Those that are growing in holiness, those that are truly Christians. So these two journeys are enmeshed together. The journey of discipleship, the journey of evangelism. And it's to that that we are called.

Now, the good news of the Gospel, we've already understood is that justification by faith clears us of the guilt of all sins. If you've heard the Gospel message of Jesus Christ our Savior, dead on the cross, buried on the third day, he was raised again to new life, and you realize that he died in the place of sinners just like you. And that if you trust in Him, you'll have eternal life. You've heard that message, you have believed you're justified just at that moment, instantaneously clear to the guilt of all sin. And so there is for you now, no condemnation if you're in Christ. Wonderful, good news. But just as soon as you are justified, the Holy Spirit, the indwelling Spirit comes into you and begins to say, "Let's Move. Let's start growing. Let's start walking like a Christian. Let's be holy. Let's put sin to death." And that's the journey that's before us. We have a daily duty to put indwelling sin to death. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." That's dynamic, isn't it? That's a journey. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." There's a journey, a road to be traveled.

And so it's a perilous journey, and that journey in this text, is a journey of internal holiness, a journey to be like Christ. It says in verse 13, (I think the NASB has a little better,) "If you are living according to the flesh you must die, but if by the spirit you are putting to death continually the deeds of the body, you will live." Colossians 3:5 gives it in direct command form, "Put to death therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature. Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." So our question today, is what does it mean to put sin to death? What does that mean and how do we do it? What are the means that God has given us? What is the relationship with the indwelling spirit? How important is it? That's what's before us today, the mortification, the putting to death of sin.

The History of Mortification

Now, there is a long history in the church and in humanity of a struggle in this area. A long history of efforts that people have made to do this very thing. Perhaps you've heard about the early monks in the desert on the fourth century. After the Roman persecution had ended and it was really not possible at that point to become a martyr anymore. People who are serious about their faith began to look at monasticism, began to look at the life of John the Baptist, who lived out in the desert and who wore rough clothing and ate locusts and wild honey and had an odd kind of life. And so Antony for example, a Coptic, an Egyptian Christian, went out into the desert and began living the life of what some have called a spiritual athlete. Putting sin to death, freeing himself from all worldly temptations, so he thought. Going out into a cave apart from people and just living a holy life as far as he understood it. Problem was, he brought his enemy with him, the indwelling sin. He didn't leave it behind, and so, he had lusts and he had anxieties and he had fears and he had temptations and they just were there with him constantly.

Others followed as well. One man sat on a stile, on a pole, for decades and somebody brought him food. And he'd pull it up in a bucket and he just spent his whole time fighting sin up on top of a pole. He was trying to get away from all temptation. I think the real heroes in that story are the ones that brought him the food every day. I think that's remarkable. But this man also brought his enemy with him. It was an internal enemy, the enemy of the flesh. Sin within the heart could not escape it. Soon there came to be communities of monks, monasteries would grow up and people would try to help each other in the battle with the flesh. The problem with all that is that they may have been making progress in the one journey, weren't they? Journey of personal holiness, but where was world evangelization? It was all inward focus, it all came in. And so you may be growing in holiness but at the same time who's hearing the Gospel through you? It's supposed to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

Those Catholic monasteries grew up and they were a big part of Medieval Europe. Martin Luther entered one, you remember the story. And he sought to put sin to death by physical mortification. By fasting, by prayer, by sleeping on stone floors without blankets, by torturing his body. But it says in Colossians 2, that those things have little effect on fleshly or sensual desires. And then immediately goes into chapter 3 which tells you to put sin to death. And so how can it be? Romans 8 tells us that by the power of the spirit, and by the power of the spirit alone may we put sin to death." That is the message of Romans 8.

Now, I’m giving you an extended quote here from John Owen, and I think it's powerful. Look and read along with me. John Owen, a Puritan theologian from the 17th Century said this: "The vigor and power and comfort of our spiritual life depends on the mortification of the deeds of the flesh." Do you see that? The vigor, and the power, and the comfort of your spiritual life depends on your putting sin to death. If you do not put sin to death, your spiritual life will not be vigorous. It will not be powerful. It will be sick and weak and ineffective and fruitless, and so you must put sin to death. This is not an option if you're a Christian. And I think it's so important for us to realize, to whom is Paul speaking? He's speaking to those that he's already assured that there's no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus and he's calling them to war. He's calling them to put sin to death.

Owen goes on, he says, "The choicest believers, the best ones, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin. The principal efficient cause of the performance of this duty is the spirit. The holy spirit. All other ways of mortification are vain. All helps are helpless it must be done by the spirit." What do you think Owen had in mind when he said, "All other approaches are vain?" I think probably that history that I've already traced out for you, of worldly or fleshly physical efforts to put indwelling sin to death. It must be done by the Holy Spirit.

I want you as a Baptist, to see yourself on a pilgrimage. I want you to see yourself on a journey. I want you to see yourself traveling and moving through hill and vale. Traveling and making progress in your Christian life. You're a pilgrim on progress. You are not static. You didn't pray the prayer, walk the aisle, get the thing and then you're finished. You're on a journey and if you're not on the journey you're not justified. If you're not on the journey you're not a Christian. That's what it's saying here. There are two journeys in scripture, aren't there? Jesus described them in Matthew 7, "Enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it, but small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it." Is that not a dynamic passage? You're on a journey, you're traveling somewhere, either that road is heading toward heaven or it's heading toward hell.

And so you are on a journey and it's not unopposed, is it? You have enemies on the journey. It's difficult, it's hard. What did you think it meant at the end of Romans 8 when it says, "Know in all these things, we are" what? "More than conquerors?" Is it possible to conquer without a conflict? Is it possible to be an overcomer without a war? A victor without a battle? It's impossible. And so what's laid before us is a perilous journey, a difficult journey, hard. And through Christ and through Christ alone, in all these things we're more than conquerors. Through Him who loved us, through Christ and through Christ alone we can walk a life of holiness in His presence, and that is what this text calls us to.

Now, as we look at how the New Testament teaches holiness, it always teaches it the same way. It's so vital that we understand that. How does Paul tell us to be holy? Well first, as always, he's telling us who we are, what is true about us, what is our present condition. And in that we look at realm and indwelling, and then we're going to learn about the body and the spirit. What realm do you live in? Now, this is review for those who've heard me preach, but basically there are two realms, aren't there? There are two kingdoms, they're not of equal power. Do not think that the Devil's kingdom and God's Kingdom are of equal power like we're in some kind of a equal struggle here, not at all. God is the creator of heaven and earth. And any time He wanted to He could pull the plug on Satan. But there are these two realms. And if you are not a Christian you are in the realm of the devil, you're in the realm of the world of the flesh. You're under the power and the control of the flesh.

And so it says in verse 9, "However, you [as a Christian] are not in the flesh." You see that? "You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." What does that mean you're not in the flesh? I feel like I'm still in my flesh. I haven't died yet. There's my hand, I feel it. What does it mean I'm not in the flesh? Well, it's talking about a spiritual position, a spiritual realm that you're in, a kingdom really, and you're not there anymore. Somebody say, "Praise God." We're not there anymore, we got transferred from it. We got rescued "from the dominion of darkness and brought over into the Kingdom of the Son He Loves," Colossians 1:13. You were rescued and it's all that matter in terms of the domain, the dominions, whose are you? To whom do you belong? Who possesses you? You're either Satan's or you're God's. You're either child of the devil, or you're child of God. One or the other, there's no third option. Scripture gives us no third option. You're a possession of God if you're a child of God, possession. Isn’t that beautiful?

It is written in Exodus 19:5, "Now, if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations," God said to Israel, "you will be my treasured possession." Isn’t that beautiful? The treasured possession of God out of all the nations, that was Israel. The apple of His eye. Psalm 135:4, "For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own and Israel to be again his treasured possession." That's the way God spoke in the Old Covenant. Well it's the same language in the New Covenant, exact same language. It says here in verse 9 "And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ," what? "He does not belong to Christ." He is not Christ's, of Christ. And so you belong to Christ if you are Christian. You belong to Christ. There is always a struggle for self-esteem. Find your esteem there that you are possessed, owned by Jesus Christ.

He says in John 10:14, "I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me." Do you see the possessive? They're my sheep, I bought them with my blood. I paid the price for them and they are mine. Says later in John 10:27 and 28, "My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand." Well, this ownership is the ground of our obligation to fight sin. That's the way Paul speaks, look at verse 12, "Therefore brothers, we have an obligation" or "we are debtors," we owe something." Going to talk more about that in a minute. But we are not debtors to the sinful nature to live according to it. We don't owe the sinful nature anything. It's a matter of possession, who owns us, what realm are we in.

First Corinthians 6:19-20, it says, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have received from God?" Now listen, "You are not your own. You've been bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body." You see the logic of the obligation? You are owned, you are bought, someone paid something for you, and so you're not your own, therefore glorify God with your body. And then it says in Romans 14:8, "If we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die," what? "We belong to the Lord." We are His treasured possession. Non-Christians are not his treasured possession. They're not owned by Him, not in this way. Jesus said to his enemies in John 10:26 "You do not believe because you are not my sheep." And He says in John 8:44, "You belong to [or you are owned by] your Father, the devil."

So there are two realms, two kingdoms. You either are owned by or belong to your father, the devil, or you are a child of God. Possessed by Him, a treasured possession, you are Christ's sheep, you're owned by Him, bought at a price. These are the realms. And we are told in this passage of Romans that we are no longer in the flesh, we are now in the spirit. Is that not glorious good news? There's been a rescue. We are told negatively what we are not, what is not true of us. We are not in the flesh. We are not in Adam anymore. We're not under the condemnation of Adam anymore. We're not under the law. We're not controlled any longer by the sin nature. We don't have any longer that carnal or fleshly mind in which we delight in sin and delight in the sinful world that surrounds us. We're not any longer bearing fruit for death. We're not any longer unable to please God. All of those things that he just said in Romans 8:5-8. But instead, we are in the spirit. We've been rescued. We've been transferred to a whole new realm. We are in a new kingdom now. We are in Christ. We are under grace. We are controlled by the Spirit. We have our mind on the things of the Spirit. We are bearing fruit for life, and we are pleasing to God moment by moment.

And so there has been in our case, in our condition, a great rescue. You hear about these SWAT teams that are trained, specially trained to go into hostage situations, right? And they're given special equipment and special training and they know how to move in there and rescue the captive and get them out of there. Or you hear about those two missionaries in Afghanistan that so many of us were praying for. They were delivered, they were rescued by a military action. Both of those things are nothing compared to what happened to you if you're Christian, you are rescued, you are delivered from the dominion of darkness and brought over into the kingdom, the new kingdom of Christ. Jesus put it this way, in Luke 11, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are safe but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils."

He's talking about driving Satan out. And so you were the spoils, And He is the someone that is stronger, and the devil is the strong man, and he had this armor in which he trusted. And the strong man lost to the stronger man, Jesus Christ. And so you were delivered, you were rescued from the dominion of darkness by a stronger one, by Jesus Christ.

Now let me ask you a question, is this not tremendous grounds for assurance? If you're a Christian, you're in the new kingdom, aren't you? You're in walled city, you're protected. And who is guarding that is it not Jesus Christ is he not also a strong man? Is there anyone stronger than Jesus, who can overpower him, take you back and bring you back to the devil's kingdom. Can it be done? It cannot be done. "My Father, who is greater than all is given to me and no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one." We are kept by the power of God. We're in a new kingdom and we cannot be snatched back. So that's the foundation of holiness. Understanding who you are. What kingdom do you live in, you're citizenship of a... You're a citizen of a whole new realm now. It's a whole new way of living in this new kingdom. And so He tells you who and what you are, and then he tells you what? Live like it. Live up to it since you are a child of God. That's the way He teaches holiness. And so we can know now that we're in this kingdom, can't We? We can know as we see the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are not in the flesh but we are in the spirit and as possible to know based on the indwelling spirit, the one who lives in us now. "If indeed," it says, "the Spirit of God lives in you." If the Spirit of God lives in you... Don't let that "if" bother you. Sometimes the word if can really mean since.

"If you're my son, now act like it," you might say. It doesn't mean you may or may not be my son, it means since you're my child please live up to it, that's what it's saying. So if indeed we have the spirit, we should say as Christians, since we have the spirit there's no doubts here, He dwells within us, He lives within us.

Now let's again try to understand this properly. Talk about having the spirit of Christ. Here we hear the secular way of talking about Christmas we need to catch the spirit of Christmas. What is the spirit of Christmas? I've never been able to figure it out. Is it materialism? Is it parties? What is the spirit of Christmas? Is it good cheer? We just went through it. Think about it, our minds are cleared now, we can look back on it. What was the spirit of Christmas? And you're told to catch the spirit of Christmas. Or we're all looking ahead, we don't like looking back. The catching the spirit of spring, you want to see some warm weather... There's a spirit that you catch. Is that what it means here? It's like it's an attitude, a way of thinking, a way of an outlook. We're going to catch the spirit of Christ. Kind of, have Christ attitude about things.

Is that what it's talking about here? Not at all. Actually, you were invaded by the Holy Spirit, He came, the third person of the Trinity and lived within you, and you became his temple. He dwelt within you. If you could have seen in the spiritual realm, it'd be like the, Shekinah glory coming down and entering into you. There's a person in you now, that wasn't there before. He has an intellect. He has a will. He has power. He makes plans. He has feelings. And he communicates those feelings. He has passions. He loves things, and He hates things. And He's living within you if you're a child of God. The Spirit indwells every believer, verse 9 "If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ... " What? "He does not belong to Christ." If you do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, you are not a Christian. You're not a Christian.

Well when did the spirit come? It came the moment you believed. "Having believed you are marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit," Ephesians 1:13-14, same thing that Peter preached in Acts chapter 2, when the people heard this is Pentecost sermon they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and other apostles, brothers what shall we do? Peter replied, "Repent to be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promises for you and your children and for all who are far off, for all of whom the Lord your God will call."

So all those who are the called, who are Christians, they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and he lives within you. Not only the Holy Spirit though, actually the scripture teaches that the whole trinity that lives within you. We have here in the text that the spirit lives within us but we also have indications in John 14:20, "On that day," Jesus said, "You will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you. I am in you," Jesus said. And then Jesus said that same time in John 14:23 said, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to Him and make our dwelling with Him." Do you understand what that saying? That the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the triune God lives within you, if you are Christian. Isn't that incredible? And not just some of the time, all the time. By the way how does it make you feel when you sin? Isn't that striking? And isn't that the ground over the call for holiness. You're indwelt now by the Holy Spirit, you're indwelt by the Father, Son and Spirit. And the spirit has come in.

Well, what should you expect from your body? Well this text covers that as well, verse 10, "And if Christ is in you, though the body on the one hand is dead because of sin. Yet the spirit on other hand is alive because of righteous." So it talks about the body here and what does it say about the body? Well, it's not very complementary, is it? Your body is dead. It's dead, not it's dying or it will die. It's dead. This is very striking and Paul meant it to be striking. Well, why is it dead? Well, it's dead according to this because of sin. Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death." And this is what I think it means. Your physical body is under a death sentence. And that death sentence, plays itself out everyday. Your physical body's under a death sentence. Your cells within you are dying constantly, aren't they? They're being replaced but not perfectly, that's called aging. Your cells are being replaced but little by little you change, you're decaying, you're dying. The principle of death is already in your body, you're under a death sentence. And as matter of fact if the Lord does not come back in our generation, if we are not the final generation, everyone of you who listens to me right now and I who speak, will sink into the grave. Will we not? Is that not promised? That is the outcome for our body. Our body is under a death sentence. Not the final word for the body, we'll talk more about that in a minute. But we're going to wrestle with the ground, according to the curse. And in the end, the ground is going to win. And we're going to sink into the dust because of sin. And God has not, in fact, removed the death sentence. Death is the final enemy that he will remove at the end of the worlds.

Meanwhile in this present age, we are under this physical death sentence. And we live it out everyday, this present corruption, the decay is part of our physical life. We have within, you talk about an invisible war. There's an internal war going on inside you right now. Isn't there? Viruses, bacteria, maybe even some cancer cells multiplying too fast, your immune system's keeping up, struggling right. But in the end, they will win and you will die. That is what it's saying here. The body is dead, though the body is dead because of sin, but we can go further than that. The body is also a seat of sin, isn't it? It's an avenue in which sin works or through which sin works. Your body uses or your sin uses your body to do its work. Lust entices you to evil thoughts through members of your body.

Greed entices you to want to accumulate more through members of your body. Pride entices you to want to be a king or a queen in your life through members of your body. Laziness entices you to procrastinate again through members of your body. The body is a seed or an enticing to sin. Take a minute, put your finger here in Romans 8 and look over to 1 Corinthians chapter 9, the very next book in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 9, And Paul tells us how this doctrine should make us feel about our bodies. If this is true Paul, that our body is dead because of sin, how should we think about the body? How should we think about it?" Look what he says in verse 24, "Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run but only one gets the prize. Run in such way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the game goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." Verse 26, "Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly. I do not fight like a man beating the air." Now look at verse 27, so vital, look at with your eyes. "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I preach to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." Now, what does Paul mean there? I think he means that he keeps his body under constant vigilance. He's on it all the time. It's really a dangerous thing to him to get the sense that his body is dangerous to his Christian life.

Go back to Romans 8. He beats his body and makes it a slave because it is a dangerous thing to him in his spiritual endeavor. He doesn't trust it. He's got to fight its inclinations. He's got a fight it's whining and complaining, right? You know what I'm talking about. When you try to get up early and have a prayer time. It's whining and it's complaining, "What do I have to do this for?" Your body is fighting against the very thing that the spirit's doing in you.

Yet he paused to fight against the body's oppositions. It's rebellions and its desires every step of the way. It's like you're in charge of a rebellious prisoner and you need to take that prisoner 50 miles down the road to some other place. What's that journey going to be like? You've got to watch it every step of the way, and it's going to be difficult. That's what the body is like and ultimately there's future corruption in the grave. John Paton, I've told the story before, was a missionary determined to go to the Pacific Hebrides Islands as a missionary to preach the gospel to a tribe that had just finished eating as a cannibal, the last missionary that went there.

How would you like to be the next missionary that goes? But John Paton felt the call of God and he wanted to take the gospel that second journey we've talked about, to the ends of the earth and that was the middle of the South Pacific. Well, one of his aged friends godly man dear old Christian man tried to dissuade him and said, "The cannibals! You'll be eaten by cannibals!" and John Paton said so beautifully, "Mr. Dixon, you are I perceive advanced in years now and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave and there to be eaten by worms. I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus. It will make no difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms. And in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the lightness of our Redeemer."

Is that not a great answer? Why preserve the body, why try to be young, why buy those special products they advertise late at night or whenever, why do that? You're going to sink into the grave. So that's the future of the body. Where is the present in the body? It's not all bleak is it because the body is also the vehicle of our service to God in this world isn't it? Is it not this mouth that's speaking these words now. Is it not your ears that are hearing the words. Your mind that's thinking about it. Are they not your hands and your feet that will do your service to God this week. Your body is not all evil. It's just weak it's a ground of sin. It's a difficult thing, but it needs to be brought under control and used for the glory of God. The body, that's what to expect with the body.

What about the spirit? It says in verse 10 "If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin yet the spirit is lie, life or alive because of righteousness." It's difficult to interpret this. I think it's either that the Holy Spirit is life because of righteousness, or your spirit is life because of righteousness. I don't think that the the word spirit should be capitalized here. I think it's referring to your spirit. I may be wrong on that it's possible but looked down on verse 16. It says, "The Spirit himself testifies with... " What? "Our spirit, that we are children of God." So at least somewhere in this passage, Paul is thinking about something called our spirit. So we've got our spirit and we've got the Holy Spirit. What I think happens is the moment you come to faith in Christ, you're a new creation. You have a new soul, a new spirit a new spiritual existence within you. And it will never die ever. It is alive. And why? Because of righteousness. Whose righteousness? Not yours. The righteousness of Jesus Christ given to you.

It had a beginning but it will have no end and it will survive death. It'll survive your last days in the hospital. It'll survive your funeral. It'll survive judgment day even. It'll go right on into glory. Amen! Hallelujah! The new spirit put in you will never die. It's life because of the righteousness, the gift of righteousness through Jesus Christ. And so it says in 2 Corinthians 4:16, "Therefore we do not lose heart." We don't get discouraged even though we age. Even though we lose capabilities. Even though we may even lose members of our body. Even though corruption is all around us and within us too. We are not getting discouraged. We do not lose heart. We knew it would happen. Though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly in the spirit we are being renewed day by day isn't that beautiful. We have this treasure in jars of clay. Don't beautify the jar of clay. I'm not saying, don't comb your hair. And put on nice clothes On Sunday do that, but I'm saying don't trouble yourself about the body too much. Keep it under control. Use it to serve God but realize that your future lies elsewhere. And there is a future. God has a future promise for your body.

Look at verse 11, "If the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies." Those death filled bodies… He is going to give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells you. God has not forgotten your body. He's not left it out of the picture. He created your body. He created the physical world and he has a future plan for it. It's called resurrection. And nobody but Jesus has this resurrection body right now. It's yet future but it's coming and it's promised to us we'll talk about it more later in this chapter not now. But it's here in this verse and without question as promised look at verse 23, "Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption of sons, to the redemption of our bodies." So you're going to be groaning inwardly, but you're going to be waiting eagerly with hope for your resurrection body and it's going to come.

Well so then what look at verse 12 we're going to live up to our new identity so then as a result of all this doctrine all that's teaching we are under obligation. We're debtors , we owe something. There's an ought or I should do to this Christian life, isn't there? We owe Christ everything. We must live up to our obligations. Now I want to make it caution here. This is not, you should never think that you're mortifying or putting sin to death is somehow paying Jesus back for the blood he shed for You. You can never pay that back and you should not think of yourself paying him back. Your good deeds none of them should be thought of as paying Jesus back for what he did. You can't. You never will, just accepted by grace, it's a gift. But the obligation is different, it's a sense of ought, a sense of ownership. He is your lord, you should obey him. There's a warning here isn't there?

It says, if you live according to the flesh you must die, but if by the spirit you are in the business of putting sin to death, you will live. You have no obligation to the flesh, none, you owe it nothing. Isn't that beautiful? You owe sin nothing. You owe the devil nothing. He has no authority over you so you can say to sin, no I'm dead to that sin. Sin shall not be your master because you're not under law but under grace, Romans 6. Now we have the power of the spirit to say no. It is the spirit that stands behind our saying no to temptation. We owe the flesh nothing, but we owe Christ everything. And so, therefore, he comes to us as a commander and he commands that we should put sin to death by the spirit. Now the command is just implicit here, it's explicit in Colossians 3:5; "Put to death therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature." And how do we do it? We do it by the power of the spirit. Daily life in step with the Spirit. The Spirit leads, you follow. The Spirit prompts, you respond. The Spirit commands and you'll obey.

Moment by moment by moment you put sin to death. That's how it happens. We could and should spend hours on this. I actually believe that this is a fitting topic for Sunday evenings in depth, how to put sin to death. I'm being led now and probably that's what I'm going to do. We need to follow the Spirit's lead, we need to feel the Spirit's passions. When the Spirit is rejoicing in us, we need to rejoice too. When the Spirit is grieved with us, we need to grieve, mourn and wail and change our laughter to mourning and our joy to gloom and repent. We need to keep in step with the Spirit as he leads us to holiness. We need to go to war, brothers and sisters. When sin leaves you alone, then you can leave sin alone. Recently some friends gave us some betta fish. Have you ever heard of the betta fish? Beta fish are beautiful fish that have the proclivity of hating each other and fighting each other to the death until there's only one left. And so this was an unusual little tank that had these compartments and they're beautiful and they swim around but they can't get at each other so they survive and they go on. There's a barrier between the two. Well, that's a good paradigm of the flesh, the sin nature and the Holy Spirit.

They will never be friends. You can't sin and say "now Holy Spirit, let's sit down and see if you can work this out. Let's see if there can be some kind of reconciliation here between the two of you. You seem to have a difference, you seem to hate each other. Is there something that can be worked out?" No, there is nothing that can be worked out. They will be at war until it's over. Owen put it this way, in terms of walking down the street. You walk down the street or path and you see a viper and the viper sees you. Then you begin to engage the viper with a stick. You begin to see this is a strong viper and very quick, quicker than you thought, they can move. "Say listen, I'm actually sorry that I talked to you, I'm sorry I interacted with you, I would like to you leave you alone now. I would like to walk the other way and you go your way and we will just part." Is that going to happen? No. If you turn your back and start walking, you will die. You must kill that snake or it will kill you and so it is with sin. And the Holy Spirit convinces you that what I'm saying is true. You can have no separate peace with sin. There can be no white flag, no surrender. You have to go to war. The Holy Spirit has come to give you the power. Be strong then in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God and take your stand and fight, there's no other way. John Bunyan pointed out there's no armor for the back side by the way. No armor for the retreating coward, just for standing firm and fighting sin.

Now what is our application? Simply first, understand your position. We've talked about it, who are you? Are you in the Spirit or are you in the flesh? If you're in the flesh, you are lost, you're under condemnation. If you're in the Spirit, you can do the things that I've been talking about today. You have the power and the authority to put sin to death. You have the indwelling Spirit. Therefore, understand not so much your power, understand the power of the Holy Spirit within you. Understand your future, your promised inheritance. You know what's beautiful? Romans 8:1 tells you the outcome of the journey. In the end you will win. In the end there will be no condemnation. In the end you will triumph and be victorious. You will be glorious, you will win in the end. So therefore, fight now. Understand these things.

I want to finish by just taking you briefly through a day led by the Spirit. Tomorrow morning, it's Monday morning. The alarm wakes at 5:30, wakes you. 5:30, maybe even 5:00 because you need a quiet time. What happens when that alarm rings an hour and a half earlier than you're used to setting it? Your flesh groans and says, "No way." But the Holy Spirit said, "Yes way, get out of bed." And so you pray and ask for help. The next thing you know you're on your feet. You go and you shower and shake the cobwebs out and whatever it takes and you go to begin your Bible study. You open up the Bible and you begin to read. Your mind is drifting and wandering, you want to just get through it, get through it, the chapter, get it done. The Holy Spirit says, dig deep, meditate, take time. Your flesh is lazy. But the Holy Spirit says meditate, chew over each phrase and so you do. And you pray, "Lord open my eyes that I might see wonderful things in your law." And so you read, and when you get done you've learned some things.

And God has spoken to you, and given you so marching orders for the day. And at that moment, your flesh wants to take that information and throw it out the door. Right? Wants you to be a hearer of the word only, and not a doer of the word. So instead you're going to say, "By the power of the Spirit, I want to do these things today. I'm asking for your help. Move in me, work in me." And so the Spirit moves, that you obey what you read. Then you get dressed, and you sit down and eat breakfast. And you have your breakfast, and there's that second donut, or maybe some third donut. And you're saying, "Hmm... Flesh wants it," Spirit says, "You've eaten enough, maybe even too much," and so there's a war, a struggle. Put sin to death. You say, "No, this is over eating, it's sin, I won't do it." Get in the car and start driving and your flesh wants to listen to the talk radio station, or secular radio, or whatever it is that your flesh wants, and the Spirit says, "Why don't you begin praying for your work day? Why don't you go in ready for your work day, that you might be able to witness for me today. Pray for your co-workers, pray for your boss, pray for yourself to work." "Ahhh... Alright, I'll pray." And so you follow the lead of the Spirit.

You get into work, you start your work day, coffee break comes around and you see a coworker and the coworker says to you, "How are you doing?" "I'm doing well, how are you?" "Well, I'm not doing too well, I'm having some problems at home." Well you know that this is a tailor-made opportunity to listen, to show some love, maybe even begin a Christian witness with this person. And the Spirit prompts you to be bold, to say something about Christ, and your flesh says, "No way am I going to do that. They're going to think I'm a Bible thumper, they're going to think I'm a religious fanatic." And so you don't share. And the coffee break ends, you go back to your office or whatever, and then the Spirit gets busy on other side, and starts to convict you, and says, "You know, you missed an opportunity there, and I'm grieved about that, and so I want you to be grieved too." And so you say, "I'm grieved, I'm sorry, and I confess that to you sin." And the Spirit assures you that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse you of all sin. And you resolve at that moment that you're going to be more open to witnessing opportunities.

Well guess what? At lunch time that same person's sitting alone. Sitting alone! And the Spirit prompts you and says, "Go over and sit there." Just like he did with Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch. "Go over and sit there, and talk to him." And this time you're ready, and you say, "Okay, I will." And you go sit, you listen for awhile, and then the moment comes to say something for Christ, and you do. By the Spirit. You put you own fleshly desires to death, and you say something about Jesus to that person. Invite them to church. They're interested, it's the best witnessing opportunity you've had in ages.

Well, lunch is over, you go back, about an hour later your lunch starts to hit you, the blood is all working on your food, and you get sluggish and sleepy. You know what I'm talking about? And you can't really work, and you're working on a report for your boss, it's due in two weeks, you're ahead of schedule anyway, and you're tempted to be lazy and to laze around, and the Spirit says, "Come on, whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord, not with eye service, like people are watching but do it as you're offering it up in worship to me."

And that's how your day ends. You go home, your spouse greets you and says, "Where's the orange juice, and milk, and other stuff I asked you to get?" "I'm sorry. I forgot." And there starts to be one of those communications that happens sometimes. Not with me of course, I want you to know that, that never happens with us. But it may happen in your marriage. And so, your pride starts to rise. It starts to rise, and as it rises the Spirits says, "Put sin to death, don't be prideful." And say, "I'm sorry, I forgot I'm going to go back out." And so the day ends with you setting your alarm clock, and what time do you set it for? Same time as yesterday. That's a day with the Spirit. I've skipped a lot of stuff, but that's what the Spirit's calling you to do. Keep in step with Spirit and put sin to death, and walk with him day by day.

Andy Davis preaches an expositional sermon on Acts 4:29-31 as well as other passages in Acts. The focus of the sermon is the spiritual gifts of miracles, speaking in tongues, and prophecy. 

Well, we just began last week as we continue our study of spiritual gifts to look at the topic of the so-called sign gifts, the miracles, signs and wonders, also speaking in tongues and prophecy. And so, I would like to make some headway into consideration of these things tonight. We began looking, talking about the miracles that Jesus did and then at the apostolic ministry. And so, we're going to be moving through the book of Acts tonight and we're going to start with miracles. We're going to talk about miracles and then look at speaking in tongues and prophecy. And we'll just get as far as we can tonight to try to understand these things.

We saw last week, and this is the verse that is on my mind tonight as I begin, our God is a mighty, powerful, wonder-working God. And He hasn't changed at all. He's still the same, absolutely. And the kingdom of God is still the same, isn't it? The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. Amen?

[Audience speaks]

And what it means is I can talk and we can talk, but that doesn't mean anything. What matters is the transforming power of God. He changes things. He comes into a situation and it's different because he was there. Whether it's a dead person, a sick person, or somebody with some infirmity as seen in all these miracles or even more in someone who's dead in their transgressions and sins with absolutely no interest in spiritual things, absolutely no interest whatsoever, and then suddenly they become a Christian. And that is a miracle. It is absolutely a miracle. If you understand conversion properly, it's a miracle. It only happens by the direct action of God through the foolishness of preaching. So the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power. When He comes into a situation, it's different. He transforms it. But the study before us tonight is the question, "Does God still do the same kinds of miracles? Does he have the same kinds of gifts active today that Paul listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, gifts of healing, gifts of speaking in tongues, gifts of prophecy?" And that's what we're studying tonight.

Now we began to look at it last week, but I'd like to ask that you turn to Acts 4. We finished last week looking briefly at Acts 3. Now you remember that Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer, and they healed the man who had been crippled and had been there for a long time and everyone knew him, and God did just a mighty miracle there through them. And as usual, we see a regular pattern that in the book of Acts that these miracles immediately led to opportunities to preach the gospel, immediately. Crowds would gather, people were interested, they were stunned and amazed, couldn't believe what they'd seen. And immediately, whatever apostle was there would seize the opportunity and preach the gospel. Whether it's here in Acts 3 or later on in Paul and Barnabas's missionary journeys, they would heal somebody and immediately a crowd would gather and they would preach the gospel, and people would hear and they would believe.

Well, as we go on in Acts 4, if you look at verse 29-31, after Peter and John were released, they went back. They had been threatened, do you remember, that they should not preach the gospel anymore. And that threat is absolutely ineffective to a true servant of God. You can't tell him to stop. He's only going to be emboldened by that. It's the wrong thing to do if you want to shut them up. They get excited. They say, "There's some persecution, some opposition, we must be doing something." And so, off they go. And so what do they do? They go back to their people and they gather them together for prayer. And I tell you what, in our corporate prayer life, I would love to have prayer meetings like they have at the end of chapter four of Acts, incredible. If you look at this, they assemble them together, verse 23, 4:23,

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God, “Sovereign Lord,” and they said, “you made the heaven and the earth, the sea and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nation's rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand. The rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you had anointed. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen. Now, Lord,"

And this is so beautiful; they're threatened with arrests, with imprisonment, with persecution if they continue to preach. Are they going to get quieter? Are they going to get a little more, "We need to back burner this thing for a little while"? Absolutely not. This is exactly the time to move forth with great boldness and that's what they pray for. Look at verse 29. "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness." Isn't that marvelous? "Consider the threats. Consider the fact that we're going to be in prison. We might lose our lives even. And consider our weakness. We're just flesh and blood. We're tempted by these things to shut up so that we don't continue preaching. And so please, in the light of their threats, enable us to speak with great boldness." Isn't that remarkable that they considered their own boldness to be an act of God? And it is. It's an act of the Holy Spirit. You don't have this kind of boldness without God working and moving. "Consider their threats and enable your servants to speak with great boldness." And then they ask this, "Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant, Jesus." Well again, the context of that is the miracle that Peter and John had done, and they saw the outcome of that was a great opportunity to witness. A huge crowd had gathered and they say, "Let's do it some more. Do it again, Lord. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders to glorify your servant, Jesus." And then, verse 31, "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." Now that verse, 4:31, pray that for our church's corporate prayer meetings. We pray on Sunday morning at 9:00, from 9:00-9:30. We pray on Wednesday nights from 6:00-6:30. We've prayed periodically on Friday evenings, and never has anything like this happened in any of the meetings I've been at at this church. We've had some good prayer meetings, but nothing like this. And so, they asked for boldness and power. And the Lord responded in a mighty way, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they spoke the word of God boldly. They got the very thing that they'd asked for. You should pray that for yourself. If you want to be a witness, say, "Lord, I'm a wimp. I'm weak. I'm afraid of my reputation, people's opinion of me. I want to be a witness. Send your Spirit. Move in me that I might be bold, that I might speak the truth to people who need to hear it. Give me a chance to lead someone to Christ." So that's not... Well, it is a miracle, as I said earlier, if you could lead somebody to Christ, not that it would be a miracle for you to open your mouth and speak, although you might think that would be a miracle if I'm going to really witness. But I'm saying that we should pray for boldness and we should be about the master's business. "As the Father has sent me, even so I'm sending you." Hasn't he given us a Commission? And if you lack the boldness, ask for it and he'll give it.

But along with it comes this prayer and request for miracles. And so, that prayer was also answered. Look over in chapter 5:12. Now you know what happened in verses 1-11. Chapter 5:1-11 is the story of Ananias and Sapphira, which is miraculous enough, but no one worked that miracle. I guess Peter saw it coming, but it was God who did the church discipline. That's a clear example of church discipline. Don't lie on your tax return. All right? Be faithful with your finances. Ananias and Sapphira dropped down dead at the hand of the Lord. That was church discipline, and God did it in a mighty way. But then it continues in chapter 5:12,

The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon's Colonnade. And no one else dared to join them even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that it at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns of around Jerusalem bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and [look at this] all of them were healed.

That's incredible.

Now, the inquiry before us tonight is, is that kind of thing still happening? Huge quantities of people, demon-possessed, et cetera, and just Peter's shadow falling. Now we don't know if there was any correlation between Peter's shadow and anyone being healed. It doesn't say so, but there was an expectation that it might at least, because of all the miracles that God was doing. But interestingly, look who he's doing them through. Who is he working through at that point? It's the apostles, right? The apostles perform great signs and miracles. And Paul is going to say later on, 2 Corinthians 12:12, don't turn there, it will take too long, but just listen. He says of his own ministry, 2 Corinthians 12:12, "The things that mark an apostle, namely signs, wonders, and miracles, were done among you with great perseverance." You hear that? "The things that mark an apostle," what does that mean? Well, it means that apostles did signs and wonders and miracles. And also, it was a marking on them in that you can't assume that they were done widely by all Christians. Does that make sense? If they were done widely by all Christians, it wouldn't be much of a marking. You'd really say then, "The things that mark a Christian were done among you." Do you see what I'm saying? And so, I think it's pretty clear that this ability to do miraculous signs and wonders and all that was not universally or generally spread among all Christians, but rather, it elevated the apostles in particular at that point, so that Paul says, "The things that mark and apostle, namely signs, wonders, and miracles, were done among you with great perseverance."

You see another example of it, if you can just take a minute and look at Hebrews 2. He talks about it there, the author to Hebrews. We'll go back to Acts in a minute. But what I'm trying to do is lay a foundation that these miracles were at least in part, of course, they were to show the mercy and the grace and the love and compassion of God. That must always be said. When a miracle of healing or something supernatural like this happens, it is demonstrating the character and the nature of God: his love, his mercy, his compassion. But it's more than that, isn't it? Just as they identified Jesus as the Son of God, so that the signs were evidence of the deity of Christ, John 5, so these signs and wonders were evidence that the apostles were carrying on that ministry. You see that? So that there was an elevation of the apostles in particular, so that people would hear and believe their message and understand that they were speaking authoritatively from Jesus Christ.

Look at chapter 2 of Hebrews, verse 1. It says, "We must pay more careful attention therefore to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" So he is saying that we've got to pay attention to the gospel. We must pay actually more careful attention to the gospel. And that is true today, isn't it? We need to think again and pay more careful attention to the message that we've believed. That's why we're going through Romans the way we are, and we could go a lot more slowly, so those of you that are wondering. Really, there's always more careful attention we could pay to the gospel message and with good effect. We could spend that time profitably. So we must pay more careful attention to this gospel message so that we don't just drift away. But then he goes on and he says, "This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord was confirmed to us by those who heard him." Now who is that referring to? A message first preached by the Lord, confirmed to us by those who heard him. Who would that be? That's got to be the apostles, the ones that Christ had gathered around him to be eyewitnesses of the things that He'd done. They were like little camcorders, all right? Observing, not understanding, but they were just taking it in. They were seeing and hearing but not getting it. And then later, the Spirit would bring it back to their memory with explanation, with understanding so that they could write the gospels and preach, you see? But they just were there. In effect, Jesus is saying, "You don't understand now. You'll get it later. Just take it in now." Like the foot washing, remember? "You don't understand now what I'm doing. Later on, you'll understand." So they were taking it in. They were eyewitnesses. They were preaching what they had seen and heard and handled with their hands. The apostles, I think, it's a good way to understand that. And then, he goes on from there, verse 4, "God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will." So we're talking about these spiritual gifts and we're talking also about signs, wonders, and various miracles. So God is just sprinkling in these miracles along with the preaching of the gospel by the apostles. And so, there's just a whole atmosphere or climate during that first apostolic era of miracles done by the apostles.

But they weren't just done by the apostles. Now you look at Acts 6, going back in Acts now, in chapter 6 we are going to meet this man named Stephen. "Stephen was a man full of God's grace and power," it says, Acts 6. He was one of the original seven. It doesn't say that he was a deacon. I know we traditionally called them deacons, and that's all right because the verb there, to serve, is there. But they were the seven. They were the ones that were set apart to minister to the Greek-speaking widows who are being overlooked in the daily distribution of food, right? And so, Stephen was one of them, and a great one he was, just a tremendous example of a servant of God. And it says in 6:8, if you're all there, you look, it says, "Now, Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people." Do you see that? So Stephen is also a miracle worker and he is not in any way an apostle. As a matter of fact, his ministry is to free the apostles up so that they could preach the Word and pray. But yet, he could preach, too. He did some amazing preaching in Acts 7; maybe one of the greatest sermons in the whole Bible is Stephen's sermon in Acts 7. So he was a great man of God, understood the Word, understood what God was doing, a fierce debater. You'd never want to take him on, you'd lose. Incredible man, and God anointed him to do these miracles.

But it wasn't just him, it was also Philip, if you look at Acts 8:5-6, Acts 8:5-6, it says, "Philip went down to a city in Samaria." I'll start at verse 4. Let me start at verse 4. "Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went." They were scattered by the persecution and connection with Saul, of course. Saul began to destroy the church after Stephen was killed. And so, they got scattered, and it says, "Those..." Let me go back. Yeah. I'm sorry, going back one more, it says, "On that day, a great persecution broke out against the church of Jerusalem. And all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." It's very important, the apostles stay there, but everybody else is scattered to the four winds. Providence of God, he's the one who decides who stays where and who gets scattered. You'd think it would be the apostles especially who would be scattered, but they stayed there and the others were scattered. And then, in verse 4, "Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went. Philip," who was clearly not an apostle, "went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there." Verse 6, "When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many and many paralytics and cripples were healed, so there was great joy in that city." So it's a tremendous ministry that Philip's doing down there, and again, the theme of the combination of the doing of miracles and the clear proclamation of the gospel. The Samaritans are just taken in by this and they're amazed at the power that Philip had, and they listened to the gospel, they listened to what he said. And of course, you know the next story about Simon the Sorcerer who was so interested in Philip's power, he wanted some of that power to do those miracles. And eventually, it's Peter that rebukes him over that very issue.

So we see that it was not simply the apostles, but also Stephen and Philip who were set apart to do these miracles. But again, realize they could not have been universally being done by everybody or else they wouldn't be noteworthy. Do you understand that? If it was just a river of miracles done by all Christians all the time, then these would not have been noteworthy. But they were noteworthy. They were set apart for mention, specifically in the book of Acts.

And then, you get the apostle Paul. In Acts 9:17-18, we have the story of Ananias going to the house of Judas on Straight Street and he is there to minister to Saul. Now Saul has been three days fasting and praying and seeking the Lord after his Damascus road vision. So in Acts 9:17-18, Ananias goes and he places hands on Saul and he says, "Brother Saul, the Lord, Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." So he was blind. Remember how he was blinded by the vision and couldn't see all that time? And so, Ananias is sent to perform a miracle on him. And placing his hands on Saul, he says this. And in verse 18, "Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes and he could see again. He got up and was baptized." So that's a miraculous conversion story, isn't it? It's a miraculous vision of the resurrected Christ. And then, it's three days of blindness and then Ananias miraculously heals his eyesight as these scales fall from him.

Well, that's just the beginning. Paul then starts an incredible apostolic ministry of miracles, one miracle after another. Like Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:12, "The things that mark an apostle, signs, wonders and miracles," listen, "were done among you with great perseverance." What do you think that means? "I did lots of miracles, lots and lots, and for a long time." He was in Corinth a long time. And so, over a long period of time they saw Paul doing one miracle after another. In Galatians, he speaks, in Galatians 3:5, "Does God give you his spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard?" Well, obviously, it's because they believe what they heard. But the point I'm making here is God did miracles among them. That was in Galatia now. And then, he says also in Romans 15:17-19, "Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done, by the power of signs and miracles through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ." So he basically did miracles everywhere he went. And by the power of God and the power of signs and wonders, he carries on his ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. So he's got all of these miracles going on.

Now look at Acts 14:1-4. This is a prime example of one of those miracles. "At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual in into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there speaking boldly for the Lord who confirmed the message of his grace." That's a key phrase, isn't it? "Confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. The people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles." So there is an example of this kind of apostolic miracle-working ministry. He's there to preach. That's their reason for being there. But God was doing more than that, wasn't he there? He was doing also these signs and wonders. And Luke, through Acts, and inspired by the Holy Spirit says that, "it was God who did it in order to confirm the message of his grace." And so, people today who would say, "We don't need miracles anymore because we have such great preaching and we've got the word of God and all that," listen. You don't do any better preaching than Paul and Barnabas did there. They spoke so effectively, it says, that a great number believed. You're not going to get any better preaching. And yet, it was augmented by these miracles. And so, it's not in any way a lack of the preaching. We know what Romans 10 says, that faith comes by hearing the message. And they knew it, too. Paul knew it, sure he did. Of course, he knew that faith comes from hearing the message. But God was doing more than that at that point. And so, he was confirming the message. But again, the key is to understand just the relationship, the priority of the preaching over this. And also it's interesting, it says, "He enabled them to do miraculous signs and wonders." And so, that's Barnabas included in that. It wasn't just Paul. And Barnabas is not an apostle.

And then, you get the same thing in Acts 14. You remember the man crippled in his feet in Lystra. He was lame from birth and had never walked. And it says in verse 9, 14:9, "He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him," and very interestingly, "saw he had faith to be healed, and called out to him, 'Stand up on your feet.'" So I don't know how he knew that. It couldn't just be a facial expression. I think it really would have to have been a testimony by the Spirit to Paul. "This man has faith to be healed, move." And so, he healed him. Now you remember what happened as a result. They wanted to worship them. Remember, they called Paul, Hermes and Barnabas was Zeus. And it's kind of interesting because Hermes is the messenger and all that and maybe a physically smaller god. And so, I think Paul was short of stature and maybe Barnabas a little bit bigger and looked like Zeus, I guess, carried himself like Zeus. Who can say. But they believed that they were the incarnation of some Greek gods. So miracles do not always have the intended effect. It's not that everybody believes because they see this miracle. But they did them.

Now we could go on and just show one after the other, Acts 19, "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick." Let me tell you something. I know that this kind of thing goes on these days. All you have to do is send a contribution to a ministry and they will send a handkerchief or something that's been prayed over and it will have healing power. But at the same time, this is what the word of God says. These handkerchiefs and aprons had touched Paul and they were taken and God did these amazing miracles. And all the way to the end of Acts 28, when he is waiting for his trial after the shipwreck, they landed on an island. Do you remember that? And in Acts 28:8-9, speaking of the lead official on the island, it says, "His father was sick in bed suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him, and after prayer placed his hands on him and healed him. When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured." So there's just again, one of these sweeping statements made in the gospels and then in Acts of huge numbers of people that are healed, but just one sentence is given to it in the Scripture.

So a flowing or a river of miracles happening, but yet not everyone was healed. It's important to know that. The best glimpse we have about that is in 2 Timothy 4. And you don't have to turn there, but at the end in verse 20, Paul is just finishing his business. This is the end of his life, and he's talking about bringing scrolls that he left with Carpus at Troas, and other things are going on. It's just one of those closing things, really give full attention to those closing chapters in Paul's letters, there's always little details in there that are worth studying. And he says this, "Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus." What does that tell you? Well, he didn't heal him. Do you think he prayed for him to be healed? Well, certainly he did. And understand God's intention here. It was never God's intention to banish illness and death from this present age. We talked about that this morning. The essence of the present age we're in is that the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life or alive because of righteousness. And he's not going to take that sentence off from us. That got put on way back at the garden, remember? "The day you eat of that tree, you will surely die. The wages of sin is death." And so, even Lazarus died again, didn't he? After dying once and raised again, he died again. And so we're still under that. It is not the purpose of God to banish illness, sickness, and death from this present world order. In 1 Corinthians 15, it says, "The final enemy to be defeated is [what?] death.” Not the middle enemy, the final enemy. And so, we are going to be struggling with death to the end. Do you understand that? To the very end, we're going to be struggling with death.

Now by the way, people say, "I wish we would be that final generation." Really? Have you read what that's going to be like in the book of Revelation? Wouldn't it be easier just to die? You look at it, and think, "I wish... I want to be the..." I'm telling you, you're going to have to earn it, to go through all of the things. Now people say, "Well, the Lord's going to rapture us out." We won't even get into that tonight. We've got enough controversial stuff to go over tonight. But the thing is, we have to deal with sickness and death right to the end. And the Lord is not going to remove that any more than he removed the serpents in Numbers, but instead erected a bronze serpent that they should look at, that the illness should be dealt with that way.

And so, we have all these miracles. And then finally, look at James 5, and this is a lasting, I think, ordinance for the church dealing with sickness and healing. And it says, "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. The Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other." I'm in James 5:14-18, verse 16, "Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again, he prayed, and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced its crops." So this is a tremendous encouragement to us to pray with faith for sick people. And I think many Christians can testify to the effectiveness of this kind of prayer. And I think we must pray believing, not doubting like it says in James 1, "lest we be like the man who's tossed back and forth." We are praying to a God who's fully capable of doing the thing we're going to ask, fully capable of it. And so, we should pray and ask for what we want.

And so, this kind of healing goes on and continues. And we should, as a church, pray faithfully for sick people, but realize that sickness and death are not going to be banished in this present era. I do not believe that "by his stripes we are healed" means that we should be disease and death-free if we are truly believing people. I think that is wrong. I think it's a false teaching. But rather, we should pray and commit the matter to God. If you look in the Book of Acts, the miracles always came at God's initiative anyway, didn't they? They were done by the power of the Holy Spirit, at his initiative, as he moved out.

There are also, however, false miracles, weren't there? And there's a whole history of false miracles in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 13, it says, "If a prophet or one who foretells by dreams appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder which he has spoken does take place, and he says, 'Let us follow other gods,' gods you have not known, 'and let us worship them,' you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and all your soul." Isn't that remarkable? Even if somebody comes and works miracles among you, even if he comes and works miracles, if he tells you to follow another God, then don't listen to him. I think that Deuteronomy is an incredibly, especially Deuteronomy 13 and then 18, talking about the prophet, made it really, really a challenge for the Jews to accept Jesus. You see? Because he did these miracles and he seemed to be preaching a triune God, one that it seemed they were not prepared to accept. And yet, God judged them for their unbelief. Remarkable. But it says here, "If anybody comes, even if they do miracles, if they announce a god you do not know, then do not follow him." And then, Jesus himself said in Matthew 7:22-23, "Men will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name, drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers.'" Now it doesn't say they really did the miracles, but they're going to make the claim, and so it's possible that they did. It's possible that they did. And yet, he's going to say to them, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers."

And then, all the more speaking about the anti-Christ and the end of the world, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, take a look at that if you would. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12. It says, "The coming of the lawless one," that's the anti-Christ, "will be in accordance with the work of Satan, displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth, but have delighted in wickedness." Wow, is there a lot of truth in that passage. Even about the sovereignty of God and what he's doing by sending these false miracles as a test to confirm their unbelief, really. But the point is that the anti-Christ, the man of sin in this passage, we link it together with the other passages that speak of a future anti-Christ to come. And so, I think that's valid to do, and also the beast in Revelation 13. He's going to do miracles. He's going to do extraordinary things. And so, the Deuteronomy 13 test is going to be in effect. If he comes and does miracles and yet preaches a false god, don't believe him. Don't follow. And so, Revelation 13:13-14, it says of the beast, "He performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs, he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast; he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. He ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lives." So this is speaking of a future time, the end of the world, when the anti-Christ will do false miracles, miracles not coming from the Holy Spirit.

All right. That's the biblical data on miracles. What shall we make of it? Well, first of all, we have to see that the miracles were given to exalt Jesus Christ. The biblical miracles, the Godly miracles, the gift of the Holy Spirit miracles were given for the purpose of exalting Christ, not for the purpose of exalting the miracle doer. And that should be true of all spiritual gifts, as you can well understand. Your gift is not to elevate yourself, but rather to exalt Christ who gave the gift. So the miracles were done to exalt Christ. But there was also, as we've seen, a tremendously close relationship between the miracles and the preaching of the gospel. And the best connection you can ever find is that the miracles provide a great platform for the preaching of the gospel. Is it possible for the gospel to succeed, to advance, to be powerful, to be dramatic, to run and do well without miracles? Is that possible? Yes, it is. And it actually seems to be the normal course of events. It's the normal way that things work. For the most part, God uses these normal means to do his supernatural work of spiritual regeneration.

Have you ever wondered after Jesus walked on water, why he got in the boat? Think about it. Why did Jesus get in the boat? He didn't need the boat. No, but we do, and we usually will. Even if we're Peter walking on water, we need to get back in the boat, right? The boat is God's normal way of getting a human being across water. And for the most part, the God who made the physical world we live in is going to be working through these natural means. And he can do His work, the advance of the gospel, without the miracles.

But my question to you today, is there any word in scripture that you can point to that definitively ends these kinds of miracles, signs, and wonders? Can you prove and say, "This verse confirms, once and for all, that these kinds of things cannot happen today"? I don't think so. But I would hesitate on this one issue. And that is there seems to also have been a strong connection between the miracles and the apostolic ministry. And so what's the answer? I don't know. I do know this, James 5 remains, doesn't it? And James 5 enables us to pray for anything we want, believing, because God has promised, according to James 5, "Is anyone sick," it doesn't even say what the sickness is, "let him call the elders of the church," elders plural, that's another study for another day. But anyway, "let him call the elders of the church to anoint him with oil and pray over him. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well." Next verse, "The Lord will raise them up." Not your prayer. It's not you, it's the Lord raising them up. So you can pray for anything you want and see what the Lord does.

And so, are these gifts of miracles and healing still operative today? I see no verse directly that says that they are not. I'm cautioned by the fact that they seem to be so intimately connected to the apostles, but we've seen with Philip and Stephen that they were not only connected to the apostles. And so therefore, I don't know. But go and pray for sick people and continue to preach the gospel. Obviously, we're out of time, and so God willing, we'll have to look at tongues and prophecy next time.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on 1 Corinthians 12 with a focus on spiritual gifts. This sermon is part of a series on the topic of spiritual gifts.

I'd like to ask, if you would, to take your Bibles and open to 1 Corinthians 12. We're going to start there, but we're really going to be moving around in the New Testament quite a bit. As I alluded to in my prayer, we're going to be looking, God willing, this week and next week at the so-called sign gifts or the supernatural gifts. And I hesitate even to put that name to it because if something is in fact a gift of the Holy Spirit, it is by definition supernatural. A gift of the Spirit is not a natural ability. It's not a talent. It's not a proclivity. It's a gift from God by the power of the Spirit that you can be involved in building the church. It is a supernatural thing by definition or it's not a spiritual gift.

But I think you know what I mean when I talk about these types of gifts that cause people really to sit up and take notice. We're talking about miracles, signs, and wonders. We're talking about speaking in tongues, talking about prophecy and those types of gifts. And so this week I'd like to zero in specifically on miracles and see what we can learn about that, and God willing, next week look into prophecy and tongues.

Look at 1 Corinthians 12:7, it says, 

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speak in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one just as he determines. 

And then look down at verse 27,

Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. And in the church, God has appointed, first of all, apostles, second, prophets, third, teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But eagerly desire the greater gifts.

And so we have in these two sections in 1 Corinthians 12 some listing of spiritual gifts. And in the middle of it are some things that we may not be directly familiar with. Things like workers of miracles, speaking in tongues and prophecy, interpretation of tongues, and these things. And when I read through these lists the first time, you'll notice that I kind of conveniently skipped over them and didn't discuss them much. And you're wondering why did I do that? And I think it's because they merit a dedicated study, a careful look that we might understand what is going on.

Now I have myself a kind of a long history of interest in these things and you probably have your own story to tell. But when I was overseas in Kenya, there was a man there who was brought in to do some of the instruction to our group. It was a group of college students and I had just graduated from college, but I was included. And we had some teaching times in addition to the ministry that we did. This man was a native Kenyan. He also had studied in America and had a PhD from the University of Minnesota. I don't know what his field of study was, but he was a very intelligent, a well-educated man, a native of Kenya, I think from the Kikuyu tribe. And he came and instructed on various things. And at one point he alluded to a story in which he personally had been involved in raising a woman from the dead who had been dead for two days. Now, as I heard that story, I thought, this is an interesting problem, isn't it? As you come to this description, you can either do one of two things. You can either accept his story at face value and say that God did a mighty miracle through him, or you can call him a liar. There really no third option. Isn't that the case? Because he described the story in great detail. He told about the anguish in terms of the family and then the joy that happened after that. And there was nothing about this man that would lead me to believe that he was a liar. And as I started to do research on other aspects of missions just as I was preparing to be a missionary, I ran across numerous stories from the mission field of these kinds of things. And you've heard about what I'm talking about, miraculous healings, signs and wonders, things done in incredible ways around the world. And I started getting interested in that.

I also was personally interested as my ministry in Kenya continued and I was thinking much about these things and we went from place to place and we were sharing the word of God with people. And as we did, we came to one particular village and one house and a woman was there with two of her children and she asked if she could bring out her other daughter to listen also to the Word. And the other daughter came and she was suffering from malaria and she had to be helped to the blanket. And she was well along, and actually it was a life-threatening situation. Many people in that part of the world die from malaria. And at that moment I was struck by her need and also the wrestling that I had done over healing and were we called to pray over her and pray for healing, and not just to pray those kind of prayers that you pray, you know what I'm talking about, but to actually trust God right there and then for a miraculous healing. And so I started searching my heart to know what to say, and the person asked, "Do you have a word from God for us and a word from Scripture?" And my partner, who was a Duke student, shared something vanilla, I thought. And when he was done, then the whole time I'm searching, I'm thinking, what kind of scripture could I use? And this scripture came to my mind. "The kingdom of heaven is not a matter of talk but of power." That's the Scripture that came to my mind. Why that Scripture of all Scriptures? I wanted something that I could do that would keep me in my box, keep me safe and secure. But this is the one that came to my mind, "The kingdom of heaven is not a matter of talk but of power." And I thought, "Wow, I don't want to give just talk, but I don't think the Word of God is just talk." I was of a divided mind. Well, we prayed those kind of prayers you pray. She did not get up and walk away and be healed immediately. We did pray for her healing. And I prayed in faith as it says in James that we must, but I did not see that woman healed, right there and then.

And so as I continued on in my ministry in Kenya, a few weeks later, I started talking to the Kenyan pastor that was ministering with us and talking to him a lot about these things, signs and wonders and miracles, and he seemed very nonplussed by it all. He said, "Yeah, that kind of thing happens. I've seen it myself." And I said, "Well, what are we to do?" I mean, he said, "As God leads you, pray. And as God heals, you rejoice." That was his answer. But I wasn't satisfied with that. And as we came to the next house, there was a young man, a teenager there who was crippled and was walking, leaning way over on a stick. It seemed like everywhere I turned, this issue was right in front of me. And we prayed for him in a quick way and then walked on and he walked on and I felt like there was this heavy rubber band between us. The further I walked, the more I felt there was unfinished business. And finally I just stopped and my partner kept walking and the Kenyan pastor kept walking and I was just stopped there. I couldn't move. And they turned back and said, "What are you doing?" Meanwhile, this young man, this teenager, had stopped way up the path himself and had turned back to us. And Steve, my partner, said, "Well, what do you want to do?" And I said, "I feel like God's leading that we should pray that he would be healed." And the pastor had no problem with that and started walking back. But Steve kind of rolled his eyes and said, "We already prayed for him." I said, "No, I mean, really, we need to pray." And so we walked back and meanwhile this young man had turned around and walked halfway back to where we were. It was very clear that God was bringing us back. And so we prayed and prayed that he would be healed, but we didn't see him healed at that moment. Nothing like you'd write in one of those biblical stories. You know what I'm talking about? And so from then on I started really wondering about this whole issue of miracles, healings, signs and wonders.

Now, some of you have heard of John Wimber. He is part of the Vineyard Ministry and actually, he's gone to be with the Lord. But he wrote a book called Power Evangelism and another book called Power Healing and he talks a great deal about signs and wonders and the effect on ministry. So I started to do what I think it is we need to do whenever we're concerned about something like this is research the Scriptures, dig into the Scriptures and see what they say. Try to find out. I began to wonder if there was something wrong with us in the West because we were hearing stories from all over the world, but we weren't seeing things happen here in this industrialized scientific country that we live in. Do we have an intellectualized faith? Are we missing things that God wants to do? And that's a question that I'm asking of the text and of myself. Have we quenched the Spirit? And that's the kind of thing that I'm wondering about.

Now for myself as a pastor, Paul said in his ministry, "I've not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole council of God's will." And this is clearly part of it, isn't it? And so I think it's important for us to try to understand spiritual gifts fully and that is impossible without considering what we call the miraculous. Now I'm going to be talking about miracles in general today. Now, how would you define a miracle? I define a miracle as an act of God which breaks the normal laws of the physical universe and in so doing demonstrates clearly his power, his presence, and his character. Let me read that again, a miracle is an act of God, which breaks the normal laws of the physical universe and in so doing demonstrates clearly his power, his presence, and his character. So therefore, by that definition, sorry to say, the birth of a newborn is not a miracle, okay? I know that we like to speak that way and it is an amazing act of God and all that he does, but it doesn't break the laws of physics. That's the way he has designed and ordered in the physical world that people are born. But a miracle would be where Jesus would walk on water, or feed 5,000 men plus women and children with five loaves and two fish, or where he speaks to Lazarus dead in the tomb for three days and says, "Come forth," and he comes forth. That's a miracle.

Now, what's at issue? The issue is not, “can God do miracles?” I would hope not. We know he can and no question about it. And the issue is clearly not did God do miracles in the Bible? We believe clearly he did. We believe that God acted. We take the scripture as a record, an accurate record of all the things that happened, and there's some pretty astonishing things that happen in the Bible, aren't there? The question is, do these miraculous gifts exist today? Could we actually say that someone, talking within the context of our study in spiritual gifts, has the gift of healing? You see what I'm saying? Does someone have the gift of miracles as Paul lists here in 1 Corinthians 12? Now that's the question before us. It's not even the question, “have you prayed for an aunt or a uncle or a relative or a friend and in a remarkable way, they were healed?” It's not that. The question is do you have the gift of healing or does someone in our church have it? Is someone in our church a worker of miracles according to this list? Now that's the question. I wonder if we're going to resolve it tonight, what do you think? I would love to be able to resolve it, but our goal is to gain a biblical understanding of the miraculous so that we will be fully useful to God in service to him, to try to turn to the Scriptures and fearlessly look at a controversial topic and try to understand it as best we can.

Now, as you look at the miracles in the Bible, when did the miracles occur? In the Old Testament. If you look at it, there are really clusters of miracles, aren't there? It really didn't spread out over the entire Old Testament history, but it really seemed to be clustered around certain times in Israel's history. For example, the time of the Exodus was a time of great miracles, wasn't it? You look at all the signs and wonders that God did through Moses, the things that he did in Egypt and demonstrated his power in the plagues especially, and then at the Red Sea, he demonstrated his power. We also saw God do amazing miracles through Moses in the desert as he made the manna come from heaven. And as he spoke to the rock and water flowed from the rock and there were miracles. And there were miracles in conjunction also with Joshua as they entered the Promised Land. As the Jordan River heaped up like there was a path between them, they walked across on dry ground. You remember that? And then the walls of Jericho fell down. All they did was just walk around them and they just cried out. This was a great miracle. And so there were these miracles clustered around the time of Exodus and the time of Joshua and the conquest of the Promised Land.

There were also miracles around the time of Elijah and Elisha and that time of conflict with Baal. You remember that? When there was a contest between Baal and God and Yahweh and the one who answered from heaven with fire, let him be seen to be God. And God did answer. And it wasn't just that, but also other miraculous things done, many of them through Elisha after Elijah left and went up to heaven in a whirlwind in a chariot of fire. You remember what Elisha prayed? He said, "Lord, give me a double portion of his spirit." And so really God did more miracles through Elisha than he did through Elijah. And so that was a time of miracles. And a third cluster of miracles occurred during the time of Daniel in exile. You remember with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the supernatural dreams and the way that God spoke in that way. And certainly Daniel in the lions' den. All of these things were miracles. And there were other from time to time, but the Old Testament miracles seemed to be in clusters.

But then along came Jesus and nobody has ever worked miracles like Jesus. Even the apostles did not work miracles the way that Jesus did. Jesus, what, for three years? I would say it's not too far to say that Jesus just about banished disease and demon possession from Palestine for three years. If you look at some of these summaries, they would talk about whole regions, the whole area around Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. They were all going to Jesus and all of them were healed, it said. That's all. I mean, you just read it very quickly, you don't realize the weight, the impact of what is said. Do you remember what John said at the end of John chapter 21, said, "You know something? If every story were told to the same depth that I told, for example, the healing of the blind man..." In John 9, "... the whole world would not be able to contain the accounts, but these are written so that you may believe." You remember that. And so we really couldn't even write all of the accounts. If you just followed even just one of those people and how they were healed and what went through it'd be one account after another. Jesus was a miracle worker such as there has never been before or since.

And why did Jesus do miracles? If you look at his miracles, they're not just any kind of display of supernatural power. I've talked about this before, but I think they really reveal the character and nature of God. A lot of the miracles are just restoration of what he originally intended in creation. A lot of it is really just a clear work of redemption, which he's buying us back out of the effects of sin, so often. I mean, he could have just, as I've said before, created pink and purple elephants and caused them to levitate and do somersaults in the air. And you can't do that, can you? And so if you saw Jesus do that, you'd be amazed, but it doesn't line up with what he's done. He was really in many cases just restoring creation and displaying it. People were not meant to be hungry, so he fed them. They were not meant to be blind, so he gave them sight. They were not meant to be dead, and so he raised them from the dead. He's just restoring back to the original creation order. I think also the miracles that Jesus did displayed in an incredible way, the parallel between human weakness and inability and Jesus' power. Now, we talked about this before, but it really does merit consideration. The blind man can't see, Jesus heals him so he can. The mute cannot speak and Jesus heals him so he can. The demon-possessed man cannot shake this supernatural demonic power; Jesus heals him so that he can be free. It's a picture of human can't and Jesus can again and again and again. And so they taught spiritual lessons, but Jesus did these miracles.

Now, as we look to the miracles, did those miracles produce conversions? Did they? I mean, if you watch one of Jesus' miracles, were you saved as a result? Not at all. As a matter of fact, you might even have received the miracle and still not be saved. You remember the man in John 5, I think it is, that's healed on the Sabbath, and remember he's been lying there all those years and Jesus heals him so that he can walk. He carries his mat and then the Pharisees see him and they ask him about his carrying of the mat, who healed him, et cetera. Jesus finds that man later. Remember what he says to him? He says, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse might happen to you." And you might ask, "What could be worse than 40 years of paralysis?" Well, eternity in hell is worse. And so just because he was physically healed did not mean that he was converted. And it was possible to look at the miraculous and not see it for what it was, to try to explain it away, "It is by the power of Beelzebub that he drives out demons," they would say. Or Lazarus giving a testimony to the fact that he was dead in the tomb for three days and rises up just at the word of Jesus, and what did the Pharisees try to do to Lazarus? Try to kill him. So the miracles did not produce faith, but they did produce a context for faith. Jesus said in John 5, "Even if you don't believe my testimony, believe the works I do." And so there was a significance- a saving significance to Jesus' miracles. Jesus had a miraculous entry into the world and a miraculous exit from the world, didn't he? He miraculously entered the world through a virgin birth, the incarnation, a supernatural miracle. And how did he leave the world? Do you remember? He broke the law of gravity. I mean, he's subject to the law of gravity as long as he chooses to. And then when he's done with the law of gravity, he simply elevates from the earth and he's gone. A cloud hid him from their sight. You see, God is not subject to the laws of the physical universe, is he? He can do anything he wants with what he's made. He can break those laws anytime.

Well, after Jesus came the apostles. Now, Jesus was already preparing the apostles for a supernatural ministry while he trained them. Do you remember? He sent them out two by two and they were able to do all these miraculous signs. He said, "Cure the sick, raise the dead, drive out demons, cure those who have leprosy. Freely you've received, freely give." And they went out and they did it and came back and they were just ecstatic. Remember, they were thrilled. "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" Do you remember what Jesus said at that point? He said, "Don't rejoice that the demons are subject in your name, but rather that your names are written in heaven. That's what you should rejoice in." That really puts miracles in perspective, doesn't it? The greatest thing that can happen to you is to be justified through faith in Jesus Christ. There's nothing greater, to have your name written in heaven in indelible ink, to know for sure that you're going to heaven. Jesus, in his way of thinking, nothing is greater than that. But he was preparing the apostles for miracles.

Now, look with me, if you would. We'll begin studying this. And golly, now, that's a miracle. We're in a time warp. It's four of seven. How did that happen? I only have eight more pages of notes here, so we'll get through that. Don't worry. Look at Acts 2. Let's just begin there. Acts 2:41 and following. This is after the Pentecostal sermon that Peter preached, and that itself was a miracle because of the speaking in tongues. We'll get to that, God willing, the next time that we look at it. Looks like not next time though, but the next time we discuss these things. But look at verse 41 and following, "Those who accepted Peter's message were baptized and about 3000 were added to their number that day." Verse 42, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Verse 43, "Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles." You see that? And so there's this flowing of miraculous signs through the apostles at this point. We don't know what they are. We just know that they're listed here. Probably healings and other things, maybe some feedings or some other things similar to what Jesus had done, not different than what Jesus had done. Some exorcism, driving out of demons by the power of the name of Jesus. We don't know. All we know is that many miraculous signs. But note that it says they were done by the apostles, and that is a recurring theme in the Book of Acts. I'm not saying that only apostles did miracles, but it is a recurring theme, as we'll see, that the apostles are singled out for this miraculous power.

Look at 3:1 and following,

One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now, a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going in the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave him his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Boy, wouldn't you love to do that? I mean, what joy. Not so that any glory would come to ourselves. Peter deflects that quickly, as we'll see in a minute. But just to bring joy, just to bring joy, the celebration, the power of God,

"In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God. When all the people saw him walking and praising God, they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 

Now, look what happens next. Verse 11, "While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade." This also is a regular theme in the Book of Acts, namely that the miracle gathers a huge crowd. And what do you think they do with the huge crowd? They preach. Every single time. The miracle would draw attention and the messengers would use the attention to preach the gospel. It happened time and time again. And so everybody's coming running. And then in verse 12, “When Peter saw this [I love this] he said to the men of Israel, ‘Why does this surprise you?’” Isn't that incredible? “Why should you be surprised at this? Why does this surprise you?” And then secondly, what does he say? "Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?" so vital when we're considering this idea of miracles. What is Peter saying there? "It is not my power that did this, and it's certainly not my godliness. If you have been with me just a short time ago, you would've seen me deny that I even knew Jesus. I'm a wretched, filthy sinner, but I'm saved by grace. It's not by my power and it is not by my godliness.” Well, what is it then? What does he say? "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant, Jesus." Another important point: the miracles glorified Jesus. They exalt the power of Jesus, and so it is not the vessel, it is not the individual. It is not you or me. It is the power of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob working through sinful people like you and me to glorify his servant Jesus. And to what end? Well, Jesus himself said it. Do you remember when Jesus looked at that crippled man that they lowered through the roof? They looked at him and he said, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Remember that? And they took offense and Jesus said, "Which is more difficult to say? 'Your sins are forgiven', or to say, 'Rise and walk?'" I've thought about that much. Which is more difficult. We've been through this before, haven't we? Which is more difficult? Everybody repeat after me: “Your sins are forgiven.” go ahead, say it. “Your sins are forgiven.” Good for you. Now say the second one, “Rise and walk.” Go ahead, say it. “Rise and walk.” Okay, which was harder? I guess you could count syllables or letters and find out which of the two. There's nothing to say it, but there's something to have power behind it. Do you see what I'm saying? To say it with authority. Now that's something. "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth..." What? "‘... to forgive sins.’ And he said to the cripple, 'Rise and walk.'" That's the point. So that we may preach the gospel so that all may know that Jesus has power to forgive sins. Now, that's the point. Doesn't that go back to the whole issue of what we should be joyful about in our lives? Don't rejoice that you could do miracles. Rejoice that your sins are forgiven. That's the issue. The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost, to forgive sins.

My question to you, as we close tonight, we're going to have to resume this next time, is there not still a place for this today? That's what I'm asking.

[Audience speaks.] 

Thank you, Brevard. I hear testimonies all over the world. Why aren't they happening here? And that's my question. Now as we're looking into it, we're going to continue to research and try to understand the Scripture, but already we're starting to understand some things. It has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with whether you're godly or not. It has nothing to do with whether you are powerful or not. You can't do any of these things. It has to do with whether God chooses to do this or not. Now, you might say that immediately lends us to an issue, doesn't it? If the whole thing is the choosing of God, then he's not choosing to do it. Well, that's when we get into the dynamic of faith and quenching the Spirit and all of those things, and that's what I want to talk about next time. I will tell you for myself that I've seen God answer prayers in remarkable ways, as many of you have as well, but I've never seen anything like this. I've heard about it, but I've personally have never witnessed it.

I'll say to you what one of my professors I was talking to, Dr. Hatcher, earlier, one of my professors said. "You know something? I believe that these kind of things happen all over the world, but I always seem to be in the other room when they're happening." Have you ever felt that way? I believe they happen, but I always seem to be in the other room when they go on. My feeling is I just want to understand what God has in 1 Corinthians 12, workers of miracles and all that, and say, "Have these things ceased?" And they may well have because they are connected directly to the apostolic ministry, or they may not. So we're going to continue to research, God willing, next time.