lesson 32b

Lesson 32. And we just started question four. So, what is the spirit of bondage? And that came from verse 15. For you have not received the spirit of slavery or bondage, leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father. So, I guess I started off last week. What does the spirit of bondage or slavery imply? We started on that. bondage or slavery, what comes to mind? Servitude. Servitude. What else? No choice. No choice. Fear. Fear. Actually, we'll see that.

Basically, restrained, forced compliance, all these things we talked about. When you say a spirit of bondage, that's not something that brings up good a good connotation. It's something that's kind of bad. Slavery, bondage, restraint, forced compliance, all these different things.

So, what does a spirit of bondage lead to? Touched on it. It doesn't, yeah, but what does it say in this verse? It leads to what? Fear. Fear. So, Place under law and all the burdens to keep it gives fear, because am I meeting the requirement? What is this judge going to do to me? Who or the master, what is he going to do to me? Under a spirit of bondage, you have a fear because it's a compliance. It's you have to do something or there will be a penalty.

And so again, the verse says, And so, what is the opposite of the spirit of bondage that we have, that says in this verse? Spirit of adoption and sons. And then, by which we cry out, Abba, Father. So what a contrast. See, I like, in Paul's, a lot of time, his epistles, he has these things which are great contrasts. You don't have a spirit of bondage, but you have the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

I'll tell you about this week. I challenged you, I think, last week. How many woke up this morning and talked to Daddy? You woke up and the first thing you thought was, OK, Daddy. Thank you. Thank you for this day. Thank you for what you have in store for me. That intimacy. You woke up this morning thinking that you have that kind of relationship with the God of the universe. So, again, we don't have a spirit of bondage, but we have a spirit of adoption in which we cry out, Abba, Father. Newell had it this way.

Israel received a spirit of bondage when they were placed under the law. How sad that perhaps that most of Christians regard themselves as under the law and so under bondage. In this they are like a world which fears Christ as they think, a hard task master. Now the result of the spirit bondage was fear.

When Israel walked in the wilderness with Jehovah dwelling in darkness, in the holy of holies, in the tabernacle, they were taught to fear. For Jehovah was teaching a sinful people his holiness in separateness from them, and how to draw near him only by sacrifices. For when Christ came, all was different.

He came not noticing a marking sin. Quickly the common people became glad. Proud religion called him a friend of publicans and sinners. sinners, as he was. We have no words to express the limitless graciousness of God manifested in the flesh in Christ." So, quite a contrast from the Jewish population of Israel under the law, where they feared him.

Remember last week we were talking about when we can say, Abba, Father. How did the Jews address God? Don't say his name. Couldn't even say his name. But we have the ability, and we were talking about this a little bit I think last night at the Eccles. Can you imagine just the difference? You've been taught all your life, fear, fear God, Jehovah. You can't even say his name. And Paul comes along and says, you can call him daddy. What do you think a mind blow was that for the audience that is listening to the Romans and that and to the Jewish population? that had feared him for all of their life, now you went to a position of intimacy where you could call him daddy.

Do you think they received that well? I think, you know, and I think we're going through Galatians, I think it's the same sort of thing. They've been taught law all this time. That's their whole life. And now Paul tells them, oh, by the way, you're not under law. Think of the messages that Paul is delivering in Romans, Galatians, all this, to that audience.

I can't even imagine what, I think I've related this story on when we did one of those catering things, and it was a Jewish one, and the Jewish people had all these rules. They had to have certain plates and silverware, and they couldn't touch this, and they couldn't do that, and they couldn't do this, and this, and that, and this, and I thought, you know, this is, this is what they think, and now I go and tell them, I'm just going to use any silverware. Do you want a little milk with that in your pot? Go ahead, have a drink of milk.

And all their rules that they had, they would just come unglued. And I think of Paul giving these messages in Galatians and Romans here. Just think of what the reception was to these people. Think of something in your life that you have thought of your whole life, and then somebody comes and tells you, oh, by the way, that's wrong.

You're just the opposite. How do you think you'd receive it? I'd be more fearful. I'd be fearful? You'd be fearful because the consequences of whatever the law was or whatever you've been put under, you're now going against that. That law, that rule, that whatever you've been taught. Whoever's going to do it, they're going to get a big stick on me and just whack me. Because somebody doesn't like it.

I'm doing something completely different. So again, when we read these verses, I think it's really important to understand what they are going through. But, think about what we do too, as believers. As it's said, and what Newell puts out, is Christians want to be under law too. It's that nice, warm, and fuzzy.

And who's the one driving that? the sinful man, the sinful flesh, because that's the only existence he has now, is to make you go under law, make you go under a law system. That's the only way he functions. And so every time I say, well, you need to do something for that. Man, you need to stand up. You can't address God. You can't.

Daddy? How many of you feel uncomfortable when I say daddy? You know, I thought about this last week, but I'm telling you that, you know, you can go and say, Daddy, how many of you feel uncomfortable with that? I believe they are. A lot of you are chickens. But I think you feel uncomfortable with it.

I can wake up in the morning and say, Daddy, thank you for this day. Because you have this reverence of God, which we should have. But he has told us we are children of his and we can say daddy. Yeah, I thought about that after I read last week. I thought, how many people go, daddy? I'm not waking up and saying daddy. That's why I can't. Pater. Pater? What? That's the other. Pater, isn't that the... It's the Greek. Is that another Greek word for it? Greek word for that. Oh, I don't get it. Is that, yeah, like paternal? No. Pater? Father. I don't know that one.

I was wondering when it says something about the beginning of wisdom is to have the fear of God. I wonder how that fits. I think that's more of a respect. I think that fear is a respect form. So it's not like we equate fear like I'm afraid of snakes. I fear snakes. It's not that same thing.

The fear is a respect. that aspect is that I respect him. He's the God of the universe. He's the one that holds every cell of my body together. So I think it's that understanding. It's not a fear like I quake and run away from it since it's something bad. It's a good fear or understanding. I never called my dad Daddy. I always called him Dad. And I feel uncomfortable calling God dad, you know, I always call him father.

You know, it's just a sign of respect. Yeah. And that's why I brought that up, is if you feel uncomfortable with that. And it's whatever you feel comfortable with. But he has told us that we can call him father or daddy. And the greedy part of this is an intimate relationship, an intimate name to him. And again, contrast this to what the Jews were, they couldn't even say his name.

So this is just saying a familial relationship, not a far off God and we're here. It's a family relationship now. That's really what it's getting at. It's not a far off God that's hidden in the tabernacle, not to be seen, not to be heard, not to be any kind of relationship. It's only through the priest. Now it's a different one. So whatever it is, it's a family relationship. It's very intimate. Very intimate. not almighty God. When you think about who God is, righteous unto himself, separate. He doesn't need anything for existence. He's self-existent.

And the Jews, because they were sinful, And then to have all of that taken away, you get comfortable with the system. Oh yeah. You have all of that taken away and now you're presented with the idea that well now he's your father. Yeah. You know in your mind you're thinking really?

Well then I'm still going to watch what I do. Yeah, I mean, this is a totally, and that's why Galatians is such a, you know, it really reads Galatians in what, I mean, it's law versus grace. And just think of the audience that he's talking to at that point.

And they are just, what if we decided tomorrow, we'll have our meetings on Tuesday at 2 o'clock. We're having, you know, our main service and we'll have Thursday at 9 o'clock in the morning. Wouldn't that be weird? I mean, what if we did it on Saturdays? Would you feel uncomfortable? Yeah, I mean, why does this happen? So think about what we would do on the same thing. Just, you know, as I said, Saturday. We have Saturday meetings now. Sunday's out. We feel uncomfortable for a very long time.

Well, I think we do. I think we come out, most of us come out of, not most of us, but some of us come out of a denomination. And all denominations have their rules. And we're taught the rules growing up and we try to stay after them until we decide we can't do them or whatever reason we walk away from them.

But then grace shows up. And grace initially I think is a very scary thing because it almost seems like license to do whatever I want. But it isn't. And so I can see a Judaizer being afraid like Paul was. That's why it was imprisoning him, killing him, doing everything else. If the Jewish nation started going that way, he saw the demise that God was going to bring the hammer. That's why he imprisoned, beat, killed, did everything. Because he saw a threat to the establishment.

My thought was God brought us to him for that relationship. He brought us up to Him. And I think a lot of what we see, at least in our nation, is that we bring God down to us and call Him Daddy and minimize who He is. Yeah, well I think there's still, to me it's not as much, and that's why I brought it up last week, I don't think, I think we still hold Him away at arm's length. We think God is up there and we're down here and there's no I mean it's kind of he's way up there and we pray to this God way up here. I think what this is bringing out and what I think is important is it's not like that. in my sin nature.

I leave him there. I'm in charge now. And who's doing that? That's exactly right. That's my point. Let's leave him over here. Let's keep him over here. Let's keep him at arm's length. Paul's saying no. No, don't do that. Think about how much God loved us. He self-existed. He didn't need anything. He sent his son to die for us. That's how much he wanted this relationship that he's talking about right now. He wanted it so much that he sent his son to die for us. How much more of a relationship can you build off the sacrifice of his own son?

I don't think you... How do I say this? In our discussion last night about John the Baptist, what did he know about the gospel? but death was going to happen, and it was going to be this man, and this man was going to take care of the sins of the world, but he had no idea about what we're talking about today. As we were talking about it last night, neither did the apostles or anybody else until afterwards, and they were with him daily. And I think that's why it takes more than just intellectual apprehension this does. All of this is the Holy Spirit convincing you of what's true. That's what's true. We have this relationship. And that's the cool part of this. And again, just that relationship.

I think we hold, I think it is, and as the old man You know, he wants that. That's the greatest thing for him. Oh yeah, he's way over there. You have to talk to him, and it's flowery language, and you have to do all this stuff, and yada yada yada. No, we can talk to him like you and I have that relationship. And it's, I think, uncomfortable because it's the God of the universe. But he says that.

He tells us this. And we'll see it again in Galatians 2. How about Father? It's not once. He's telling us we have that relationship. So I think that's the key of what this whole passage is. And then we'll get into the end of Romans 8 where we're talking about can we be separated from His love. He's talking about this. He has that we have this relationship. Can we ever be separated from it?

Never. So he's building on this. He'll say, here's the relationship. And oh, by the way, it's eternal. There's nothing I can, you can do to separate from the love. So again, this is all building blocks. That's why when we say 6, 7, and 8 Romans, it's like the foundational of the Christian life. And this is it. This is the building blocks right here about the relationship. Question 5.

How would you describe the spirit of adult sonship? And so, again, verse 15, for we have not received the spirit of slavery or bondage leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we call Abba Father. So, what is the spirit of adult sonship? What would you say are the characteristics of adult sonship? Lack of fear. Lack of fear, yeah, we've just seen that. We were adopted into the family of God. as we were talking about. We're sons, we're heirs. Okay. So as an adult son. So it's not like an ADD, your adopted child.

I remember I used to call you up when my son was 16 and tell you that I wanted you to pray for me because if things didn't change I was going to kill him. I remember a few of those phone calls. He used to say to me, hang on, it'll get better. And so now, Now he's 27 and we have this tremendous relationship but it's totally different. He's got a status before me and I respect him and listen to him and yet he'll approach me. Well that's adult sonship. Living under my umbrella in my house, Sunship, it's two adults. So I just want to get, did you say I was right? You were out there. Get that on recording. No, that's really true and that's a great example.

I basically think you're fully vested, you're fully, there's no, you know, you get only partial in anything. It's personal. It's intimate. You're part of the family. Fully knowledgeable. You're not an infant. And that's, I think, as you grow older, it's like that relationship changes. And it's a much more one-on-one rather than a father putting rules down to a son or a daughter or anything like that. It's this relationship. Sure. I now have older kids. say that same thing. I have this one. Yes.

Discussions among my family members back there. We'll try and get that on the corny end of the mic back there. Anyway, now the question is, now that we've described it, we've talked about it, do you believe it with your spiritual family? I don't think we would if we didn't have the Spirit. Yeah, but how do you feel in this relationship?

I would bring these out, so with the Holy Spirit, someone who is convincing, you know this. But you really, these are those ones, and I've talked about this, we've talked about this before, like Lewis Berry Chaffer's 33 Things. If you just picked up one or two of those things, and really the Spirit works on you, and that, it changes your life. I think this is one of those, change of life things. When you realize the personal aspect of God's relationship to you, it's not a far off God, the old man telling you, no he's way over there, speak reverently to him in flowery language. No, it's different. We have a personal, intimate relationship.

He sent his son to die for us to have that relationship. I think it's, if we look at it that way, It's tough for us to not have that relationship because he sent his son to have that relationship. He's asked us to do that by we cry out Abba Father. He's asked us to do that. It isn't that it's a rule, it's not that. It should be out of our hearts we say Abba Father.

I think too that part of spiritual growth is growing into that kind of a relationship. I think it takes a long time. for us to settle down on the fact that, you know, because we're always saying to God, what do you want me to do? And his answer, it's like when we went through Romans 7, Paul kept asking questions, what can I do?

What's the program? How do I fix this? And then it came down to who? And how long does it take God to teach us this is really all about who, it's not about what you do. Well, let me put the accolade back on you now. You know, one of the things... I don't know if we can stand up. This is pretty weird. You two were beating each other up, so this is kind of odd.

You know, the other is that, you know, you told me originally just to read the scripture to know Him. That changed everything. Because if you read it just to know Him, that's what He wants. To know, you know, the 2 Peter 3, 18, to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. know about grace, know about Him. That's what the real request is and that's where growth happens. As we know Him, we know our family and that's what He wants us to do.

So the service aspects of things will come out of our relationship. A lot of times we do it backwards. We get into a service and all this service without the relationship. of ministries fail, a lot of different things fail, it's because the relationship isn't there first. The service is born out of the relationship.

And so, again, I think it's important for us to know these facts and then dwell on them. And again, I told you last week, before with the brethren it was the big flowery And I had to be very reverent and use old English in my prayers. That's what I thought was what a believer had to do to have this relationship with God or to speak to God. And I realized it's an intimate relationship. And I never spoke to my earthly dad that way. I want to speak to my godly father in a way that's intimate and personal, not fake or made up to give something that I'm not.

So you can talk all the flowery language you want, but he knows you. And I finally came to change the way I pray too. It was like if I'm trying to do this holy and thou art and this, that isn't me. He knows that. And so my prayers are much more speaking to God as I would an innocent father. So again, he already knows, what am I hiding something from him that he doesn't know? I'm just glad I don't have to drive a board board. I figure a key or a handbag, whatever it is. Not a board board.

When Michael is saying it's about the who, is he meaning the first relationship with the person Jesus? Yes. Yeah, I mean, it's a personal relationship with Christ. And if you know Christ, you know the Father. John 17. If you know me, you know the Father. And even that was at one of the... John, where he said, let us know the Father. And he goes, how long have I thought? If you know me, you know my Father. So, again... I think that was Philippians. Yeah, it was a film. Yeah. I don't know. Well, hello. This one for question five. Yeah. From Newell. giving us the spirit of adult sonship.

No Jew called God Father or Abba, but Jehovah indeed. Fearfulness even prevented general use by the Jews of God's memorial name Jehovah, for the nation they called Him Adonai, Lord. This shows that the Father desires intimacy with us, intimacy that the sons of God have. This is the intimacy that the Holy Spirit produces in the heart of a son. So again, I think the contrast between what we have in Christ versus a Jew under the law. Polar differences.

6. Explain verse 16.

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. So, first of all, who does the Spirit testify to? Is it the whole, everybody? Our spirit. Yeah, it's the believers. Children of God, to our spirit. That's who it is. It isn't just a global one. It is to those, to the spirit of believers who are children of God. So, Newell had it this way too. And I like some of the things he brought out. The manner of communication between the Holy Spirit and our spirit is a profound mystery. God in this passage in Romans does not address himself at all to the human intellect, but to the consciousness of his saints.

He is explained both in the passage, verses 15 and 16, and from the great verse in Galatians 4.6, Because ye are sons of God, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. That the witness of the Spirit is the producing of the consciousness of being born of God, of belonging to His family in Christ. And for us today who are in Christ, there should be the consciousness not merely of babes, but of adult sons.

I like the way he put that. How beautifully sweet is the recognition of its parents by a babe, a child. Unconscious, instinctive, yet how real. Now the witness of the Spirit is to the fact of our relationship. And this is a key, I think, when we think about our relationship. How foolish it would be and how sad if a child should fall into the delusion that it must have certain feelings if it is to believe itself a child of its parents. How do you like that one? The unconscious certainty of a relationship is the beauty of it.

So think about a child and a relationship. Did you have to have feelings that, oh, I'm their kid? Did you ever, oh, I have feelings about that. I guess I am a son. You never did that, did you? You knew you were a son. Well, guess what? My kids are giving me grief in the back. No, I mean, think about that. I thought that was a great thing. Did you ever have to have feelings that you were a child of your parents? Was it the feelings that made you a child? That you knew you were a child? that we're children of God?

No. It's knowledge. It's knowledge of who we are. I mean, it's the conviction of the Holy Spirit convincing us we are children of God. So it's instinctive once we're convinced of that by the Holy Spirit. We're told about that in the scripture. Now it's for us. It always comes down to this. Do you believe it? I was curious about this one thing that Newell says.

He says, God in this message in Romans does not address himself at all to human intellect, but to the consciousness of his saints. What I find interesting about that, and maybe open for discussion, is that we put a lot of emphasis on intellectual apprehension of facts in the Word of God, and we think that that's the end all of the end all. No one says no. He's not addressing himself to our intellect. He's addressing himself to that we're conscious of being saints.

Aware that we are above what we think. Well, and that's why I think he said the Felix. We don't feel we're children. We are children. Well, and like in Wednesday we're studying Ephesians and the prayer in chapter 3 where he says that He understands and responds over and above what we even think or could possibly comprehend. He's way above that. And I think that it's way above my intellect. I may know...

Intuitively, because of the Spirit of God, that I'm a son, but I may not understand it. But I know I'm a son. What he was trying to get at here is to get to a point where it's not, I feel like a son today. And that's why I almost, last week's challenge was to wake up and say, Daddy, you know, it's everyday understanding that you're his child. And it's not a feeling, it's just I wake up and I know I'm his child. And the consciousness or whatever, but it's got to be the Holy Spirit convincing you of the facts. It still comes down to what's true because he's telling us.

It's the Holy Spirit convincing us. But it's to a point where we don't even think about it. We are children of God. My thought on that verse was how dependent we are. You know, we have a sense to think that we can comprehend things with our mind or rationalize what we're reading. And that verse talks about it's the Spirit. We're totally dependent.

And that's always it. It's always a combination of the Spirit working on us and then through our will, believe it. Do we believe it? And that's where I get to where he's constantly doing that. And even if today I feel that or I understand that, tomorrow maybe, eh. And I think the Spirit is constantly working on us about this in our relationship.

But I think as we mature in Christ, I think this becomes more of a instinctive or... I think it's life, maybe. Yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, like a child, and I think, you don't think you're a child of your parents, you are. You know, and I think we get to that point where you just understand you are a child of God. Did you have something for me? Okay. Also, just another one. Again, just emphasizing this, 1 John 3, 1 and 2.

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God, and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.

Is it something far off and later? Right now, you are such we are, and now we are children. It's not something that we're going to, when we pass into eternity, we are right now. That's like, you know, was it flipping 320, that with citizenship, our citizenship's in heaven right now? We're already citizens of heaven right now. And we are now children of God, right now. It's not when we step into eternity, we are right now.

So, again, I said, so what is your understanding of faith now, and what is true about who we are in Christ, and are you comfortable now with calling God Father, or Dad, Daddy, whatever your intimate term for this relationship? I haven't thought that in practicalness of raising a family, there are those that raise their family in such a way that they must perform to obtain the affection of the parents. And that will go on into adulthood. And it's very difficult from that understanding to this understanding. Because we, as the adult sons of God, are under no obligation whatsoever to or do anything that will have the Father bless us more, love us more, make us more acceptable. And that makes it difficult because the sin nature in men are always creating an environment where you've got to be proving to me that you're worthy of my affection. Where God says no, there's no proving, it's all done. Well, that's why at the end of this chapter, He said, how can you be separate? Can we do anything to separate us from God's love? Can we do it? Is it possible for us to do the impardonable sin? No. So that's, I think, again, building what you're saying, is that there's nothing we have to prove or do. He loves us regardless.

And I think from just a human standpoint, you watch the dynamics of a family. even into adulthood, families still are under the sort of, I want to use the word intimidation, of the parents. I know that your kids are. I think that's right. And we addressed that last week, which I think was great. JD brought out the fact that it's hard for some people if they've had a real authoritarian parent to now get into this relationship. Same as if with the father, if they had an abusive father. So we addressed that last week and that was kind of a good point. Because when you introduce somebody who is not a believer to this and they go, really? I'm going to get another father? Last one wasn't too good. And how do you break that? And mine is that I go back to the identification truth. Now, when you have the identification, you're separated. Your history is gone. All the pain, suffering, and association with what went on is now gone. You have a new history in Christ.

And that's the only way I've been able to address it. And there may be plenty of different ways to do that, but that is a hard thing to do if you have an authoritarian or abusive... I think that's why it takes the Spirit of God to persuade you about that. The environment you grow up in really is implanted in your psyche and you think all dads are like that. All dads. I mean that's the way the dad thing is. Right.

And then the spirit of God comes along and you begin to have a sense of this, like you say, Yeah, and when you start understanding how different this father is, and the intimacy of the father, that's the other thing that I think of. Some dads are a little bit off or not as personal with their children or something. This guy wants a personal relationship. John 17, he wants the union he has with his son the same with us. He wants us to have that bond like he has with his son from all eternity. That's different than a father who is, you know, not personal. reads the paper, is not emotionally attached to the children.

This father is way different. I notice this is from God to us also. If you can imagine, if the Spirit did not testify to us, how fast we would fall away, lose our faith, just throw in the towel and go our own way. and it is the one between the spirit and the word. Without those, where are we? We would be nowhere. We'd be dead. Adrift. Yeah. Yeah, before, I think that was the first bell.

One of the other ones, which was kind of interesting, you kind of brought it up. Newell brought this out, and I thought it was kind of interesting. He said, you know, when we pray, Father God, is that, he brought out an interesting point on that. When we say, Father God, is that, you know, It's kind of interesting. He brings it up and he says, you make father an adjective. And I thought, wow, that's pretty cool.

Father God. Well, it's just, you're God. He's telling us, make God the noun, the subject, not an adjective. He's not our father God. He is, but we address him as father. And I hear a lot of people call Father God when they pray. I think that's fairly Catholic. I don't know who else does it, but the Catholics that I've known use the term Father God.

Yeah, but that's funny because they make the Father an adjective. It's not very intimate. No, and it was a great point. I thought, wow, that's really true. You know, it's not the personal part. It's not a father. It's Father God, which I think puts him off over here. So I think I was just kind of an interesting note that he had in there.

So I don't know if you want to start on seven. How much time we have? A minute or already. We're going to close here and we'll we'll start on seven next week. All right, that's great. Heavenly Father, we thank you. Again, we thank you just for what we're learning here.

The intimate relationship that we have with you and what that means. And again, that we have the ability to come and call you father, daddy, whatever intimate term, just that we understand that we are your children and that we have that relationship, not a far off one, not one that's distant or not close or personal. We have that personal relationship.

And the fact is that you sent your son to be able to have that relationship. So that gives us just a thought of how much you want this relationship and how much you desire this relationship. Because you sent your son, your only begotten son, to buy and pay for all of the sins that we have. That paying for all those allows you to graciously offer us salvation through your son, which allows us this intimate relationship with you.

We thank you for that. We thank you and again just understand that we have that relationship that is intimate that you want us to come before you at any time, any place, anywhere and just to have conversations with you. We realize that you're a sovereign God, you're in control of all of this, and you have an eternal love for us. And again, I think just those two things give us the peace, rest, and comfort that you have told us in your scriptures that you will give to us. And it's because of that knowledge of who you are, and again, that relationship that we have with you. So we just thank you for that. We now just pray for Roger in the next meeting, and just Prepare for us to receive it and we thank you and again, we just thank you for this relationship in Jesus name we pray. Amen.