Gift of The Holy Spirit

Review: Salvation, Cardinal Blessings, and Adoption So Far

0:03 After a digression of some two months of Lord's Day mornings, we return today to our meditations upon those great focal points of biblical revelation to change the figure of those grand mountain peaks of God's truth which form the very heart and soul of the Christian faith. Within the framework of a series of messages entitled, Here We Stand, we are presently examining the very broad subject, the salvation we receive and proclaim. We've examined what the scriptures tell us concerning the objects of this salvation. Man as created, man as fallen, elect sinners as chosen in the sovereign grace of God.

0:57 We've considered much with respect to the central figure in this salvation, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the uniqueness of His person as God and man, and in the perfection of His work as prophet, priest, and king. Now our attention has been directed for many months to what I have entitled the cardinal blessings of this salvation.

1:26 The blessings as they are actually conferred upon elect sinners in their own life history. We have seen from the scriptures that all of these blessings come within one common orbit, namely union with Christ. But there is an order in which they are conferred upon sinners. We've examined the threshold blessings of calling and of regeneration.

1:54 those mighty acts of God by which sinners dead in trespasses and sins are actually crickened and brought into vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we began to examine those blessings which come immediately upon passing over the threshold out of death and into life. We examined in great detail the fundamental blessing, even that of justification

2:24 by faith, through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ. And now we're examining that second great blessing that comes to every sinner without exception, who is called and regenerated, even the blessing of adoption. And if justification is the fundamental and foundational blessing, then surely adoption is the pinnacle blessing. For we not only have God

2:54 ending his controversy with us as a judge, but we have him opening his heart and his home to us and taking us in as a father. Thus far in our examination of this doctrine of adoption, we considered its place in the plan of salvation. And we saw that it is central all the way from God's purposes of grace in eternity, Ephesians 1, 5. We were predestined unto sonship down to the consummation in which our consummation is described in this very terminology. We wait for the adoption to with the redemption of our bodies. And so adoption is central in the whole plan of salvation.

3:41 Then we consider the nature of adoption. The fatherhood of God in relationship to this doctrine of adoption is not the fatherhood which is peculiar to the Trinity, nor the fatherhood of creation, nor the fatherhood of the nation of Israel, but it is a redemptive fatherhood involving the activity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but predominantly the activity of the Father in which we are actually given

4:11 the status of sons and daughters, and in that sense it is a legal transaction. It is parallel to justification and not to regeneration. It is a marvelous and glorious privilege afforded those who are called and regenerated. Well, having considered then the nature of adoption, we began to consider its privileges, and in our last study

4:40 I suggested that to hold these privileges in some kind of discernible form, we should view them in two categories, the legal privileges of our adoption and the experiential privileges of our adoption. It is one thing for parents to have all the legal paperwork done and to prove in a court of law that a certain child is theirs by adoption.

5:11 It is another thing for them to hold that babe in their arms and for the parents and the child experientially to enjoy all the fruits of that legal transaction. Well, we looked at just the legal transactions. When God adopts us, what does he confer upon us in a legal way?

5:33 Well, he confers upon us an inviolable sonship. That is a sonship that is irreversible. As many as received him, to them gave he the right to become the sons of God. And if God has given us that right and title, none can cancel it. And then he gives us a shared heirship. Romans 8 and verse 17. If son, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs of God.

6:02 with Jesus Christ. And then we have a conferred brotherhood. Hebrews chapter 2, Christ is not ashamed to call us his brethren. We are brought into that family of which he is the elder brother, in which he is the chief among his brethren. But we have a brotherhood conferred upon us. Now then, with that very brief and concentrated overview, Let us address ourselves this morning, at least begin to address ourselves, to the experiential privileges of adoption. It would appear on the surface of things that surely the legal privileges, believingly appropriated, are enough to ravish the heart of any true Christian. To think that I have the status of a son or daughter, that Almighty God Himself has done the paperwork and notarized it, and it's

Moving from Legal to Experiential Privileges

7:00 stands before the court of heaven. Surely, what could be higher than that, and the believing appropriation of it? Or that shared heirship with Christ, or that conferred brotherhood. But when we turn to the Word of God, we see that there is much more. These are the legal privileges, but the same Scriptures that set before us the legal privileges also lay before us the wonderful privileges that are to be enjoyed in our own bosoms. And I suggest to you that the major experiential privileges of adoption are three. We may only get to the first this morning, and it's the major one, and that's why there will be a disproportionate amount of time given to this. There is the gift of the Spirit as the first and cardinal experiential blessing of adoption.

Galatians 4 Exposition: Three Key Assertions and Abba Explained

7:59 And then there is, in the second place, what I am calling the reality of his fatherly discipline, and thirdly, the pledge of his fatherly provision. But now let's come to the first, the gift of the Spirit. Turn, please, to two pivotal passages in the Word of God. The first is in Galatians chapter 4, and the second is in Romans chapter 8.

8:26 In Galatians chapter 4, Paul is in the midst of a very involved string of biblical argumentation. He is building, or really supporting, a thesis explaining it, and it has to do with the different status of the people of God in the new covenant, now that Christ has come and the Spirit has been given, in contrast with the people of God under the old covenant. And he likens in the first few verses of Galatians 4 the condition of the people of God under the old covenant as the position of a son who is under age.

9:15 And while he's underage, all of his inheritance is cared for by someone else, and he's treated in many respects as though he were only a servant in the house and not a son. His point is, now that Christ has come, and in the blessings of the new covenant we are given, all that is promised, we come into the family of God, not as sons and daughters underage and kept under the tutelage and discipline of the Mosaic economy, we come as full-born sons with all the rights and privileges of the sons of God. Now that, in a nutshell, is the argument that he's developing when he says, verse 4 of Galatians 4, But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

10:13 that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God.

10:40 Now I've mentioned something about the context, so I feel it is right for us to address ourselves to the major assertions of verses 4 through 6. And the first assertion that Paul makes is this, that the great end for which God sent Christ as Redeemer was that of conferring the status of sons. Look at the language of verses 4 and 5.

11:09 When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son. Now there's a description of the condition in which he sent him, born of a woman, born under the law. Now omit that descriptive element and connect the first part of verse 4 with verse 5. God sent forth his Son in order that he might redeem them that are under the law in order that we might receive the adoption of sons. So the sending of the son had as its explicit end our adoption as sons. He sent forth his son that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's the first great assertion.

12:04 So when our Lord died as our Redeemer, His concern was not merely to fulfill the demands of the law which form the basis of our justification, but to remove every obstacle in the character of God and in our own situation that would hinder us from being placed as his very sons and daughters, the redemption had as its end our being put in the status as sons. Alright, the second assertion of the text is this. When this status is conferred, the Spirit is graciously and freely given to all those who are adopted. Look at the language.

13:00 Verse 6, and because ye are sons, now notice the change in pronouns, God sent forth the spirit of his son into not your hearts, but our hearts. In other words, Paul says the most humble believer in the Galatian church, or in the Galatian churches, has the same endowment of the spirit of sonship that he as an apostle has.

13:30 So the second great assertion is that when the status of sonship is conferred because ye are sons, then the Spirit is graciously and freely given to all those who are adopted. And then the third assertion of the apostle is this. The primary activity of the Spirit in connection with adoption is the impartation of

13:59 I'm going to use a word now that you ought to be familiar with, of a filial. Filial means that which pertains to son or daughter. The primary activity of the Spirit in connection with adoption is the imparting of a filial disposition with relationship to God the Father. Look at the language. He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

14:28 Now we must pause and do a little explaining. What do these words, Abba, or does the word Abba mean? Well, the word Abba is the Aramaic form of saying Father in the most intimate, endearing way. It would be parallel to our cry as little children. You kids get in the fix and you cry out, Mommy, help me! Or Daddy, help me! Well, that's the figure here.

14:55 And it's a strong word, not whereby we say, but whereby we cry out, Father, Dad, Abba. That's the Aramaic, and then, of course, the Greek word pater is translated father. Now, why does he say the Spirit enables us, impels us, prompts us to cry, Abba, Father? Well, we must turn to the two other passages in which

15:23 that conjunction of the two words is found for at least part of the explanation. It is originally found in Mark 14 and verse 36, in Mark's account of our Lord's agony in Gethsemane, in which he is reported as addressing his Father in this way. Mark's Gospel, chapter 14, and in verse 36, And he said, Abba, Father,

15:53 All things are possible unto thee. Now whether Mark is telling us that our Lord actually used the formula, or whether speaking in the Aramaic, which was probably the normal linguistic framework which our Lord used, is immaterial. But we have here recorded from the pen of Mark that it was first upon the lips of our Lord that this word Abba was found.

16:24 Abba, Father. And then in Romans 8 and verse 15, the same apostle says that we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now what do we make of all of this? Well, the best thing I can do is read a summary statement from one of God's servants that I have found represents the fruit of my own conclusions as I've studied it out.

16:54 And it is this. The parallelism of the thought constrains to the conclusion that in Romans 8, 15 and in Galatians 4, the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, is the Holy Spirit. He's called the spirit of adoption, not because he's the agent of adoption, but because it is he who creates in the children of God the filial love, the love of a son or daughter, and confidence by which they are able to cry, Abba, Abba, Father, and exercise the rights and privileges of God's children. With reference to this address, Abba, Father, the most likely view is that both the Aramaic and the Greek words were used by our Lord himself and that his disciples, or at least some of them, followed his example with the result that both terms were combined in the form of address adopted. The repetition indicates the warmth

17:53 as well as the confidence with which the Holy Spirit emboldens the people of God to draw nigh to God as a Father who is ready to help them. All right, having done that little bit of explanation, now come back to the text. This is the heart of what I trust under God to set before you this morning.

Why the Spirit Enables Us to Cry Abba

18:18 after Paul asserts that the end for which Christ came as Redeemer was to give us the status of sons, and that all who have the status of sons receive the spirit of sonship, notice what he underscores concerning the ministry of the spirit of sonship. He says that because ye are sons,

18:43 God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Now He could have said many things. Creating within us a longing to be like our Father. And that would be true. For the Spirit is never given as the Spirit of Sonship without imparting the disposition of Sonship. And the longing to be conformed to the likeness of our elder brother. Now that's a wonderful truth and it's taught elsewhere in Scripture. But in this context,

19:14 He says that the spirit of adoption is given primarily not to stamp upon us the likeness of sons, but to enable us to revel in the privileges of our status. You see it? He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, and it's not the Spirit who cries, but in the parallel passage, it's the Spirit who enables us to cry, Abba, that is, Father. Now, why is that so amazing? Well, for the simple reason, my friend, is that the person who receives the Spirit of adoption is the person who has discovered some very soldering things about God.

20:02 He's discovered that God is holy, that He's of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity, that His heart burns with holy anger against sin and sinners. He's discovered that that God is a God of inflexible justice who will by no means clear the guilty. He's discovered that every breach of the law must receive its just recompense of punishment. The wages of sin is dead.

20:31 But then he's also discovered from the gospel that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And he's heard the amazing news that in that unique person who is truly God and truly man, in his perfect obedience and obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, there is a righteousness that answers to all the demands of

20:58 And he has been brought to venture the full weight of his soul upon Christ as he's offered in the Gospel. He's staking his eternal destiny upon a word of promise. He can't forget all that he's learned that God is holy. God's anger burns against sin and the violation of His law. And now he hears that through Christ, Not only are all the demands of the law satisfied, but the very God who had a controversy with him that could have pressed him into hell and sealed his destiny in hell forever has actually opened his heart to him as a father, opened his home, made him a co-heir with his son. My friend, no human spirit can ever appropriate so glorious a privilege

21:55 without the attestation of the Holy Spirit to that privilege. And that's why God sends the spirit of adoption into our hearts, so that all of the reservations, and all of the fears, and all of that reticence to believe that God could confer so glorious a privilege upon such unworthy sinners, it is overcome as the spirit of adoption enables us to say that God,

22:24 Who could have sent me to hell? That God is my Father, and I dare to call Him such, and I dare to revel in the wonder of His fatherly affection. Do you see the point of the passage then? He hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, enabling us to cry, Abba, that is, Father.

Romans 8 Exposition: Not Bondage but Filial Confidence

22:54 Now turn to the parallel passage in Romans chapter 8. Romans 8, that chapter in which Paul is setting forth the reality and privileges and implications of life in the Spirit. He says in verse 12 of Romans 8, So then, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh, For if ye live after the flesh, ye must die. But if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For ye receive not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye receive the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit himself.

23:49 beareth witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now, what does Paul assert in this text? Well, concentrating our attention upon verses 15 and 16, first of all, he asserts, The spirit received by believers does not gender legal bondage resulting in fears.

24:15 Ye receive not the spirit of bondage again unto fear. What was our condition before we became the children of God? Well, the writer to Hebrews describes it this way. He says, Christ came that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage.

24:44 Now Paul says, when you received the Spirit, you did not receive the Spirit as a spirit of bondage who brought you into that state of dread. No, no. The Spirit received by the Christian does not gender legal bondage resulting in fear. Then he makes a second assertion. The Spirit received does gender filial confidence and resulting in the liberty of approaching and addressing God as Father. Notice the contrast. You received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry. And again you have that vigorous verb. We cry out, Abba, Father. There's the contrast. The spirit was not given to us as a spirit creating God.

25:41 bondage, and bringing us into a climate of dread and of fear. No, no. Whatever dread and fear may be legitimate, and there is a dread and fear legitimate to a man yet in his sins, and God have mercy on any unconverted person sitting here who doesn't have that dread and fear. It may be the first sign that God is beginning to bring you to your senses. But when the spirit of adoption is received, He does not come as the spirit of bondage again to fear. But he is given in order to gender filial confidence resulting. Now notice, not just in an intellectual understanding of adoption. But we've received the spirit of adoption whereby we actually cry, Abba, Father. That is, the spirit is come enabling us in the depths of our hearts.

26:39 To have the felt consciousness and joy of our adoption. That's what Paul asserts. We've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry. It comes out of us instinctively like it does the little kid when he falls and skins his knees. He says, Mama, Daddy, help me. Whereby we cry out, Father.

The Witness of the Spirit in Its Context

27:10 And the third assertion he makes is this, in thus acting upon our hearts and our spirits, the spirit of adoption is bearing witness with our spirits that we are indeed the children of God. There is much confusion on this whole doctrine of the witness of the spirit, if only it would be studied in its context. Notice, verses 15 and 16 are tied together together. One careful student of the word of God and master of the original languages says, in essence, verse 16, because of its construction, can rightly be regarded as an amplification, an explanation of verse 15. View it as a dash after verse 15. Ye receive not the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye receive the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, that is,

28:06 The Spirit Himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. The Spirit thus testifying with our spirits that we are God's children. We've seen in the promise of the Gospel to every sinner, he that believeth is not condemned. And we are conscious that we have believed on the Lord Jesus.

28:33 And our spirits testify that believing in the promise, we have the blessings bound up in the promise. But then coming in alongside and with the testimony of our own spirits is the testimony and witness of the Holy Spirit. And how does He bear witness to our sonship? Not by speaking in the tenor or bass tone into our ears, Thou art a son of God.

29:04 People say they have a direct testimony. I want to ask them, is God's voice treble, tenor, or mid-tone? What voice did you hear? No, no. In the context he is saying this, because the spirit of adoption enables us to cry out a Father that is God's own witness to our sonship, operative in that ability to draw near to God and to call Him our Father.

29:36 and to look for some additional testimonies to open one Spirit to spirits other than the Holy Spirit, is to put oneself in the orbit of what the old writers would call enthusiasm, that is, wildfire and subjectivism. No, the context of the witness of the Spirit is the gift of the Spirit of adoption. Let me read Warfield's very perceptive comments on this point. For it is in our crying, Abba, Father, that the witness of the Spirit of God is here primarily found. The relation of this verse to the preceding being practically the same as if it were expressed this way. The Spirit which we received was the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, dash,

30:30 The Spirit himself testifying thus to our spirit that we are the children of God. Now it must be emphasized that this aspect or dimension of the Spirit's gracious work and ministry will never be divorced from the other dimensions of his ministry mentioned in this very chapter. Follow me now.

30:57 The Spirit never witnesses to our sonship by enabling us to cry, Abba, Father, without doing all the other things described in this chapter as being His activity in every believer. Verse 9, He delivers us from the dominion of the flesh. Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, but if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

31:26 Anyone who says, oh, the Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit. I'm unable to say, Abba, Father. Has he delivered you from the dominion of flesh and brought you into the realm of the spirit? In the ethical implications of that question, has he? Verse 9 says, you're not in the realm of the flesh, but in the realm of the spirit. If so be that the spirit of God dwells in you.

31:51 And if he doesn't dwell in you as the one who has broken the dominion of flesh, you're none of his. That's what this book says. It doesn't say you're a tarnal Christian and need a second work of grace. You need the baptism of the Spirit. You need tongues. You need the higher life. He says you're none of his. Verse 13 says, The same Spirit who bears witness is the one who enables us continually to mortify the deeds of the flesh. Look at the language.

32:21 If ye live after the flesh, ye must die. But if ye by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live. The Spirit who bears witness to our sonship is not only the one who has brought us out of the dominion of flesh and into the realm of the Spirit, He's the one who continually enables us to wage warfare against remaining sin. And if you're not waging warfare against remaining sin, don't you talk about having the witness of the Spirit.

32:51 Furthermore, he's the Spirit, verse 14, who dominates the patterns of our life for as many as are led by the Spirit of God. And in the context, the leading of the Spirit of God is not being a super-duper sensitive one who can, as it were, pick up little signals from the Holy Spirit in his own subconsciousness. No, no, no, no, no. Being led by the Spirit in the context has to do with verse 13, putting to death the deeds of the flesh. It's connected with the word for.

33:23 many as are led by the Spirit. And so it's not a matter of this subjective idea, the Holy Ghost told me to do this, the Holy Ghost told me to do that, the Holy Ghost moved me to do this. No, no. It means that the dominant pattern of your life is one of progressive sanctification. Furthermore, it's the same Spirit who causes us to long for a complete redemption. Verse 23, verse 23,

Witness Never Divorced from Other Fruits of the Spirit

33:48 We who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves. The Spirit who testifies to my sonship and makes me say, Father, is the same Spirit who makes me groan and say, Lord, how long? There's no contradiction between Romans 8 and Romans 7. You've got groaning in Romans 8 as well as in Romans 7. Mr. Garlington pointed that out so vividly a few months ago. There's groaning in Romans 8, and it's groaning born of the Spirit's indwelling. He stamped us for perfection, therefore we long for perfection, and until we have it, we groan for it. Well, how in the world do you put together the joyous approach? Have the Father in groaning. It's groaning in the presence of my Father and saying, Oh, my Father, what a miserable creature I am.

34:46 Here you've broken the dominion of sin and given me a taste of the sweetness of holiness. And I'm never more happy than when I'm most holy. But, oh Lord, there's so much corruption that's yet there. By the Spirit, you've given me a love for you, my Father. And as my Father, bound by the cords of love, I want to serve you with all my heart and mind and soul and strength. But I've got this terrible, gimpy leg.

35:15 I've got this back, or I've got this disease, I've got this illness. Oh, Lord, for the day when I have a body with which I can serve you without these impediments. You see the connection? The same Spirit who bears witness to our sonship produces that groaning, not the groaning of slavish fear, but the groaning of a son who can't please his father as much as he wants to.

35:45 And he's weary for the day when he'll be able to. And that's the same Spirit, according to verse 26, that sustains in us the spirit of prayer. In like manner the Spirit helpeth our infirmity. We know not how to pray as we ought. The Spirit himself maketh intercession. Now I say, any claim to the witness of the Spirit...

36:11 divorced from these other dimensions of the Spirit's ministry is sheer nonsense, and worse than that, it is fatal self-deception. What right does anyone have to extract verse 16 and say, oh, I know I'm a child of God, I can call God my Father and say, oh, I have that by the Spirit.

Pastoral Exhortation to Grieved and Quenched Believers

36:41 while these other dimensions of the Spirit's work are absent. No, no. Lay no claim to the witness of the Spirit if these other dimensions are not present. But let me reverse it. My friend, some of you need to come to grips with this wonderful privilege. You are delivered from the dominion of the flesh. There is every evidence that you are seeking to mortify sin.

37:11 that the Spirit is the controlling, dominant force in your life, and you do groan and long to please your Lord more, but you're grieving and quenching the Spirit because of false notions of God and salvation. May I say it reverently? Though the spirit is, as it were, welling up within your breasts to produce the cry upon your lips, Abba, Father! You've been taught all your life to call God Father is the height of presumption. And I know there are people sitting here today who've been taught from childhood to call God Father. Why, that's wicked, wicked carnal intimacy with the Deity.

37:56 And so you have a struggle between the teaching that has, as it were, worked itself into the very cells of your soul, and the truth of the gospel, and the impulse of the Spirit. Oh, my dear Christian friend who has received the Spirit of adoption, but who in some measure is grieving and quenching that Spirit because you still cling to those false notions of Honor the God who has adopted you by calling him what his spirit prompts you to call him Abba, Father. You do not honor God by calling him anything less than what he has become to you in Christ. How would a parent feel who went through all the trouble of picking out a child that was set loose from its

38:54 Legitimate parents. A child that no one cared for. Ended up perhaps in an orphanage. And yet these parents set their love upon that child and went through the expense and time and all of the fuss of all the adoption papers. And the day came when they take that child into their home. And he always addressed his father as Mr. Jones and his mother as Mrs. Jones.

39:20 And they put him on the knee and say, son, you're our son. As much as if you had come from your mother's womb, legally you're ours. Our inheritance is made out to you. Oh, call us daddy and mommy. How would these parents feel if through some false notion he wouldn't address them in the term that really described the relationship?

39:50 You see the application, don't you? To what pains has Almighty God gone to bring us into His family? To what agony has our Lord gone in order to form a just basis of God's reception of aliens into His family? Oh, dear child of God, don't dishonor God by calling Him Mister.

40:21 But the Spirit prompts you to call Him Father. For that's what He has constituted you in His grace and in His mercy. Well, I said I thought I'd only get to point one, and I'm convinced of that now. Let me conclude with this word of application. In a very real sense, it is this aspect of biblical teaching concerning the gift of the Spirit as the Spirit of adoption...

Defense Against Dead Religion and Fanatical Mysticism

40:51 which forms a dominant reality of true biblical Christianity. In the words of one servant of Christ, this assurance of sonship attested by the spirit of adoption is denied by the Church of Rome, and it is to this day. Let him be anathema who claims that he knows he is a child of God.

41:19 The victims of the Council of Trent have never been rescinded by the official leaders of the church. Let him be anathema who claims that he knows he is a child of God. This author says this great doctrine is denied by Rome. It's discussed and debated by Protestants, but in the New Testaments it's simply a fact. Paul writes not to a select few at Rome, who had some second work that some in our day are calling a sealing of the Spirit, which results in assurance, and they set up a two-level theory of the Christian life, he writes to the entire church at Rome and says, everyone in whom the dominion of sin has been broken by the Spirit, everyone who is mortifying the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, everyone who is led by the Spirit, is such an one who has received the spirit of adoption, crying Abba,

42:19 No, it is a dominant reality of true biblical Christianity. And on the one hand, through the history of the Church, dead, decadent religion, based upon human merit or mere empty, formal adherence to orthodoxy, has looked upon this teaching as enthusiasm, fanaticism. That's why Wesley and Whitfield and the leaders of the Evangelical Awakening were considered to be a bit pitched in the head.

42:50 doctrine, not as some second work of grace, at least in the case of Whitefield and even with the Wesleys. Their doctrine of assurance was not a second work of grace. They did preach a second work of grace with reference to sanctification, but they preached a doctrine of assurance that was bound up with conversion and with the response to the gospel in faith. They were considered fanatics, Because dead, empty religion based upon human merit or a mere intellectual adherence to orthodox creeds knows nothing of this vitality. And when they read a text such as this, we have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, have a father. Because they know nothing of that in their experience. They write it off as the dreamings of wild fanatics. On the other hand, on the other hand,

43:48 A fanatical subjectivism and mysticism makes much of the witness of the Spirit. But it is a witness divorced from the context of these passages. A witness divorced from being rooted in the work of Christ as Redeemer. A witness divorced from its setting in these other aspects of the Spirit's work. A witness divorced from the very language of the text.

44:17 The text said the Spirit bears joint witness with our spirit. It's a compound word in the original. In other words, His witness will never be found independent of the witness of my own spirit. My own spirit viewing the promises of the gospel. My own spirit viewing the evidences that God says follow a believing response to the gospel. My own spirit interacting with the Word of God.

44:46 The Holy Spirit always bears a joint witness, never an independent witness. And in the history of the church and in our very own day, there are those propagating a witness independent of evidence. I've heard it said by a man preaching in one of the most influential churches in Great Britain. If all you can do is read 1 John and examine your life in the light of it and conclude that you're a Christian, that's all right. But If you get this direct witness of the Spirit, evidences are no longer necessary. What a frightening doctrine. The Holy Spirit never bears an independent testimony. He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. And our spirits testify only in terms of the Word of God.

Application: Do You Know This Experiential Blessing?

45:41 And therefore the witness of the Spirit will also be consistent with and within the boundaries of that same Word. Well, let me ask you, as you sit here this morning, do you have this experiential blessing of adoption? What a privilege to call God Father. Not born of an ignorance of His holy character that makes you a brash, rebel,

46:10 who as it were parades into the presence of His sovereign with no fear of His judgment. That's the way some people call God Father. But fully conscious of all that He's revealed about His holiness and His justice and His righteousness and His anger against sin and sinners because of Christ and all that He has done and all that He presently does.

46:37 And in that believing relationship to Him, you can say, Abba, Father. Can you cry, Father, to the very God with whom you've had a controversy for years? I know of no privilege this side of heaven so great and glorious as the privilege in any situation or circumstance of life to say,

47:10 I remember how vividly this came to me that week before I was to go to Australia. There was that quick slip and there I sat on my backside knowing that I'd done severe damage to that ankle and with a bunch of little kids all around me to lift up my heart and say, Oh, my father, this is from you. What a privilege to know God is our father and in our extremities to cry There's a little child. Daddy, help me. You who are unconverted, you can have your pleasures. You can have them. What do you do in your extremities? Cry to the thing that you're God and see if it has a heart that's moved with pity. Cry to the thing that you're God and see if it has a hand that can be stretched out in compassionate ministry to you.

48:11 your God is pleasure, your God is your friends, if your God is money, if your God is things, my friend, cry to those gods. What a terrible thing to be unconverted, to be outside the family of God. I hope some of you unconverted people this morning have been made jealous. Say, I'd give anything if I could call God my father that way. Well, my friend, you'll have to give everything.

48:39 God says you've got to lose your life. Say no to yourself. Repent of sin. Flee to Christ. And in Christ the blessing of adoption is found. And the gift of the spirit of adoption, it's all in Christ. Go to Him. Seek it from His hand. It's yours. In Him, if you will have it. And oh, child of God, in our reaction against the saccharine against the maudlin and sentimentalism of our day. Let us not be robbed of this great privilege. Let us not quench the Spirit who has been given to us, who prompts us to cry, Abba, Father. But let us honor God in all the work He has done, not only to give us the status of sons and daughters, but to give us the experimental enjoyment

49:40 Of the gift of the Spirit. This is not fanaticism. This is not wildfire. This is not enthusiasm. This is Christianity. May God grant. That we as a people shall reflect. That solemn. And yet. Blessed joy. Those who know. They are the sons. And the daughters. Of the Almighty. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

50:16 Oh, our Father, we confess that we stand amazed when we attempt to understand why and how you have dealt so graciously with such ill-deserving sinners. We bless you that there is in Christ not only a perfect righteousness, but

50:43 full satisfaction of all the demands of your Lord. But we thank you that you've predestined us to sonship through Christ. We thank you for all the blessings of that position. By the enablement of the Spirit, help us to understand and believingly to enjoy for your glory, for our good, And for the advancement of your cause in the earth in our generation. Help us to enjoy our privileges in Christ. That there may be that element of holy joy. That will cause an onlooking world to wonder what it is. That gives us that joy. Hear our cry. Seal the word to our hearts. Be merciful to those who are still outside your families.

51:41 And oh God, draw them into that family as you draw them to your son.