The Best Chapter in the Bible (5): Lovers of Abba


Sermon by Derek Thomas on July 12, 2009 Romans 8:14-17

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The Lord’s Day Morning

July 12, 2009



Communion Sunday



Romans 8:14-17


“Lovers of Abba”



Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas

Blessed be
the Lord, the God of Israel who alone does wondrous things. Let us worship
God. All honor and blessing with angels above and thanks never ceasing for
infinite love. Our Father in Heaven, we come before you this morning desiring
to mingle our voices with the angels above, to worship you and adore you,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We come in the name of Jesus Christ and by the
strength of the Holy Spirit to worship you, our one true and living God. We
thank you, O Lord, that you have rescued us, delivered us, saved us from our
sins and iniquity, brought us into union and communion with Jesus Christ,
indwelt us by your Spirit, granted to us the Spirit of adoption so that now we
are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord for your blessing
upon this worship service that in all that we do, your great and glorious name
might be exalted. Come Holy Spirit and through the reading of your Word and the
signing of your Word and praying of your Word and preaching of your Word, and as
we behold the visible Word in the sacrament, Lord may all that we do this
morning enable us more and more to love our Savior Jesus Christ. We ask it all
in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Now turn with me, if you
would, to Romans chapter 8 as we continued our exposition of this chapter this
summer in a series that we have called “The Best Chapter in the Bible.” We come
this morning to verses fourteen through seventeen and we will be concentrating
just on some of the aspects of these glorious verses this morning.

I once conversed with a
man, a father, who had adopted a little child and, in the first few months of
that process, things evidently had gone reasonably well but it was the moment,
he told me, when this little child came up to him and said, “Daddy, can you help
me with my shoe laces?” that he realized the significance of adoption – that
this little child had called him for the very first time “Daddy.” Well,
adoption, the spirit of adoption, adoption as sons, that we are the children of
God is the theme of this passage that we are about to read and it is one of the
works or attributes of the Holy Spirit. Now, before we read the passage
together, let’s look to God in prayer.

Father, we thank you for
the Scriptures. Thank You that men wrote as they were carried along by the Holy
Spirit. We thank You this morning for a Word that is able to make us wise unto
salvation through faith, which is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We ask for Your
blessing. We pray, Lord, that as we read this passage that the Holy Spirit,
Himself, might illuminate what we read. Help us to read, mark, learn and
inwardly digest and all for Jesus sake. Amen.

Verse fourteen of Romans
chapter eight:

“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!’ The Spirit Himself
bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 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.” Amen.

And may God add His
blessing to that reading of His word.

Now, as we look at this
passage this morning, you will notice that several things are said about the
Holy Spirit. We are told in fact four things about the Holy Spirit.

1. The
Spirit of holiness.

He is the Spirit of holiness. In verse fourteen, all who are led by the Spirit
of God are sons of God; that leading is not the leading of guidance — should we
be a lawyer, should we be a doctor, should we be a brain surgeon or a bus
conductor — that is true the Spirit does lead and guide us but that is not the
intent of the apostle in verse fourteen. He is saying this is a consequence of
what he said in verse thirteen. In verse thirteen he has been talking about
mortification, putting sin to death. How do we know that we are children of
God? Because the Spirit leads us to put sin to death. He leads us into
holiness. He is the Spirit of holiness.

II. He is
the Spirit of Grace.

Now the second thing that is said about the Holy Spirit is found in verse
fifteen and it is put in the negative. He is the Spirit of grace. He is
the Spirit of grace. Now look at verse fifteen. It is in the negative. You
did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. There is an issue
here with the translation. In the ESV the pew bible, you will notice the spirit
of slavery as a small “s.” If you are using the King James Version you will
probably find that that is a capital “S.” Not so much the spirit that is within
us, not so much our spirit, but the Holy Spirit. You did not receive the Holy
Spirit as a spirit of slavery. What would Paul mean by that? Actually there is
a word that has been dropped out of the translation here. There is a word in
the original which says “again.” “You did not receive the spirit of slavery
again
to fall back into fear.”

What is Paul talking about? Well, there is a time in our experience as
Christians when that is precisely what we do receive. There is a sense in which
the spirit is a spirit of slavery. You go to the Scriptures, you go to the
Bible, you see the law of God, you see the commandments of God, you see that
injunction that you find in the Scriptures: do this and live. It was the
experience of Martin Luther as he began to try and find out the answer to the
question “What must I do to be saved?” What he discovered, of course, that the
more he did, the more into bondage and into slavery he found himself. By doing,
by trying to obey the commandments of God, he found himself in a position of
slavery and bondage. Now what Paul is saying here is that you have not received
the spirit of slavery again that drives you into fear but at one time you
experienced the spirit in that way.

Let me
illustrate it this way: in the Scottish Presbyterian Church, there was a
question that was asked by the elders when somebody wanted to become a member of
the church. To become a member of the church you had to make a profession of
faith. This would assume now an adult seeking membership in the church and
making their profession of faith. How would you know that that profession of
faith is genuine? One of the questions that the elders would ask this
prospective member of the church was this — it’s a wonderful question — have you
been to Sinai? That was the question they asked. Have you been to Sinai? Not
have you been to the Peninsula of Sinai in the Middle East but have you been to
Sinai — namely have you experienced the work of the law that drives you into
bondage? Have you understood that by the works and deeds of the law no man can
be saved? Do you know what it is to experience conviction of sin? Have you
been to Sinai? What will you see if you go to Sinai? You will see thunder and
lightning. You will see the threats of the covenant God against those who do
not perform and do the works of the law. Now, what Paul is saying here is we
haven’t received the spirit of bondage. We haven’t received the spirit of
slavery again to fear but, on the contrary, and this is a third thing he says
about the Holy Spirit, we have received the Spirit as a spirit of adoption as
sons by whom we cry “Abba, Father.”

III. He is
the Spirit of adoption.

He is the Spirit of adoption. I will never forget walking down the streets of
Jerusalem. I was — this was twenty years ago — I was leading a tour. It was
the one and only time I will ever lead a tour anywhere in the world. But, I was
walking down the streets of Jerusalem and heading in the direction of the
Wailing Wall and, just in front of me was a Jewish man and his little son. He
was all dressed in black. He was of the stricter sect of Jews. He had the
typical Jewish black hat on and phylactery on his forehead and the strings
hanging from his waist and so on, and his little boy was dressed identically to
him. The boy looked, I don’t know, five or six years of age and he was late or
at least he was walking very quickly, and the little boy was taking a few steps
and then skipping a few because he was trying to catch up with his father. And
he kept saying over and over and over, “Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba” and then the
father turned to him, bent down, picked him up and carried him.

Now, I knew — because I had studied Hebrew and Aramaic — I knew that little boys
referred to their father in Hebrew by the term “Abba.” I knew that. I knew
that in my head. But, when I saw this little boy referring to his father as
“Abba” a light went on because that’s the term that we use to refer to our God
in heaven, the God of creation, the God who is holy. No, more than that, the
God of Sinai, the God who threatens, the God who thunders that those who do not
do the works of the law will be condemned — that God–that there is a way in
which we can come before this holy God there is and call Him “Abba, Abba,
Father.” It is the greatest blessing of the new covenant.

If I were to
ask you this morning what is the distinctive feature that distinguishes the new
covenant from the old covenant. What is it, as you step from Malachi into
Matthew, as you go from the old covenant into the new covenant, what is the
distinctive feature that makes the new covenant, new? Now that is a question
worthy of a seminary student to answer for sure, but it is a question that every
Christian needs, in some way, to answer. Let me answer the question for you by
saying that the distinctive feature of the new covenant is that we call God
“Father
.” Abraham would never have called God “Father.” Moses would never
have called God “Father.” Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos would never have called God
“Father.” It is the distinctive blessing of the new covenant that we have this
most intimate close fellowship in the family of God. We, who are the fallen
sons of Adam by nature, have by the Holy Spirit been brought by new birth into a
new family, the family of God. We use the same word and — think about this — it
should take your breath away — that we call God by the same term that Jesus
called God. When He addressed His heavenly father it was this word, Abba,
that he employed. We are in the same family in which Jesus is our elder
brother.

Now you may be proud of
your families and I know that you are. You like to talk about them. I like to
talk about mine. I like to show pictures of my grandchildren and bore you to
death. But the greatest privilege of all of every single Christian this morning
is we belong to this extraordinary family. Our older brother is none other than
Jesus Himself. Now, isn’t that a privilege? Isn’t that a blessing?

I
once was an outcast, stranger on earth,

A sinner by
choice, an alien by birth

but I’ve been
adopted, my name’s written down

an heir to a
mansion, a robe and a crown.

I’m the child of a king!

I’m the child
of a king, with Jesus, my savior,

I’m the child
of a king!

A
tent or a cottage, why should I care?

They are
building a palace for me over there.

Though exiled
from home, yet still I may sing

all glory to
God, I’m the child of a king.

I’m the child
of a king!

And the child
of a king, with Jesus, my savior,

I’m the child
of a king!


He

is the Spirit of adoption
.

IV. The
Spirit of witness.

Now there is a fourth thing. Not only is He the Spirit of holiness and not only
is He the Spirit of grace, not only is He the Spirit of adoption, but He is
also the Spirit of witness
. You see that in verse sixteen. The Spirit
Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Now, how does the Spirit bear witness with our spirit? Go back to verse
fifteen. By whom we cry “Abba, Father.” Now focus in on that word cry. It is
a very specific word in the original Greek. It is not used that often but it is
used of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He cried “Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me.” As we are coming to the Lord’s Table, let
us remember that cry of our Lord. It is not, you see — we might be tempted to
think that the Spirit witnesses with our spirits when we are on the mountain
top. I’ve been on the mountain top this week. I was on the mountain top. I
had the greatest honor and privilege that I think I shall ever have. Now, it is
an honor to be sure to be in the pulpit of First Presbyterian Church — do not
get offended by what I am about to say. But on Thursday evening on the eve of
Calvin’s 500th birthday, I was given the privilege of preaching in
Calvin’s pulpit. Now, that may not mean a whole lot to you but to a
Presbyterian preacher it doesn’t get bigger than that. That is a great honor.
Ligon did it on Tuesday night. I felt the witness of the Spirit. At least I
felt something. I was all goose pimply, but that is not what is being said
here. Actually, what is being said here is more — and I’m going to use the word
precious — because it is in the depths of despair and darkness, when we are at
our wit’s end, when all we can do is cry “Father” that is the witness of the
Spirit. When you are conscious that there is no one else that you can turn to
except your Father in heaven, it is at that point, not on the mountain top so
much, but in the deepest, darkest valley, there is the witness of the Spirit
with our spirits that we are the children of God. What a great blessing that
is.

I don’t know
where you are this morning. You may be in that dark valley because of
circumstances, because of trials and difficulties too numerous to mention this
morning, and right there, you do not need to climb to the mountain top, right
there in the valley where you are this morning, you may turn to your heavenly
Father. And the Holy Spirit who indwells you witnesses with your spirit and
says He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. He will never abandon
you. He will never deny you. You are mine. You are mine. He is the
Spirit of witness.

Now next Lord’s
day we want to see how the Spirit of witness functions in the midst of
suffering. You notice there in verse sixteen and seventeen that we are the
children of God and, if children, then heirs. And, catch this, heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Jesus Christ.

Where is Jesus this
morning?

Now, when we
celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we tend sometimes wrongly and mistakenly to bring
Jesus down. Rather, the Lord’s Supper should remind us that Jesus is actually
in Heaven. He is not only crucified, he has risen from the dead. He is sitting
at God’s right hand. He has in His flesh and blood, gone to be at God’s right
hand and this morning let us, in the Lord’s Supper, lift up our hearts and
fellowship and feed upon Christ who is sitting at God’s right hand. Because we
are heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

A tent or a cottage — why
should I care?

They are building a palace
for me over there.

“In my Father’s house are
many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am there you will be also.”

Where I am — at the right hand of God, beholding the beatific vision of God,
there every child of God who trusts in Jesus only will be also. What a
blessing! What a blessing that is.

Let us pray together.

Father, we thank You now
for this word of Scripture. We pray that You would hide it within our hearts.
We pray that You would help us now as we prepare to come to the Lord’s table.
Help us to relish, to joy in our souls, at the prospect that now are we the sons
of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. We ask it in Jesus name.
Amen.


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—————————————————-



The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper



As we come to celebrate the
Lord’s Supper, let’s give our attention once again to the Words of Institution
as we find them written by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus
in the night in which He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks,
He broke it, and said, “This is My body which is for you, Do this in remembrance
of Me.” In the same way, he took the cup also saying, “This cup is the new
covenant in My blood, Do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s
death until He comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks of the cup of
the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the
Lord. A man must examine himself and in so doing, he is to eat of the bread and
drink of the cup, for he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to
himself if he does not judge the body rightly.

The Lord’s Supper is a
sacrament. It is one of two sacraments, along with Baptism, God has given us
these “visible words,” as Augustine referred to them, bread and wine, two common
items of an ordinary meal, at least in Jesus’ day. They remain bread and wine.
We will pray a little prayer in a minute, in which, in Presbyterian language, we
“set apart these common elements for holy use.” Well, that’s just jargon of
course, meaning, that we want God to bless our fellowship together as we
celebrate the Lord’s Supper, but it remains bread and it remains wine–or grape
juice. They are pictures. They are meant to remind us or draw us to the
Lord Jesus.

As we eat bread and as we drink wine, we are to be reminded of the fact that
Jesus gave His life for us. He didn’t just come to the world to be a good
example. He died for us. He shed His blood for us. He endured God’s covenant
curse for us. And in God’s great mercy and goodness, by the Spirit of Adoption,
has brought us into the family of God. We are Sons of God, heirs of God, and
joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

Now, this isn’t just the Supper of First Presbyterian Church. It is for every
believer. If you are not a believer this morning, if you are not trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ, then observe. Observe and be convicted about your need
of salvation and turn to Jesus Christ. Don’t come to the table; come to Jesus.
But all of those here this morning, not just those that are members of First
Presbyterian Church, but to all who are members of evangelical churches wherever
that might be, we invite you to fellowship along with us as we feed on Jesus
Christ for the nourishment of our souls.

Let’s pray together.

Father, we thank You now
for the Lord’s Supper. We thank You because these are elements that remind us
so very forcibly that we are not our own, but that we have been bought with the
price- the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord,, that as we
eat and drink this morning, that we might do so, looking to Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Encourage us, challenge us, convict us, draw us to
Jesus. Help us to be able to say this morning, “for me to live is Christ and to
die is gain.” Help us O Lord, as we struggle with sin. Help us as face all
kinds of suffering and sorrow and trial, to know that You have promised never to
leave us nor forsake us. We are in union with Christ and nothing can change
that. So grant your blessing. We ask it all in Jesus’ name, Amen.


The Apostles’ Creed

Since the Lord’s Supper is
for professing believers–those who have trusted in Jesus Christ for their
salvation, it is appropriate that as we gather together to commune, that we
confess our faith together. You will find the Apostle’s Creed in the back of
your hymnal. Christian, what do you believe?

I believe in
God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ,

His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He
descended into hell. The third day, He rose again from the dead. He ascended
into Heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From
thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy
Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of
sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting, Amen.


The Ten Commandments

By reciting the Ten
Commandments, directly adjacent to this Gospel ordinance of the Table, we are
reminding ourselves of several biblical truths. One of those truths is the fact
that we are forgiven of our sins through the sufficient work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So if you are a believer here today, you can gather in confidence, in
confession of your sin, and in repentance, seizing upon Christ in faith, knowing
that He has fully atoned for all of your sin. And so it reminds us of that
forgiveness.

And secondly, it reminds us of the reality that we are to be holy. Those who
commune with the Lord Jesus Christ and have received Him in salvation, have also
been called into a life that is worthy of the Gospel. We are to be those who
like David, can now read this law and delight in it. That we would walk this
very character, the character of Christ, conformed into our very hearts and
lives.

But most of all and thirdly, it reminds us of that perfect obedience. As we
stare into the face of Christ, as we lift up our hearts to that glorious
presence, right now, around the throne of God, we know that we have a Savior, in
whom His sufficient work will cover all past, present, and future sin, so we can
put our knees as it were, up underneath this table, and know that He has by His
work, made it so.

So in your bulletins, you
will find the Ten Commandments. Please recite them with me.

1.
You shall have no other gods before Me.

2.
You shall not make for yourself an idol. You shall not worship them or
serve them.

3.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

4.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

5.
Honor your father and your mother

6.
You shall not murder.

7.
You shall not commit adultery.

8.
You shall not steal.

9.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10.
You shall not covet.


The Words of Institution of the Lord’s Supper

On the night in which He
was betrayed, Jesus took bread and broke it and said, “This is My body which is
for you. Take, eat, this do in remembrance of Me.”

(elements distributed)

In the same way, after
supper, the Lord Jesus took the cup and said, “This is the new covenant in My
blood. As often as you drink it, do this in remembrance of Me.”

(elements distributed)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave His
only begotten Son. That whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have
everlasting life.”

“I’ve been crucified with Christ. It is no
longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life that I now live in
the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself
up for me.”

“God demonstrates His own love towards us in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Let us pray together.

Our Father in Heaven, we
do bless You and thank You for communing with us in this supper. We remember
the great and glorious promises — covenant promises which You have extended to
us in the Word and have made true, have fulfilled, and indeed have made
beautiful before our hearts today. Father, we recall all of those who have come
to this table throughout history, who have had a foretaste and have enjoyed
communion with you. And yet Lord, many of those we have loved, have passed from
this place into Your loving arms and do now know in full expression, of what
that communion would be. Father, we look forward to that day in which we will,
with Your Son, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, partake in the Marriage Supper
of the Lamb, for there, we will know all of the joys of the heavenly places.
Help us now, O Lord, by grace, to continue to persevere, to walk the walk of
faith, to have and to hold the Lord Jesus Christ with full assurance, knowing
that He will carry us until the end. It is in that promise and with that hope
we pray, Amen.

Let us conclude our
communion together by singing our hymn of response, number 252, When I Survey
the Wondrous Cross
.

[Benediction]

Grace, mercy, and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, be with you all, Amen.

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