The Holy Spirit's Leading and Witnessing

Well good morning. So we are actually going to come to a new section in chapter 8 starting in verse 14. But I'd like to kind of go back and as I usually do and try to review a few verses from the previous section. So this section I've called, actually goes through 17. Actually this is not my, this is from, this was Merriman's title for this section. the Holy Spirit's leading and witnessing. And after kind of going through it, it really fit, so I kind of decided to use that. It's interesting about titles, and it should be short or long.

And so, anyway. Okay so from last week in 12 and 13 that were read we talk about 12 and 13 are actually a summation of that section that started back in 5. So then brethren we are not under obligation not to the flesh, but live according to the spirit. So this section, as we talked about last week, this is a summary of the section about the flesh versus the spirit and that struggle that every person has within themselves.

So I put this in kind of my block diagram form. So then, or therefore, brethren, and I kind of have a new appreciation for brethren. You know, brethren, that's all believers. women and men together, all the fellowship of life, the family of God, if you will. And Paul uses that, he uses it kind of sparingly, but this is one of the cases where he does use it. And I think it actually connects into the verses we'll cover today as well. So here we go.

We, brethren, are under obligation, or debtors, not to the flesh, or the sin nature, not to live according to the flesh, to its norms or standards. So this is all the negative side. Twelve is all the negative side. Brethren, we're not to under obligation or debtors to the flesh, to our fallen nature from Adam, and not to live according to that, its norms and standards.

And why is that true? We know that from Romans, back in chapter six we learned that. Because we've been separated or we've died. We died in relationship to our sin nature, we've been freed from that. And that's that wonderful news of how we can walk in the spirit. And that's where 13 comes into play. And it kind of tells the results of what's happened. For indeed, If, and it's assumed that you are. So here's the thing I kinda learned last week.

Both these situations can be true in a believer's life. They both can be true. And the Lord desires that we do the second one. So the first one is, assuming you're living according to the flesh, according to its norms and standards, as we learned in the previous verse, you must die, or literally, you're destined to die. And I believe that's temporal spiritual death, and that fits with the context of this whole section of Romans 8. But you could make a case, you know, there are occasional scripture talks, there are occasional place where a believer continues to abide in his sin nature and the Lord does take him home. So that is possible.

Now the other side of the coin is, but Allah, in strong contrast to that, if assumed to be true again, both these are assumed to be true, that's what kind of struck me from last week, by the Spirit, so by the Holy Spirit, you are putting to death, or from using the Roman six terminology, your reckoning or considering yourself dead to sin, to the deeds of the body or the flesh, you brethren, The you kind of carries back, you brethren will live. You'll live in this newness of life. You'll live in the life that Christ desires you to live. So there's a conflict in the Christian life between living according to the flesh or living according to the spirit. So Paul's gonna move on from that and kind of go into what seems like a new topic, but he's gonna, so a few points he kind of brings back across from this.

So now we're gonna move, and so in preparation for that, I got two outlines. Okay, outline number one, we're gonna revisit the big picture of Romans chapter eight, and this is from Merriman. So the first point is, in verses one through four, we learned about the Spirit, the Holy Spirit's liberating us from condemnation and from our sin nature. That's what we talked about in the first four verses.

Then in this long section, which seems like a long time, in five through 13, we found out, just like I talked about, there's the spirit and the flesh can't exist together. They're in conflict with one another. There's a war going on. And now we're gonna move into the section about the spirits leading and witnessing to us in 12 through 17.

And then in the coming weeks, we have this rather long section, we're gonna talk about the, and this is a beautiful section, about the Spirit's intercession for us as we await, as we await His coming, as we await going home to be with the Lord. And that talks about glorification, many people use that terminology. And then the concluding section at the very end is the idea of since God is for us, who can be against us? So that's the big picture of Romans 8.

So let's just zoom in on 12 through 17 here. So here's an outline, actually 14 through 17. Let me just go back and look here for a second. Oh, I know, there's a typo. If you look carefully, You go five to 13, then you go back to 12. It's actually be 14 through 17. I knew there was a problem there. Okay, there's a typo there. So now we're gonna zoom in on 14 through 17. And this is from Macaulay. I have to use one of the three M's. Remember Macaulay, Merriman, and Malloy? Those are the three M's. Okay, so this is from Macaulay.

Okay, so here we go. So this section, we're gonna talk about the leading of the sons of God. Notice it's plural. That's gonna be important. Women, you can be sons of, you are sons of God too. The adoption of sons, we're gonna talk about the intimacy of sons, the Abba Father part. And then in the following weeks, Mike's gonna talk about the confidence of the sons of God. The airship of the sons of God.

Yovani reviews my charts and she said, Roger, is that a word, airship? It sounds like something flying through the sky, right, airship? I said, well, Macaulay said it, it must be right. So we looked at our source of all knowledge, our phone, right? So, and it is a word, airship. Okay.

And then lastly, the glorification of the sons of God. I didn't put all the verses on there, but the first three we're gonna talk about today in 14 and 15. So 14 and 15 again, for all who are being led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God. for you have not received the spirit of slavery, leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by which you cry out, Abba, Father. Okay, so here's the first part.

We start off for all, or for, gar, indeed, you could translate it. All, the meanings, all who, all many, everyone, are being led, and this is this word, agao, H-E-O, are being led, and this is an interesting word, and I hadn't realized this before, but as I listen to Merriman here, this word carries with us that it's leading somebody who's willing they're willing to be led. And I was thinking about that in terms of, and actually it kind of brings into a picture, we're receiving a leading like a shepherd leads his sheep. It has kind of that flavor. We want to be led. I mean, as we know the Lord, we want Him to lead us. That's our desire, right? I mean, who here doesn't want, as a believer, doesn't want that to be the case?

So that's, That's the picture, and then the verb tense is just really cool here. It's present, it's going on. It's truth, it's indicative. It's in the passive voice. We aren't producing the leading, even though, you know, we like to lead sometimes. We like to, I'm a leader, right? No, the Lord says, no, I want to lead you. I want you to be, to follow me. Okay.

And then there's a parallel verse, very similar structure. And it says, but if, or assumed to be true, you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. Again, it's passive voice, led by the Spirit. Okay, so it's by the, for all those who are being led by the Spirit of God. So let's talk about this. Here's some comments from, these are from Chafer. So Schaeffer says here that this is, you may not, it's interesting, I hadn't realized this either.

There is no commandment. In the Old Testament, you see that picture. But in the New Testament, there's not a commandment to be led. That's interesting, not a commandment to be led. And so the point is that the Holy Spirit is the one who is leading us. And we want Him to lead us. We desire that He does that. And it's His path. It's God's choice. It's His path. Not our path. It's His path. If you think about it, it's His rewards. It's His fruits, the fruit of the Spirit, it's His life. And you keep going with this analogy, it's all about Christ. So we're led by the Spirit of God because we are children of God because we have His life.

And the last point is, a point here, and this is kind of a fellowship question you'd say, not every saved person is led of the Spirit. And that's kind of back to what we just talked about earlier. If you're walking in the flesh, You can't be led by the Spirit. You're out of fellowship with the Lord. So that's kind of a key point. To be led by the Spirit, you have to be walking with the Lord. You have to be in communion with the Lord.

So next we're gonna see, we're gonna talk about what we can say about those who are led. What's the characteristic of those who are led? And the verse says, these are the sons of God. So these ones being led are the sons of God. So this is interesting. I looked at this and I said, wow, that's like, so do I stop becoming a son of God when I'm not led? Sons of God when I'm not led? And I was thinking, well, positionally, I am a son of God. There's no doubt about that. But this is, to my mind, this is talking about our condition. He's gonna talk about our condition. To be a true son of God, you need to be in fellowship with him. And he's gonna make his case here.

And I kind of related that back to brethren. Brethren was another inclusive term with a masculine name, if you will. It's not masculine, but meaning the entire body. And here we're gonna have sons with a masculine name, but meaning the entire body of believers. These are, Amy, the state in which something continuously exists, present tense.

Sons of God, and this is pronounced, it's an H, but it has a, it's hoo-ee-ahs, and the only reason I know that is because I listen to it multiple times on my computer, and I've heard it pronounced otherwise. I would not pronounce it that way. I'm not the greatest, you know, in that area, but anyway, hoo-ee-ahs. That's the word for sons. And I like this definition. This is from, I think, either Constable or somebody like that. Maybe mine. I actually forgot who it is from.

But anyway, it's those who love and cherish God as their Father and its believers, both men and women. So what's interesting is God uses this analogy of the sons, and he's gonna take the picture in Rome, the Roman sons, and they had a special privilege, but that's gonna apply to all believers. And so here's some statements you can make about the sons, and this is from This is from Chafer. Chafer has some really interesting things. That is, by the leading of the spirit, they are proved to be mature sons of God.

We're gonna kind of see that in scripture, there are two words for offspring, if you will. They're used a lot. We see the word children, which is technon, typically. Unfortunately, there's some crossover where the English doesn't always reflect the, some say, some are flipped, but ignoring those for right now, typically, technon is a word for children, and huios is a word for sons.

And that's gonna kinda show us something about sons are mature, are a mature believer, whereas children are not a mature believer, is part of the picture. In the verses, yeah, I've got ahead of myself here. In the verses to come, a distinction is drawn between the child of God, Technon, and the mature son, Huyas. The implications being that not all Christians, though uniformly children of God, are manifestly characterized of those who are growing to maturity. So it's a question of maturity. Are they walking with the Lord? Are they in fellowship with the Lord? And he's gonna make a case for that. Okay, let's go on,

15. For you have not received the spirit of slavery.

So, and this is gonna be this pattern, there's several verses that are like this, and I didn't, I could present others, but, as backup for this, but you're gonna see, this is a case where he'll present a truth, he'll present a negative point, then he'll present the positive aspect, and then he'll present a conclusion. And that's what's gonna happen in this verse. We're gonna have the negative expressed first, then we're gonna have the positive, and then a conclusion. You have not received, so this is the negative part, you have not received, and it's this word, lambano, I think, to receive what is given or imparted.

It's an aorist tense, a spirit, And in this case, it's not speaking of the Holy Spirit, it's a spirit. And it refers to a disposition or attitude. And I could say, Margaret has a wonderful person, a wonderful spirit. Her spirit is wonderful. She's a lively person, or she has a lively spirit. It's used in that sense. I didn't mean to pick on you, Margaret, but anyway. You're right there, you're so close, I can see you, so it's good.

So, You have not received a spirit of slavery. This is a negative. God is not giving you You know, he's our life, but that's not a life of slavery. He wants to make that point. It's not a slavery or bondage. And you could say, you've not received a disposition or attitude of slavery. That's not what God is about.

Even though we are bond servants to Christ, it says in scripture, that's not what he's about. And he's gonna tell us the positive part of that in a second. And the other part of it, you cannot receive, the concept of slavery is one of bondage and oppression, and God does not give us evil things. He only gives us good things. Think of like James, talks about good and perfect gifts coming down from the Father, those kind of things. He doesn't give us those kind of gifts. He gives us only perfect gifts.

Like in James 1.13, God cannot be tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone. So God is not the source of evil. So He has not given you an evil, oppressive slavery.

But what He has given us And let's continue, there's one more point to that. And the result of a slavery like that leads to fear again. You kind of go back, it points looking back to where you came from in your journey in salvation, leading to or resulting with fear like, and it's the fear of prior to being saved, you're fearful of God maybe as a judge conceivably. Again, lean to fear again. It's kind of moving it, looking it backward before salvation. So a couple of examples that occurred to me. One vine kind of provided for me of the fallen condition of man himself, which makes him dread God because he's under the righteous judgment of God, like in Romans. And then Hebrews talks about this idea of fear. and he, Christ, might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Okay, so now the contrast. But here's another strong contrast word. You have received, the same word, they had the negative of that word in the previous part of the verse, you have received, you were given, aorist tense, so at the moment of salvation, you received, you receive the Holy Spirit. And so I point out, first we have the negative, now we're given the positive, the work of the Holy Spirit. And I think it's translated a spirit, but in looking at it in the context, and others seem to believe it's the same, I think you could make a case this could be the Spirit, the Spirit of God, even though the article's not there, but it seems like the context kind of supports that. The Spirit of adoption as sons.

And this is this word, it's a form of huyas, but I couldn't, I listened to it, I couldn't pronounce it very well, so I decided not to pronounce it. So anyway, listen to your computer, or online, whatever. It's a form of huyas, and it's a compound word. It's huyas as the sun part, and the theos, a placing, so it's literally sun placing.

And we're going to see at the end, I actually have a little thing from Newell. And Newell was upset with the translators. He said, why couldn't they have chosen a better word than adoption? That's a terrible word. I think that doesn't get the gist of this. And we'll see at the end, my last slide.

So actually, that one word is, the American Standard has adoption as sons. It's son placing. And Merriman kind of summarized, the Spirit has made us sons. I like that, the Spirit has made us sons. Okay, now we're gonna talk about that a little bit more here. So let's think about this. So we're gonna talk about the Roman family and children were all looked upon, and I guess in the Greek literature, as technons, children.

That was a word that was used for them. And there came a point in their lives, and there's a lot of accounts of this. I probably read four or five accounts. This account is from Merriman. So there came a point, and sometimes I guess this could be an elaborate thing, where the son was to become an heir of his father's fortunes, his estate or whatever. So this was a big deal, and they'd have a public thing to do this. It was publicly announced when the son was given all legal rights to his father's inheritance. That was a big and very important thing for the son to receive that from his father.

But what's the picture for believers? It's different for believers. It's the same but different. okay in this case the Holy Spirit who places the children of God into a legal standing before God as an adult son so we're placed at the moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we're placed as adult sons son placing We're placed as adult sons with all the rights, with all the rights of a child of God. And you know if you remember what we've done, we have a class here where we look at the riches of God's grace. Just think about that.

If they went through, if they each came up and they said okay, okay mike here's here's your and they read off the list here's your here's your inheritance you're so and so you know you're a child of god you're blessed with all spiritual blessings you read our our resume or what what blessings we have as a child of god so so we we have all the legal rights of heirs but not all of it is recognized until the second advent of Christ. And there's some verses that kind of speak to that, and I think both Mike and I will be covering these in the days to come. So the next chart has some of those verses that speak about the fact that this inheritance, even though we have it now, even though we received it now, is not fully complete until Christ comes for us. Okay, so the first one is in verse 19, 819. for the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. And then 23, 8.23 it says, and not only this, but also we ourselves having the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, I believe that's that same word, the redemption of our bodies. Now there's one in Galatians that seems to focus on that, even though it kind of, maybe it's a little hard to read, you wonder about the righteousness part, but anyway. For we through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

Okay, so let's go on. So now we get to the good part. By which we cry out. So now we have, so this is the result.

I was kind of thinking about this. I don't, you know, this talks about crying out. I don't cry out, I don't think about crying out. And actually, as I read through and I studied, I said, oh, this is what it is. I don't really cry out aloud, I don't think. I might, I might cry out aloud sometimes. I don't cry out. But I think I do that within myself. And somebody kind of mentioned that. And I thought, that's pretty cool. Within myself, I kind of cry out. I think we probably all do. by which, that refers back to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, we cry out, krodzo, it's a loud proclamation of fact with emotion.

And there's been some debate about that, and one person was complaining, this is back, let's see who, oh, this was, where did I read this? Was it Newell, or somebody of that era, 18, they were complaining about a translation Back then, I said, they're complaining about a translation in the 1800s? It seemed like, and they were complaining about this word. They were not giving it the right definition.

Loud proclamation of fact with emotion. So we'll see an example of that right here. So the indwelling Holy Spirit is the reason we can cry out to God in this way. It's because of him. And it's onomatopoeia. I had to practice it. I knew that word. It sounds like what it is, like buzz. You know, buzz sounds like, I mean, buzz and buzz, you know, look at buzz, it sounds like buzz, right? Anyway, so onomatopoeia, crozzo sounds like cry, all right? So here's the part that I liked, and this is, Vine kind of helped me here.

An inarticulate cry. I said, that's our verse. I don't cry out, I don't cry out Abba Father, at least I haven't in my lifetime I don't think. But internally I have many times. You know, whatever it might be, if there's some situation where, you know, I've done that. You know, but boy that's good, it's inarticulate. But then we see in scripture there's 54, 55 times We'll see instances of people crying out using this krodzo word, the cry out from fear, the cries of proclamation.

So here's just a couple. So this is Matthew 27b, two blind men followed him, Jesus, crying out, have mercy on us, son of David. So they're crying out and it's, what I like, it's crying out with emotion. It's a proclamation of fact with emotion. And he was the son of David, right? So there's the fact and there's the emotion. And then our Savior said this, In John 7, John 7, 37, Jesus stood and cried out saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

So there again, you cry out a fact with emotion. He was proclaiming that, and I've forgotten the exact instance of that, but anyway, it fits the definition well. Okay, so now let's look at Abba Father. You wouldn't think a whole chart in Abba Father, right? I like Courtney Daddy. Anyway, there's more to be said. That's good, Courtney, but there's more to be said. Okay. So now we have this loud proclamation with emotion. Abba, Father. So Abba is the Aramaic word for Father. Father is pater, in the Greek language, or pater. I think it's pater is the best. So, So Paul uses the Aramaic as well as the Greek term, and this is from, who is this from?

It's terrible. I should put the, let me see. No, I didn't do it. Sometimes I'm, sometimes I'm good. Actually, what I should do, this is just a point of chartsmanship, which I'm not, anyway. I should, if I was a good chart, I would put the thing would come at the bottom and show you who it is, but I didn't do that until the end, so anyway. Okay, so let's go on.

So Paul uses the Aramaic and the Greek term to highlight the intimate relationship we have. He's actually saying father, father, because Aramaic is father and the Greek pater is father, so he's saying father, father. But Christ used the same expression in his prayer in Gethsemane.

In Mark 14.36 he was saying, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you.

Remove this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will. So here's a couple of paraphrases, and this is from Constable, and he quoted other people. First one is, Father, my father. The second one is, my father, my own dear father. So the repetition, and then there's discussion, in reading there's discussion about the Israelites and Israelite writing about repeating a name in repetition and that was only allowed by relatives or something like that. You had to be a son or you had to be a relationship to a person to be able to say the name more than one time. I didn't, you know. Anyway, father my father or my father my own dear father.

Pretty interesting. So just a few closing thoughts here. So here's where Constable says, Constable, Newell, this is where Newell says. He didn't like, he didn't like it, basically he didn't like it. He looked for other things and he, poorly translated adoption. And then he quotes the thing about who he asked and the coming from, he called sons of the age and so on. But then he gets down some good points here.

God's children are begotten and born of God and are called technon, born ones of God. Thus they are directly related to God, partakers of the divine nature. But the word huyas means a child of coming of age, no longer a servant. This will culminate fully at the coming of Christ when our bodies, redeemed and fashioned anew, shall be conformed to Christ's glorious body. Meanwhile, because we are already adult sons, huyas, God has given us the spirit of adult sonship. All right, hopefully that was helpful. We'll carry on with that next week, more about the Holy Spirit and leading us and guiding us. Okay, let's close.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have. Lord, thank you that we can cry out, Abba, Father. We can relate to you personally as our Father, our Heavenly Father. And we thank you that we can do that as whenever we want, because you love us and so you care for us. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.