Children of God

Children of God

Why don't we pray while we're standing? Gracious God, we thank you for thepromise that you will be with us by your spirit, and we pray your spirit mightnow open your word to our hearts, and our hearts to your word, and we pray itin Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.

Welcome, everyone. My name is Greg, and if I have not met you before,please come and say hello at the end of church, and please stay if you can formorning tea. That would be excellent.

If you've just arrived today and you have no context about what's goingon, we are following a series of addresses, if you like, a series of studiesfrom Paul to the Romans, and we find ourselves today in Romans chapter 8.Around my house, I tend to have the radio on, and it tends to be tuned into ABCSydney. It drives my daughter mad. I think she comes in and turns it off, and Iturn it on and leave it on, and it just wafts around. I vaguely heard themsaying on ABC something, they mentioned Romans 8, and my ears pricked up, and Ithought, "Oh, that's interesting, they're talking about Romans 8 on theABC." It turns out it was archaeology, and they've discovered, they thinkthey know what Romans ate, what was in their stomachs. So there you go, we areup to Romans 8.

The Centrality of Romans 8

I'm going to make an ambitious and wild claim, and I'm going to say toyou that I would suggest to you that the center of the Bible is Paul's letterto the Romans. That is a wild and ambitious claim. And I'm going to suggest toyou that the center of Romans is Romans chapter 8. I don't mean it's themedian page number in the Bible, I don't mean that, but I mean the centralthrust you'll find in Romans, and Romans 8 is such a majestic chapter. I wonderwhat would happen if you just studied that chapter in detail. You just took itand said, "I'm going to really try and wrestle with this and think itthrough and turn it over in my mind for a good long period of time." Iwonder what sort of answers you'd come up with for life.

Answers for Life from Romans 8

When you look outwardly at the world, and you look at things like worldgeopolitics, and Gaza, and the Ukraine, and pandemics, and refugees, andwhatever you make of the 21st century and perhaps the century that went beforeit, Romans 8:22 for example would say the creation is groaning. It wouldsay there's something inherently wrong, there's something very right about ourworld, but there's something also inherently wrong about it. It talks about thecreation being in bondage to decay. If you want an answer for the things thatare not right in our world, that would be at least part of the Bible's answer.

Then when you look inwardly at your own life, you might say, "Whathave I done with my life? What am I going to do with my life? How do you makesense of where your life is going? Is there some sort of narrative that holdsit all together?" And really all sorts of people have got a narrativeabout how they feel like their life holds together. Romans 8:28 would saythis: God works all things for good. In the Bibles that you've got on thered Bibles in the seats, which I'm following page 1119, there's a littlesubheading there that says "more than conquerors," and in thatsection there it says God works all things for good.

Then perhaps you might wonder to yourself if you're going to make itthrough each year. About each year we do one revolution of the sun. Everybirthday is another time around the sun. You might wonder to yourself,"Will I make it to the end? If God is calling me to this heaven, will Imake it there? And will it be any good?" And Romans 8:39 says,"Nothing will separate us from the love of Christ." Nothing. Sothere's great richness and loftiness in this chapter, so majestic.

But my title today, my topic for today is children of God and the spiritof God. Later on in the service, we will all stand and we'll say the NiceneCreed, and when we say the Nicene Creed, one thing we'll say is we believein the Holy Spirit. Now when you say that, what are you thinking? What isit that you're thinking you believe in? What do you mean when you say it? Westudied John 14-17 a few months ago, and that is an extended period of Jesusteaching about the Holy Spirit, and someone said to me, "I can't rememberhearing a sermon on the Holy Spirit before." And I thought, "Well,that's really interesting if that's true." So that's what we're focusingon today. We're focusing on Paul's teaching on the Holy Spirit and beingchildren of God, the spirit of God and children of God.

Living the New Life

If you're someone who knows what it feels like to sense this gap betweenwhat you read on the page in the Bible and what you experience in life, thenthis is very much for you this morning. If you've been following the logic ofPaul's so far, what he's outlining now is he's outlining the challenges ofliving this new life. What does it mean now? What does it mean for you now?What can God do for you now? I know when I was about 17 or 18 years of age,that was my question: "Can God do anything for me now? Can he do somethingfor my family situation? Can he do something for my friendship situation? Canhe do something for my career possibly that's in front of me? Can he doanything now?" And this is talking about living the new life, and youmight think to yourself, "It's too hard, I can't live the new lifethat's set out before me." Let me say, God is much more optimisticabout this than you are.

Because when a person turns to Christ and trusts in Christ, God putshis spirit within them. That's the big point of this morning. When you turnto Christ, just the average person, and put your trust in the Lord JesusChrist, God puts his spirit within you.

Just imagine next week I said to you, "We are having the SydneySymphony Orchestra come here to Christ Church Lavender Bay, and they are goingto play a brand new symphony by this exciting new composer." And youthink, "Ah no, not the new stuff!" But no, this composition, thissymphony is going to be written in the essence of Mozart, to the standard ofMozart, and the composer who has written in this new symphony is you. And youthink to yourself, "This is impossible, I could not do that."But what if I said to you, "I could give you the spirit of Mozart."Well, you'd be confident, you might even enjoy it.

A few years ago, I was with my family, and we'd been on a camping trip,and we found ourselves in Bathurst, and we thought, "Let's go around MountPanorama." You might know that you can actually drive around the actualcircuit. So there I was at the top of Mount Panorama in my Nissan Patrol with acamper trailer on the back, five other humans in the car, four of them saying,"Come on Dad, give it a go, take us around the mountain." And theother person was saying, "Don't be so stupid as to try that." And youmight know that Mount Panorama is actually a mountain. It's a 600 foot drop.It's scary enough going around some parts at 60 km an hour, let alone having torace around it. But what if I put you in a V8 Supercar with Shane Van Gisbergenin the driver's seat? You don't even know who Shane Van Gisbergen is, but letme tell you, he's won the Bathurst 1000 three times in the last five years.They call him now currently the King of the Mountain. So if I put you in a V8Supercar with him in the driver's seat, it would still be breathtaking, but youhave someone far greater than you behind the wheel.

And that is what God has done. The Bible says, Paul the Apostle says, Godhas given his spirit to his people. Look down in the passage there, page1118, look at verse 8, he says, "Those controlled by the sinful naturecannot please God." But then he says verse 9, "You however arecontrolled not by the sinful nature but by the spirit, if the spirit of Godlives in you." He's talking about here God putting his spirit withinyou to change you. Last week, if you were here, I was talking about themetaphor of being a volume one and a volume two person. Everyone's born avolume one person, but when you turn to Christ you become a volume two person,and the volume two person has God's spirit within them. Just the averagegarden variety believer has God's spirit within them.

Beyond Genetics and Past Experiences

Now you might think that you are just determined by your genes, that'sall you are, genetic determinism, it's your nature. You're stuck, for example,with the face you've got. Short of plastic surgery, you're stuck with the faceyou've got. Congratulations, you've done pretty well, all of you have lovelyfaces. But you're not stuck with your character. You may think toyourself, "I have parts of my life that I find disappointing, there areparts of my life where I'm just not what I want to be, let alone what God wantsme to be, and it can't be changed." But the Bible says it can be changed becauseGod has put his spirit within you.

What he refers to here as the sinful nature is that constant inwardinfluence that causes us to live just for ourselves, where we constantly oreven from time to time ignore God's direction and God's leading. That's thenature he's speaking of there. But when you turn to Christ, he says you geta new nature. In one part of the Bible it says the old has gone and the newhas come. Sure you're going to make mistakes, but now God's spirit is withinyou, so things are different.

Or there's that other common view which is very much a part of our worldthat says you're just a product of your past. You have had a set of experiencesin life. Sometimes it's described as your family of origin, and your family oforigin has shaped who you are. Maybe we might call that nurture, naturenurture. Those are the two factors that have changed us, and there's some truthto the fact that your past experiences do shape who you are, and your family oforigin does shape who you are, but with the spirit of God, you're much moremalleable than you think. You're not determined by that, you're not ruledby your genetics or by your experiences. God puts his spirit within you.

The Spirit of God is God

Now I might have said before, the spirit of God is not like a magicalforce, like in Star Wars, some vague energy field that helps out the Jedi. Thespirit of God is God, a person, not just a force, not just a disembodied power,not an it, not an energy system. The spirit of God is God from alleternity, and God by his spirit lives, if you're a believer, in you. Andyou need to keep telling yourself that. It's not just God up above, he's upthere somewhere, like the man up there is up there, or even Jesus who livedwith us for 33 years, but quite a long time ago. The Bible is saying thatGod, if you're a believer, lives in me, lives in you, the moment you say,"I'll trust Christ," he comes and lives with you. You may notfeel any different, you may not glow in the dark like someone who'sradioactive, but the spirit lives within you.

The Power of the Spirit

And this spirit is very powerful because it says in verse 11, "Ifthe spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he whoraised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies throughhis spirit." In other words, it's the same spirit that raised Jesus fromthe dead who lives in you. I would have loved to have been a fly on thewall in the tomb that Jesus was buried in. I would have loved to have been ableto see him come to life again. He was dead, now he is alive. The spirit whoraised him from the dead must be awesomely powerful, and the Bible says that Godhas all that power at work in me today through his spirit.

The Spirit Helps Us Pray

It says here that the spirit helps us in our prayer. Have a lookat verse 26. "In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. Wedon't know what we even ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedesfor us with groans that words cannot express." "And he whosearches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedesfor the saints," that's people like us, "in accordance withGod's will."

We know what it's like to groan, don't we? I mean, there's a lot ofgroaning in this passage. We know what it's like to groan. Sometimes we don'tknow what to pray. Sometimes our prayers are weak. Sometimes we think toourselves, "Everyone else seems to know what to pray, but I don't actuallyknow what to pray." And the prayers are very unimpressive quite often,even our own in our own hearts. But it says here, the spirit intercedes.In other words, we're praying away about this and that and some other thing,and the Holy Spirit is saying, "Father, if this person knew you like Iknew you, like I know you, then this is what he'd be saying."

Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, in his own way, he puts itlike this. He says, "If I were to come into your house, I might find therea little child that cannot yet speak plainly. It cries for something and makesvery odd and objectionable noises combined with signs and movements which arealmost meaningless to a stranger. But his mother understands him and attends tohis little pleadings. A mother can translate baby talk. She comprehendsincomprehensible noises. Even so doth our father in heaven know all about ourpoor baby talk, for our prayer is not much better. He knows and comprehends thecryings and moanings and sighings and chatterings of his bewilderedchildren." "Yes, a tender mother knows her children's needs beforethe child knows what it wants. Perhaps a little one stutters, stammers, andcannot get the words out, but the mother sees what he would say and takes themeaning." And Paul is saying that the spirit does that for us betweenus and God.

And you know something? Nothing will drive out the Holy Spirit, noteven your failures. Doesn't matter how badly you failed, even that will notdrive out the Holy Spirit. Jesus says the spirit is within you forever.

Do You Have the Spirit?

So lastly, and the obvious question is, do you have the spirit? Do I havethe spirit of God? How would I know that? Well, you could work it out bylooking into your life: "Do I have the fruits of the spirit, love, joy,peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, humility, self-control?" And if youasked yourself that question, it would be a very depressing answer, wouldn'tit? Don't look into your own life to see whether you have the spirit. It'llbe very ambiguous at best and very depressing.

"Do I have the gifts of the spirit, sometimes the spectacular giftsof the spirit, or just the commonplace gifts of the spirit? Do I have the giftof encouragement? Do I have the gift of teaching?" Again, it's all aboutmy performance. Because I would conclude, if I looked at that, I'd concludethat sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. The gifts of the spirit, they failme all the time. I don't clearly have them all the time.

Don't look to see whether you've got the fruits of the spirit. Don't lookto see whether you have the gift of the spirit. Have a look at verse 15 to 17. "For you did not receive aspirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit ofsonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba Father.' The Spirit himself testifies withour spirit that we are God's children." "Now if we arechildren, then we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we sharein his sufferings in order that we may share in his glory."

You cannot call out to God as father unless you have the spirit of God.The spirit of God allows you to call out to God as father. Now it's not just saying the magicwords, because anyone can say the magic words. Anyone can call God father, justsay the words, the Lord's prayer. Jesus said to people to pray the Lord'sprayer. All sorts of people pray the Lord's prayer who don't actually believein God. "Even our father in heaven." I've said the magic words,whether I believe it or not.

It's where you say it and mean it. It's where you call God your fatherand mean it. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 says, "No one can call on Jesus as Lordunless the spirit of God is within them." You can say the words,that's simple, but you can't say it and mean it unless the spirit of God iswithin you. And Paul says here the test is if you can call on God as father,Abba father. Abba is an Aramaic term which conveys the idea of intimacy.It's very hard to get an English translation. You could call it"dad," but that's a little bit too crass and simple. You might usethe word "papa." But the idea that you can call on God as familiarlyintimate.

One of the things about having grandchildren is you get to decide whatyou get called, and I've decided my grandchildren are going to call me"Papa," and that's the idea that is here, that you can call on God asfather. We know we have, we know this because the third person of theTrinity, the Holy Spirit, allows us to call on the second person of theTrinity, Jesus, as Lord, and we know it because the third person of theTrinity, the Holy Spirit, causes us to call on the first person of the Trinityas father.

How can it be that I can call on God as father, knowing who I am, knowingwhat I'm like, knowing how great he is and how he is white in purity? How can Icall on him as father? It's only by the spirit that I can do that.

Intimacy with the King

Late last year, perhaps you woke up on a Sunday morning and you decidedto yourself, just imagine if it wasn't true, but just imagine it was late lastyear, decide, "I'm not going to go to Lavender Bay to church. Webby's onagain, so I need a bit of a change. I'm going to head up to St. Thomas's."And you go up to St. Thomas's, which is up the road there. I'm not suggestingyou do that, of course, but just say you did.

On that particular Sunday morning, you can barely get close to thechurch. There's just traffic everywhere, there's police everywhere, there'scrowds everywhere. You can't get a park, you've got to park miles away, you'vegot to walk up. And as you get closer, there are crowds and crowds of people,and it's very exciting, and people are waving flags, and people are very politeand watching their P's and Q's, and there are cameramen there, and there arenews crews there. And it's a great moment in life because people are going tosee the sovereign, King Charles, who's visiting Sydney, and everybody's craningaround to see and see if they can get a look at him and maybe someone's on theedge of the crowd and maybe he's shaking hands with them or...

And then suddenly, someone from behind yells out, "Good day, Dad!How are you going?" It would need to be a member of the family,wouldn't it? It would need to be a member of his household to do that. It wouldbe totally inappropriate for someone to do that. I mean, it could be aRepublican just there trying to make a bit of fun of him, but if it's said withany genuineness, any sincerity, it would have to be a member of the familywho could call him dad. Only a son or a daughter could do it.

Paul is saying here today, if you got your trust in Christ, you haveGod's spirit, and you can go home today, you can sit down somewhere in a quietchair, and you can speak to God as your father, and you mean it. Do you have the Holy Spirit? Are youa child of God? If so, you have such an enormous privilege.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we treasure the privilege of being able tocall you that and to do it with sincerity, and for it to be a real descriptionof our relationship with you. We thank you that the Lord Jesus has come toearth, he's come to die, he's come to rise, he's come to give us his spirit,such that we can be part of that family. Please give us the same optimism thatyou have as to the ability of your spirit to work in our lives, to change us,to change our prayers, to change our character, and we pray all this in Jesus'name. Amen.

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