SPEAKER_00: Morning to the book of Romans, chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: We are taking another look at this text, this short text in this powerful book.
SPEAKER_00: I think many Christians would probably say this might be one of their favorite books in the Bible, Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to continue from last week.
SPEAKER_00: This has been a sermon series on the Holy Spirit for the last seven weeks.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that this sermon series has been helpful to you to open your eyes to understand God's teaching on this subject and to grow in the Spirit and by the Spirit as we've looked at it.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we really looked at the middle portion of this text.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to fill in some of those blanks this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Reading God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
SPEAKER_00: But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
SPEAKER_00: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God, for you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy, perfect, and precious word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for the Spirit's work.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for promises that stagger us.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for these specific promises and commands that you've given us before us this day.
SPEAKER_00: So, Spirit of God, we pray, would you give us not only the understanding, but Lord, would you give us the desire to obey, to believe, and to trust you?
SPEAKER_00: And Father, would you give the desire and the ability to do so?
SPEAKER_00: We ask in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The title of the message this morning is a spiritual assessment.
SPEAKER_00: And that thought is in my mind as I look back over the last six months of what God has been doing in this church family in different ways.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to speak to that a little bit more tonight at the congregational meeting, but this was a year that we began the first week in January, as we always do, with a lot of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt in my mind, prayer has been the backbone and the foundation of everything that God has done in this church the last six months.
SPEAKER_00: God has done some mighty things.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just been the Arise campaign.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about prayer, and we've had days of prayer and fasting, seeking God to show us, to lead us, to guide us, to enable us.
SPEAKER_00: And really, these are all manifestations of the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I trust that you've seen that.
SPEAKER_00: We come to this text again this morning, and we've looked in recent weeks at the work of the Spirit from John chapter 4, Jesus and the Samaritan woman.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at John chapter 7, Jesus' promise to all who are weary and thirsty and burdened.
SPEAKER_00: And we've looked at Romans chapter 8 for a few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: What's the difference between Romans chapter 7 and Romans chapter 8?
SPEAKER_00: I wish we had a whole hour just to talk about that, but let me just tease that out, just a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: It's been noted that in Romans chapter 7, so much of the language from the Apostle Paul and his own struggle with walking by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The word that dominates in Romans chapter 7 is the word I.
SPEAKER_00: What's the word?
SPEAKER_00: What takes center stage in Romans chapter 8?
SPEAKER_00: The work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: John Murray, the great late theologian, said the law of the Spirit of life is the power of the Holy Spirit operating in us to free us from the power of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you understand, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know that Romans chapter 8 starts now, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And that's great news.
SPEAKER_00: However, freedom from condemnation that doesn't lead to freedom from the judgment of sin's power is not real freedom.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible doesn't know anything about a gospel that only justifies a sinner, but doesn't sanctify a sinner.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we know, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's too much of that in the church today.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: If Romans chapter 8, verse 1 speaks only of freedom from sin's guilt, but that tells us nothing about freedom from sin's power, can we really call it good news?
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_00: That would be like God saying, I'm going to save you and I'm going to bring you to heaven when you take your last breath on earth.
SPEAKER_00: But in the meanwhile, your life is going to be nothing but misery.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going to be miserable and you're going to be joyless and you're going to be powerless.
SPEAKER_00: Is that the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: But it's too often, too many Christians experience, and it just doesn't add up.
SPEAKER_00: One way you could put it like this: Romans chapter 7, it could be said, a lot of Romans chapter 7 is walking by the.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8 is walking by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: As we say often here, God sent His Son to give us the status of sons and daughters, but God also sent His Spirit so that we would have the experience in the Christian life of sons and daughters.
SPEAKER_00: God wants you to understand and to apprehend and to take hold of both.
SPEAKER_00: Not only your status, that you're a son or you're a daughter of God, but your experience.
SPEAKER_00: And you can't do that without the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that without learning how to walk by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're looking at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 8 teaches us that the primary mark of the Christian is the indwelling and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: First point out of the text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Straight out of the text.
SPEAKER_00: We have an obligation to put to death the flesh, but we can only do this by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But we have an obligation.
SPEAKER_00: So then, brothers, we're debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Now look what comes next.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you live according to the flesh, what's going to happen?
SPEAKER_00: You will die.
SPEAKER_00: Not only physically, but spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: If your life is dominated by the flesh, you will die spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: That's a teaching that is not often heard today in the church.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible says it.
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, it's imperative.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to be really interested in this.
SPEAKER_00: Your spiritual eternity, destiny depends on this.
SPEAKER_00: You ought to be really interested in what he has to say.
SPEAKER_00: But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
SPEAKER_00: Not only will Jesus Christ give you a resurrected body one day, a new body, a perfect body, but you will have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: You will have life in glorification, is we're going to look at in just a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we looked at the Holy Spirit's testimony to our spirits of our sonship on Father's Day.
SPEAKER_00: Abba, Father.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at, and let me just repeat it, there's four different proofs that Paul's giving us about our assurance of our sonship.
SPEAKER_00: The first proof is that we're led by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: A Christian, by definition, is someone who is led by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Second proof, that the spirit of adoption by which we cry, Abba Father, and again, that's what we looked at more closely last week.
SPEAKER_00: The third proof, the witness of the Spirit to our Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know the Holy Spirit can do that?
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit does do that as we open up.
SPEAKER_00: That's not easy to do, is it?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're so locked up in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We're so determined to be in control of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit can open you up to testify to the witness of the Holy Spirit what he wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The fourth proof we're going to look at this morning are suffering for Jesus' sake.
SPEAKER_00: Saying it another way, the Holy Spirit leads us to holiness.
SPEAKER_00: He replaces fear with freedom.
SPEAKER_00: He prompts us to call God Father, and He leads us to see Him as our inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a little tricky, but hang on there, we're going to get to that.
SPEAKER_00: How we see God as our inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: This powerful phrase, but if by the Spirit you put to death the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: That's the key phrase.
SPEAKER_00: Are you learning how by the work and the power of the Holy Spirit to put to death what he says are the misdeeds of the body?
SPEAKER_00: That's the indwelling sin.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we would call the flesh, the old nature.
SPEAKER_00: If by the Spirit, this verb is powerful to put to death.
SPEAKER_00: You know what it means.
SPEAKER_00: To kill.
SPEAKER_00: To kill someone.
SPEAKER_00: To kill something.
SPEAKER_00: God's not soft on this.
SPEAKER_00: He's not messing around.
SPEAKER_00: There's no license, there's no reason to coddle this.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you coddle this, it'll crush you.
SPEAKER_00: If you coddle this, it'll crush your life.
SPEAKER_00: It'll crush your soul.
SPEAKER_00: It'll drain the joy out of your life and the peace.
SPEAKER_00: The Puritans would call this mortification, putting to death the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: To kill the misdeeds of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus picks up on this when he talks about in the Gospels if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let the sight of your physical eyes lead to your death as it affects your spiritual eyes.
SPEAKER_00: As one commentator put it, for only the Spirit can give us the desire, the determination, and the discipline to do so.
SPEAKER_00: And don't we need all three?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we need the Holy Spirit to give us the desire, the determination, and the discipline?
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorites, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Lloyd Jones put it like this.
SPEAKER_00: This is not an unhealthy form of repression.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to talk about that more on the third point.
SPEAKER_00: And in the day and age in which we live, we hear it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I think.
SPEAKER_00: Well, you don't need to make peace with that because you need that in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Our culture is screaming that we not give up who we really are, whatever that might mean today.
SPEAKER_00: Lloyd Jones says, you have to learn how to pull out that misdeed of the body.
SPEAKER_00: You need to learn how to look at it, denounce it, hate it for what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Then you have dealt with it.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: This is in the present tense.
SPEAKER_00: Put to death the misdeeds of the body every day.
SPEAKER_00: You need the Spirit to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the enemy wants us to feel noble because we do it every once in a while.
SPEAKER_00: Have you noticed that?
SPEAKER_00: You know how that the enemy works?
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, you did that.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when you did that last year?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Present tense.
SPEAKER_00: What is the Spirit calling us to put to death today that's obscuring the light of the Father's delight in you and his love for you?
SPEAKER_00: What's getting in the way?
SPEAKER_00: What the Holy Spirit does is to enlighten and persuade.
SPEAKER_00: This is Lloyd Jones, because the Spirit is gentle and he can easily be grieved.
SPEAKER_00: He never browbeats us.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's true.
SPEAKER_00: There are so many ways that we quench the Spirit, as the New Testament says.
SPEAKER_00: There are so many ways that we grieve the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Not a philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: A person.
SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about that this summer.
SPEAKER_00: When the Spirit speaks and the Spirit puts his finger on whatever it is that's going on in your life that's getting in the way, that's getting in the way of your fellowship with the Father, your understanding and crying out by the Holy Spirit, Abba Father, whatever it is that the Spirit's speaking to about your in your conscience.
SPEAKER_00: Are you learning how to listen and respond?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you stiff arming?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: This is my private area of concern.
SPEAKER_00: You know what he usually does?
SPEAKER_00: He just steps back.
SPEAKER_00: Fine.
SPEAKER_00: Have it your way.
SPEAKER_00: See what it gets.
SPEAKER_00: Are you learning to yield to the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Is he making the Father's love more real to you?
SPEAKER_00: So that you can cry, Abba, Father.
SPEAKER_00: And it feels right.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like you're coming home in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like you're coming out of that spiritual barren desert and you're just coming to an oasis.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the work of the Spirit, what he does.
SPEAKER_00: What's the old saying?
SPEAKER_00: The old saying that I love.
SPEAKER_00: When you're joyless, you're weak spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: The law can't give you that power.
SPEAKER_00: The law gives you no power.
SPEAKER_00: It shows you what you should do, but it can't enable you to do.
SPEAKER_00: But the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It bids me fly.
SPEAKER_00: It not only tells me, Tom, you can fly spiritually, but it gives me the wings to fly.
SPEAKER_00: That's the work of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't think that the misdeeds of the body are limited to the technicolor sins of this world.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: The misdeeds of the body are the pride that we fight, the unbelief, the self-righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The misdeeds of the body speak to the hearts of the older sons in the parable as well as the younger sons.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the sins that are holding you back from loving God with all of your heart, soul, strength, and mind.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the sins that are holding you back from loving other Christians and loving the world.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the misdeeds of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Christian, you have an obligation to put to death the misdeeds of the body.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: By the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And you will not do it without that.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how we need the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: How this morning we need to embrace the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: How we need to yield to the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit of God, show me.
SPEAKER_00: Show me what's getting in the way.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, and this is a very brief point because this is really what we covered last week, essentially, we have the testimony of the Holy Spirit Himself bearing witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's by the Spirit that we can cry out from the depths of our heart, Abba Father, and really mean it.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just words.
SPEAKER_00: As we say here often, yes, you have the words to the gospel, but do you have the music to the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Is the gospel singing in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: That you are God's beloved son or daughter?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that assurance?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have that joy that comes with that assurance?
SPEAKER_00: That's the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If children heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so grammarians debate is this a subjective or an objective genitive?
SPEAKER_00: What is the inheritance referring to?
SPEAKER_00: Is it to is it referring to the inheritance that you're going to receive that because you're God's son?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it the inheritance that it's God?
SPEAKER_00: It's what you're going to receive from God more so than what you're going to what God is going to receive from you.
SPEAKER_00: Is it what you're waiting for?
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, the Bible teaches both.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible clearly teaches both that there are rewards laid up in heaven for the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: We know that there are rooms, mansions, Jesus promised, waiting for us in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that there's glory, and we know that there's reigning with the saints.
SPEAKER_00: We know that there are so many gifts awaiting us in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And that's true.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that that's what he's referring to here, though.
SPEAKER_00: I think what he's referring to here is God your reward.
SPEAKER_00: Is God your inheritance?
SPEAKER_00: That's different, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we read in the service earlier this morning from Psalm 73.
SPEAKER_00: This man who was really struggling with living a godly life.
SPEAKER_00: You know Psalm 73, right?
SPEAKER_00: This godly religious man who'd been walking with God for a long time was starting to lose his way.
SPEAKER_00: He started looking around at life and he saw, wait, wait, what?
SPEAKER_00: Why am I serving God?
SPEAKER_00: What benefit is it giving me?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I look around and I see my non-Christian friends doing pretty well.
SPEAKER_00: Seems like they're in good health.
SPEAKER_00: Seems like they're getting promoted.
SPEAKER_00: Seems like their families are flourishing.
SPEAKER_00: And I look around sometimes at Christians, I don't see that.
SPEAKER_00: What he's really struggling with, is it really worth my while to take the Christian life seriously?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but that verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discovered their end.
SPEAKER_00: Then I got That gospel clarity back.
SPEAKER_00: Then I realized: wait a minute, no, no, they're not right.
SPEAKER_00: God's right.
SPEAKER_00: God's promises are true.
SPEAKER_00: But he had to go into the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: He needed the fresh work of the Spirit to show him and to convince him.
SPEAKER_00: Always, always bet on God and his promises.
SPEAKER_00: Not your experiences in life.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he could say.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he could say, Whom have I in heaven but you?
SPEAKER_00: And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you?
SPEAKER_00: My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and he is my portion forever.
SPEAKER_00: Can you say that this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Whom have I in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Who do I have on earth but you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Now read that back into the language.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, only the Holy Spirit can do this.
SPEAKER_00: Only the Holy Spirit can convince you that God is your inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: That having God is having everything.
SPEAKER_00: Whom have I in my life?
SPEAKER_00: But Him, in fellowship with Him, and communion with Him, and receiving His love, and resting in His the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit Himself, bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God and we have the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, there is great reward waiting for you in heaven, Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But the reward starts on earth.
SPEAKER_00: He goes with you.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to be your joy and your delight by the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the last point.
SPEAKER_00: A theology.
SPEAKER_00: A theology of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: We have the privilege of suffering for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And again, I know that's not very popular today in Christian churches.
SPEAKER_00: To their shame.
SPEAKER_00: We have the privilege of suffering for Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He says it.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.
SPEAKER_00: And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
SPEAKER_00: We have the privilege of suffering with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have the privilege of suffering for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And only the Holy Spirit can make suffering for Christ something that is not onerous to us, or something that we feel like is above and beyond what we should have to endure in this life.
SPEAKER_00: Because the flesh is always trying to weigh us down with this.
SPEAKER_00: The flesh is always speaking evil lies to us.
SPEAKER_00: You deserve.
SPEAKER_00: You deserve a better life.
SPEAKER_00: God's holding back on you.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if God really loved you, if you were really his son or his daughter, he'd be giving you this and he'd be giving you that.
SPEAKER_00: You know that voice.
SPEAKER_00: That's the voice of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: That's the voice of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the voice of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The voice of the spirit says to you, Christian, come and die.
SPEAKER_00: Come and suffer.
SPEAKER_00: If it was for Jesus Christ, why would it be any less for you or me?
SPEAKER_00: The cross always comes before the crown.
SPEAKER_00: For Jesus and for us.
SPEAKER_00: So we must ask ourselves, what does this look like in my life, in this day, in our culture?
SPEAKER_00: What does this look like?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be naive.
SPEAKER_00: As a pastor, I just come, I just reminded of that time after time.
SPEAKER_00: So many today are so naive about this.
SPEAKER_00: No, I shouldn't have to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how much of it is because of the bad preaching today or how much of it is just the work of the enemy or the work of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be naive.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering does feel like death.
SPEAKER_00: When you put to death the flesh, it actually feels like death if in fact you stop looking to the false gods that you have placed in your life to prop you up when you feel lonely, when you feel insecure, when you feel unappreciated.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear me?
SPEAKER_00: Don't be naive.
SPEAKER_00: That's the work of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: They're not appreciating you.
SPEAKER_00: You deserve better.
SPEAKER_00: And you're feeling lonely.
SPEAKER_00: And you're feeling insecure.
SPEAKER_00: And you're thinking, yeah, I do deserve more.
SPEAKER_00: I do deserve something better.
SPEAKER_00: Why would I have to suffer for Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Why would I have to suffer for being a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a son, I'm a daughter.
SPEAKER_00: You're not hearing the Holy Spirit when you think that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not hearing the Spirit when I think that.
SPEAKER_00: A false God presents itself as good news because it promises us a good feeling.
SPEAKER_00: Please hear me.
SPEAKER_00: That is just rampant today.
SPEAKER_00: A false God presents itself as good news, the good news, because it promises us, it will promise you a good feeling.
SPEAKER_00: And when we start to live for good feelings, we've been cut off from the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Which is what we sometimes are looking for most, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: But what we most need is not a good feeling, but a good promise.
SPEAKER_00: And that promise we've read about this morning in Psalm 73.
SPEAKER_00: And that promise we've read about this morning in Romans chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a pauper.
SPEAKER_00: You're not an orphan.
SPEAKER_00: You're a son, you're a daughter of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: And you need his promises.
SPEAKER_00: And you need God to be your rock.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're going to stumble and you're going to lose your way.
SPEAKER_00: And it's going to bring hurt and pain, not only to you, but it's going to bring hurt and pain to your family.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, I've got something better.
SPEAKER_00: I loved you so much that I gave you my son to save you.
SPEAKER_00: And I love you so much that I gave you my spirit to sanctify you.
SPEAKER_00: When you most need the promises of God, the Spirit is there to bring the promise of God and make it come alive.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be scared of the death of your false gods.
SPEAKER_00: They need to die.
SPEAKER_00: And if it feels painful, God will be with you in the pain and needs to die.
SPEAKER_00: Whom have I in heaven but you, O Lord?
SPEAKER_00: And having you on earth, what do I need?
SPEAKER_00: What else do I need?
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to close with two letters.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to close with a letter that Jim Boyce wrote to a friend of his who was really struggling in the Christian life, thinking that if God really loved him, he should be giving him more.
SPEAKER_00: And you'll get the drift as I read the letter.
SPEAKER_00: To his friend.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that you will find strength to do what is right in this situation.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm sure you will find strength is I know that you already have it in God.
SPEAKER_00: You can do it.
SPEAKER_00: I do not mean that you have the necessary strength or willpower in your own strength.
SPEAKER_00: The reason I know that you have the strength you need is that you do have the Holy Spirit, which is true of every Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The reason you are troubled by the need to do right, and are not willing simply to drift along in wrong living, as unbelievers do, is that you know that you belong to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And deep down inside, most of all, you want to please Him.
SPEAKER_00: God's Spirit is within you.
SPEAKER_00: So if you were to say, I don't have the strength to serve God this way, you would really be saying that the Holy Spirit is inadequate.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the answer to your other questions, too.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know why God has not intervened in your life to do something special for you.
SPEAKER_00: I've heard many people ask that question.
SPEAKER_00: It's a natural one, particularly since we read about God's special intervention sometimes in people's lives.
SPEAKER_00: But what do we mean when we ask that question?
SPEAKER_00: Do we mean that we want God to reorder the events of our life to suit our own personal wishes?
SPEAKER_00: If so, we have no right to ask that.
SPEAKER_00: Nor should we want to.
SPEAKER_00: That would mean that we know better than God, that we can order the events of our lives better than He can, and that would be terrible.
SPEAKER_00: Or do we mean, and I think this is actually the case, that we want God to solve our problem by some external means, perhaps by removing the temptation that we face the most, by changing our thinking so that we are no longer attracted by this temptation, or by providing an experience that will strip the temptation of its power?
SPEAKER_00: But if God were to do that, which he could, it would mean that we were able to do as normal Christians, unaided by supernatural power of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this would mean that the Christian life ultimately has no meaning.
SPEAKER_00: What would be the point of being a Christian if in crisis situations God had to give you more than the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: That's a powerful letter.
SPEAKER_00: Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Boyce wrote to his friend.
SPEAKER_00: But his friend's concerns and his friend's troubles reflect the values of our world today, don't they?
SPEAKER_00: I really don't, I shouldn't have to struggle.
SPEAKER_00: And I certainly shouldn't have to suffer.
SPEAKER_00: I call that the theology of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Is there room in your theology, Christian, for a theology of suffering?
SPEAKER_00: For the sake of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I said I have two letters.
SPEAKER_00: The other letter I want to read is from Charles Spurgeon.
SPEAKER_00: Written to ministers primarily, but take heart, it applies to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised when friends fail you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a failing world.
SPEAKER_00: Never count upon immutability in man.
SPEAKER_00: In constancy you may reckon without fear of disappointment.
SPEAKER_00: People will disappoint you.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples of Jesus forsook him.
SPEAKER_00: Be not amazed if your friends wander away to other teachers, as they were not all with you perhaps in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: All is not gone from you when they leave you.
SPEAKER_00: Serve God with all of your might while the candle is burning, and then when it goes out for a season, you will have less to regret.
SPEAKER_00: Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are.
SPEAKER_00: When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being filled with anything but God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Set small store by present rewards.
SPEAKER_00: Be grateful for the things that God gives you.
SPEAKER_00: Continue with double earnestness to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you.
SPEAKER_00: Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light.
SPEAKER_00: Faith's rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in the hand of the great guide, our God.
SPEAKER_00: Between this time and heaven, there may be rougher weather for you, but it's all provided for you by our covenant head.
SPEAKER_00: In nothing let us be turned aside from the path.
SPEAKER_00: Come fair or come foul, the pulpit is our watchtower, and the ministry our warfare.
SPEAKER_00: Be it hours when we cannot see the face of God, to trust under the shadow of his wings.
SPEAKER_00: A theology of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But let me leave you with this: the big picture.
SPEAKER_00: The big picture is your glorification.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that at the end of the sentence?
SPEAKER_00: The big picture is set your eyes on that day, and that day is coming sooner than you think.
SPEAKER_00: Set your eyes on that day when you will be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: You will be made perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: John says that when we see him, we shall become as he is.
SPEAKER_00: Set your eyes on that day when you will no longer struggle with sin.
SPEAKER_00: Set your eyes on that day when you will no longer have indwelling sin.
SPEAKER_00: Set your eyes on that day when everything good that God created in you as a son or a daughter will come to its fullest expression.
SPEAKER_00: You need the big picture to make it.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your eye on the big picture.
SPEAKER_00: This world and your comfort and your security for this world or from this world is not the big picture.
SPEAKER_00: We will not be able to do this apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We just won't.
SPEAKER_00: Don't dash your life on the rocks.
SPEAKER_00: Don't dash your life on the rocks of self-satisfaction, self-satisfaction, self-pleasure, self-enjoyment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised by suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not going to apologize to any of us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not going to apologize to any of us for the suffering we've had to endure in this world.
SPEAKER_00: May it purify us.
SPEAKER_00: May it sanctify us.
SPEAKER_00: And our hearts to him to see that he is our inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the work of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Join me.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Father, we have come into your sanctuary this morning once again to behold your power and your glory and your majesty.
SPEAKER_00: We have come into your sanctuary again this morning to look into your word.
SPEAKER_00: Your word is life-giving because your spirit opens it up to us.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit makes your word, your promises, our delight.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit is the only one who gives us the power to put to death the misdeeds of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, this day, would you please work in us?
SPEAKER_00: Would you please empower us?
SPEAKER_00: Would you please show us the false gods that we're leaning on that are robbing us of joy and peace and patience and courage?
SPEAKER_00: Show us those false gods that we're looking to for good feelings by your power that we may put them to death, even this morning in this worship service.
SPEAKER_00: Give us joy in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Shed your love abroad in our hearts this morning, Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Give us the big picture this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Give us that picture, that glimpse of one day our glorification, for which we will never regret what we gave up on earth to witness our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, come, indwell us, empower us, cleanse us, draw us to the Father, draw us to the Son.
SPEAKER_00: We ask in the Son's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.