The Spirit Applies a New Family

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Revelation 5:11-14
• Hymn — Thee We Adore, Eternal Lord (#223)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Heidelberg Catechism — Lord's Day 22 (Questions 57–58)
• Hymn of the Month — His Robes for Mine
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — Arise, My Soul, Arise (#275)
• Benediction — Numbers 6:24-26

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Sermon Title: The Spirit Applies a New Family

Scripture: Romans 8:12-17

I. The Obedience of Your New Family Experience

A. The believer's new obligation — not to the flesh, but to the Spirit (Romans 8:12)

1. The flesh has no claim on the believer; the debt now belongs to the Spirit
2. The Spirit frees believers from the power of sinful flesh and empowers godly obedience

B. The Spirit's leading and the believer's activity work inseparably together (Romans 8:13-14)

1. The Spirit's leading evokes the leading of Israel in the wilderness — externally by a pillar of fire, now internally as a life-giving fire (Nehemiah 9:12)
2. Mortification — the believer actively puts to death the deeds of the body, but only by and with the Spirit
3. John Murray: "The activity of the believer is the evidence of the Spirit's activity, and the activity of the Spirit is the cause of the believer's activity"
4. Mortification is a lifelong work; the Spirit never browbeats but leads by an enlivening and persuasive leading

C. All who are led by the Spirit are sons of God (Romans 8:14)

1. Daily obedience is the experience of new family membership
2. The Spirit's work in obedience evidences sonship

II. The Admittance of Your New Family Experience

A. The contrast between the spirit of slavery and the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15)

1. Before Christ, bondage to sin produced a fearful, cowering experience of God
2. Believers have received the Spirit of adoption — no longer slavish fear, but childlike access

B. The cry of "Abba, Father" — the experiential access of the adopted child

1. Jesus himself used this cry at his darkest hour in Gethsemane
2. John Murray: the repetition indicates the warmth and confidence with which the Spirit emboldens God's children to draw near
3. This access is not universal — God is not the universal Father; only those in Christ may pray "Our Father"
4. Without the Spirit, to call God "Abba, Father" is presumption and arrogance

C. Practical exhortation: Have you come to enjoy your access to the Father — in battle with sin, in distress, in doubt?

III. The Inheritance of Your New Family Experience

A. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16)

1. The cry of "Abba, Father" is itself part of the Spirit's inner testimony

B. Children are heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17)

1. Union with Christ means what is Christ's becomes ours — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ cannot be separated

C. The now inheritance — suffering with Christ

1. Christ's entire incarnate life was marked by humiliation and suffering, culminating in bearing the Father's wrath on the cross
2. Believers suffer with Christ in rejection and ridicule for his sake, in striving against remaining sin, and in the fallenness of the world
3. Sharing in Christ's sufferings conforms believers more and more to him (Philippians 3:10)
4. The Christian can and should rejoice in suffering because through it they share in Christ

D. The then inheritance — glorification with Christ

1. Christ's suffering issued in his glorification and resurrection as firstfruits and guarantee
2. Believers will be brought body and soul into full, eternal, weighty spiritual life with God — fullness of life as God always intended
3. "The Lord is my portion" (Lamentations) comes to fulfillment now in part, then in fullness
4. 2 Corinthians 4:17: "This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison"