In this sermon, the speaker tells a story about a tall, strong slave who catches the attention of slave traders. The speaker then shifts to talking about a philosophy class he took where the professor asked a profound question about the purpose of life. The speaker reflects on how he has learned to control his sinful nature and feed his spiritual life. He concludes by reminding the audience that as children of God, they are sons and daughters of the King and should live accordingly.

While we were singing these grand hymns, the thought came to me, and I remember jotting in the flyleaf of my Bible many, many things that have come to me over the years, but how wonderful it is to know that you are God's child this morning. Think about that very simple fact we may take for granted, but it's marvelous to know that He has in His sovereign grace sought us out and made us His own. And here in the flyleaf of my Bible, I jotted down, I don't know who wrote this, but it's a wonderful thought. Why was I made to hear His voice and enter while there's room, while thousands make a wrecked choice and rather starve than come? It was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly forced us in, else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. Grand to know that He has won us by His grace. Great to be saved this morning. I hope you're rejoicing in that fact. You may not always feel up, but it doesn't make any difference what we feel like, it's what we are according to His word. I think I want to read to you a portion of Romans 8. We're going to press on just a step or two further this morning in our consideration of this grand chapter. Certainly wish we could have taken it more slowly and maybe considered each word or each phrase or given it more consideration, but we haven't had the time, so we've been sort of broadly approaching these truths. But if we'll pick up the story of the eighth chapter at the 14th verse. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmity, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Now, I hate to stop there, but I must. You get the feel that you're pulled into continued reading when you read these grand and glorious statements found in God's word. I guess at our last meeting we had brought ourselves up to the end of that verse 13, and you will notice the phrase that is used there, ye shall live. That's the last phrase of the verse concluding our previous study, and what a thrilling phrase it is. You shall live. Now, he's talking about a different kind of life, and special kind of life, all through here than mere physical existence. We know that. Talking about the fullness of life itself, and how full it does become when we have the experience of the new birth, and are brought into the family of God. Life itself is a mystery, we know that, and we don't have the answer to all the questions either concerning its origin, and certainly its purpose, or even its destiny. The philosophers of all time have juggled with those ponderous questions. It doesn't make any difference what school of philosophy you come from, or have been influenced by. These same questions have perplexed every philosopher of all time. Those questions are fairly simple. One is whimp. From where did we come? Origin. That's always been the intriguing mystery that has bothered mankind. From where did we come? Obviously, there are those who think we've had a low origin, others who are quite convinced, as we are, that we came from the creative fingers of God, and we reflect his image and likeness. And then there is always the question of why. What is life about, anyhow? What is it all about? Have you got all the answers to the why of life? I recall in a university class, we had a professor who was noted for being a harsh and hard man. He was an open, avowed agnostic. In his classes, he sometimes even ridiculed Christianity. But, he was noted for several things. Students would say in warning to those who followed them, look out for this fellow. You never know what kind of an examination he would give. He may come up with one with a hundred questions, or he may come up with one with two questions. I'd far rather, as a student, from a student point of view, take the guy that gives me a hundred questions. He's got a better percentage, maybe. I didn't make it. Well, anyway, this fellow, with us all through that term, we had pondered all the problems of philosophy. This was the class in philosophy. And I'd heard some strange things, found myself rankled and stirred up by what I heard. And then came examination time, and I remember his walking into the class saying, put away all books and notes and references and whatever. Prepare yourself for this examination, which will take two and a half hours. It is a timing on it, two and a half hour examination. He went to the blackboard and he said, here's the question. And he wrote, W-H-Y. And then said, get going. Why? Why what? Well, why anything? Why everything? Why what we've been studying about? In other words, he was demanding practically an essay, a thesis on the whole question of the purpose of life. Well, he was within bounds as a philosopher, because that has intrigued men. Whence? Why? And then the other question is, whither? Where do we go? When this mysterious thing, equally mysterious with life itself that we call death, when in one moment a human personality seems to be full and functioning, and in the next split second is silent, is gone, is unresponsive to any pleadings of love, or any urgings to respond. We call that thing death. Is that the end of this thing called life? Is there anything else beyond this? What, if anything, and where has that personality gone? And so, man has stood forever perplexed and puzzled by the whole question of death. And then, inserted in all of these three questions about our origin, and our destiny, and our purpose of existence, is another that the Greeks used to call, by a simple word, which was, whence evil? In the midst of it all, how do you explain the presence of evil? Sin, this strange, this inexplicable disease that afflicts mankind, and makes him behave oft times like an animal, and dely his divine origin. What's the cause of it? Where does it all begin? Now, I submit to you that the answers to every one of those questions are adequately found in this book, and nowhere else. In the word of God, in the revelation of God, and when we accept God's revelation, we will find that the answers to all of these questions are here. Maybe they're not always satisfying answers to us. We may feel we haven't yet found the complete answer to each phase of these questions, but they're here nonetheless. So, when Paul says, you shall live here, then I want to note some more things about the kind of life that he's been talking about. Really, up to this point in the book of Romans, we may say that we have seen life at its worst, man steeped in the blackest of sin. But, the great thesis of this letter, this whole letter, is that God has provided in his scheme of redemption a way to justify and make an unrighteous person righteous. To bring him out of his rebellion, out of his darkness, out of his slavery to sin, into liberty, and freedom, and fellowship, and relationship with God. That's the whole thrust of the early chapters of this book, as it revolves around the revelation concerning justification by faith. But, there's still a practical aspect of things. How does a person who is now a justified person, who does have a right relationship with God, whose guilt and condemnation has been adequately satisfied by the work on Calvary which our Lord performed, how does that person live his life from that point until death shall terminate it? Whether it be short or long, how does he live it? By what rules? What standards? Is it a constant struggle? Is it a battle? Is it adherence to a host of artificial religious rules? No. The great revelation that we discover in this letter is that it is a life which is the product of a law. It is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus which has set us free from another kind of law that dominated us from the moment of our birth, the law of sin and death. And so, you recall in our first study, we tried to show you how that the law of the spirit of life in Christ, Christ's very own life in us, is the dynamic of our new life. However, and Paul is very careful about this, and he's a practical man. He's not just, he's not simply a dreamer, not talking about, you know, some ethereal existence. He's talking about life in the raw, life that's real, and how we touch it. He says we're confronted with a real danger. The danger is that we will fail to allow the free operation of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus to work in our lives, and we may revert to an old law. You may have said to yourself once in a while when you've heard these dismal stories about the fall of some Christian leader, or if not a leader, some exemplary Christian friend in your circle of your fellowship. You say here's a man or a woman who walked with God for 30, 40 years, were even soul winners, were exemplary, and how could they have committed such a sin? How could they stoop to do what we've heard they've done? How is it possible, we ask? Well, I'm not sure I have the answer, but it seems to me that what has been happening in that person's life and experience has been this. For those 25 or 30 years when he's walked with God, he has been successful in caging the lions, the rapacious beasts of his fallen nature. He's learned some biblical secrets of how to curb, how to control the appetite of the flesh. Meanwhile, he's allowed the new life to develop, and he's fed it on a spiritual diet. But in the process of feeding the new life, he's had to starve the old, and maybe this may be the answer. It may well be that he has forgotten that those beasts are still alive. Those appetites, desires, those wants, those thrusts are still there, but they've been starved for such a long time, and in a moment, unguarded moment, when the door of the cage is left open, the beasts have left out, and they've overtaken and overcome this person. And we've discovered that the old appetites of the flesh, the old desires of the flesh, are even worse in their fierce ability to conquer us than ever before. I don't know whether that's the answer or not, but I know that we need to, the word of God exhorts us to eternal vigilance in this matter. And so Paul goes on to say here, that we are confronted with a real danger, and we have to face that danger. And so his warning concerning carnality and its consequences, and then he also shows the blessings and fruits of the Holy Spirit when he's allowed to dominate and control our lives. Now there are one or two other things that need to be noted here that I think are very, very important. He goes on to talk about our relationship to God as sons or children of God. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And then in verse 16, the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Now there you have two different terms, sons of God and children of God. They are not the same term, they're different words that are used here. In the Greek language, the language of the original New Testament, the word that he uses up here in verse 14, they are the sons of God, really is the word technon. Technon, which means children. It is a word denoting a birth relationship. We are children of God by virtue of birth, a birth experience. And that's why John 1 12 and 13 says, but as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the children of God. Not the sons of God, but the children of God, even to those that believe on his name. Because that verse is indicating that we need the birth relationship. And so he says here, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the children of God. Evidence that they are children of God is that they are led by, and they live in obedience to, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God. Now when he uses the term in verse 16, the Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God. Or, I've got this in reverse, so forgive me for this, that we are sons of God. In verse 16, that's the Greek word chios, and that is a word that indicates maturity. The other word indicates relationship, a birth relationship. This word indicates maturity. The Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are God's sons, and we are the ones who are the objects of his work in bringing us into maturity in Christ, and that's the work of the Holy Spirit to do that very thing. I suppose every child, I don't know, maybe it's just queer kids like me, have had this feeling sometime or other in your life that you may not have been the born child of your family, but that you were adopted. Did you ever have that feeling? That maybe, maybe they're hiding something from you, and they haven't told you that you were not born into the family you thought was yours, but you were adopted, and of course you were adopted I thought I was adopted out of the king's family. I was really basically a prince. See, instead of being just plain old me, I was a prince, and my folks, my parents were hiding that exciting truth from me, and so one day I went to my mother, and I said to my mother, am I really your kid? Was I born of you, or am I born of somebody else? You know what she said to me? I'll belt you in the mouth if you ever say that again. That was the best answer I could have received. That settled it once and for all. I knew then that I belonged in that family. I was not an adopted child. I was a born child. Now, Paul's going to talk about this question of adoption in just a moment, if you'll bear with me, because he says, you see, verse 15, we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but this is what we have received. We have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, I think we better slip on down to the, at this point, down to about verse 22. We know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. Yeah, there's something wrong in the creation. Those who study it carefully say that all the notes, the songs of the birds, and the sighing of the wind, and the sounds of the waves, and all the other sounds produced by nature are all in the minor key. I can't verify that because I don't know major from minor even, but I've heard that they're in the minor key, as if the creation is sighing and groaning. It's troubled. It's in pain. It's waiting for something. You see, when man sinned, he dragged with him his environment, his physical environment, and the creation was a sharer in the curse that followed Adam's disobedience and his fall. And we are living in a cursed creation, as beautiful as it is, as lovely as it can be, and it is often breathtakingly beautiful. What will it be like when all of the restrictions and the curse that rests upon it is removed? We have never seen a creation free from the curse of sin. We're accustomed to weeds and poisonous things in nature. We are accustomed to all the prohibitions that endanger our very lives. So, I must tell you that if you want to live in a paradise, the place to go is New Zealand. Did you know in New Zealand they have no snakes? They have no spiders. They have no, not any kind of an animal or insect that endangers human life inhabits the islands of New Zealand. That's paradise, isn't it? Besides, that is beautiful. So, if you're looking for that, and you're a little tired of Florida's mosquitoes once in a while, and worse yet, the one thing that I hate about Florida are these, they dignify them, they give them a name. They're plain old roaches, but they call them palmetto bugs. What a lovely name for a rotten roach, and they are the bane of my existence when I am down here in Florida. I just hate them. Well, if you get tired of all that, you might think about moving to New Zealand. At any rate, the whole creation is groaning, and it's acting like a woman who, it's the same word, travelis, a woman who is going through birth pangs, waiting for the birth of her child. So, the creation is suffering so, and not only they, but we too have some share in all of this. We who have the first fruits of the spirit, we've grown within ourselves, and what are we waiting for? What together are we waiting for? Creation, physical creation, and the new creation. What are we waiting for? We're waiting for the adoption. Notice, the adoption, that is the redemption of our body. Are you aware of the fact that the scriptures here teach us that our departed loved ones are not yet embodied? This bothers some Christians when they realize that our departed loved ones who have preceded us in the glory land are disembodied spirits. They don't have a body yet, because each one does not receive his body individually immediately after his death. We are, all of us, going to receive our resurrection bodies at the same time, and the same moment. See, and that's called the adoption here. Has nothing to do with relationship, it has to do with our maturity and our final perfection, and the creation is waiting for that moment when the sons of God will be manifested. How are they going to be manifested? They'll be seen by virtue of the fact that they are wearing new bodies. We know a little bit about those bodies. They will be fashioned like unto his glorious body, but we are waiting for that moment. All the saints in heaven are waiting now for that moment that is on the calendar of God, when God says, now is the moment when all of my redeemed children will receive their new body, their resurrection body. And in the meanwhile, between now and then, at least on this earthly pilgrimage in that period, we have received the Holy Spirit of Adoption, and here he's called Spirit of Adoption, because in some very marvelous way the Holy Spirit is associated with these bodies of ours. Not only while we're alive, but when they are raised from the dead. It apparently is the work of the Spirit of God to energize, to gather and energize the dust of our bodies, and raise them from their graves, and present them to our Lord Jesus. And in the meantime, he is called the Spirit of Adoption, whereby, by him, we are allowed to speak to God as our Father. And so we cry, Abba, Father. We have a right to address God as our Heavenly Father, because he's granted to us the Holy Spirit, whose name now is the Spirit of Adoption. So back there in verse 15, we haven't received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear, but we have received the Spirit of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. And the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are indeed the children of God. Now, if we're children, then we're also heirs. Heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. If children, then heirs. I've never inherited anything in my whole life, never. I have, my relatives are too poor. But you know, my folks were born, my father was born in Sweden. And when I was a little boy, he told us some fairy stories. Told me all about Santa Claus, I believe all he said. And then he told us, he said, you know, we have, you have a very rich uncle who lives in Sweden. His name is Sven. And he said, my father said, he is so rich, I don't know how rich he is. And of course, in a boy's mind, every day, my uncle Sven got richer, until eventually he owned half of Sweden, in my mind. And my father said, when he dies, he's going to leave all his money to us. Oh boy, did I start to dream. I want to tell you that I dreamed of what I would do with that money. In my time, I want you to know, I owned, I think it was 18 houses. I owned seven boats, a couple of airplanes, and I had cars coming out of my ears. I owned, you know, I was talking like this once, and some lady in the audience thought I really was that rich. I'm saying this was my imagination, see. And I got intrigued, and I decided I'm going to build a house of my own. I wanted to build a house like I wanted a house. And it was a very special house. In my bedroom, I had a closet, and that closet was filled with pennies. And every time you opened the door, pennies came out and knocked you down, and you had to swim through pennies. And it was delightful. If I were a kid dreaming today, I'd make it quarters. But nonetheless, there were pennies in those days. I never, I never figured out who put the pennies back, but I know that if I opened that door a dozen times a day, the pennies would all flow out. But when you're as rich as I was, you could have as many servants as possible. So I never worried about that factor. Then I, oh my bathroom, you should have seen that bathroom. I built a chocolate bathtub and filled it with soda water. Then I got in and drank the water and ate the tub. And it was marvelous. Was I ever rich? Gee, was I rich. Then one day I learned something terrible that brought me down to earth with a thump. There was no Uncle Sven. There was no inheritance. There were no riches. I was not an heir. Oh, what a bad day that was for me. Nearly as bad as when I discovered there was no Santa Claus. See, but when I got saved, I learned something else. That I had been born as an heir of the Lord Jesus, and I do have an inheritance, and so do you. It is incorruptible. It is undefiled. It's kept in the first Federal Reserve Bank of Heaven, whose resources are guaranteed. You don't have to worry. It doesn't diminish. And furthermore, all its depositors, those who have the right to what that inheritance, they are also reserved. They're kept by the power of God until the time when they can begin to draw down on their inheritance. Glorious to know that. And that's not a dream. That's a fact, based on a fact. And that begins to lend some dignity to life when you realize that we are heirs of God. Joint heirs. I don't understand all that. Joint heirs with Christ. What does that mean? A joint heir with Him. Well, all that's His, we have a share in. This vast universe, all of that, that's there. Staggers you. So, now, some of you may be suffering in the meantime. You may be going through times of great difficulty. So, I want to say a word, says the Apostle to you. I reckon, verse 18, that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. He is calling for us to lift our eyes from the now to the then. He's asking us to think not so much of this moment of distress, but those moments of glory when we will reflect truly the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says it's like a scale. If I take our sufferings and put those weights in one side of the scale, and over here is the glory, these weights of glory that God has destined for us, and us for it, He says there wouldn't be even the slightest flicker of the dial, because no matter how heavy are these sufferings, they are not anywhere near. You can't even compare them with the glory that shall be revealed in us. That's difficult to absorb, I know. And I'm certain that when the darkness comes and the trials beset us, and the path of God seems to lead us down into the shadows, it's a long time since we've seen sunlight, maybe during that time we begin to say, I can't accept this. You must accept it. It's true. It's true. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. And that's why he raises the whole question of the creation that is subject now to hope that has been under the bondage of sin, and it's going to be delivered when we are totally delivered, when the final installment of our salvation is granted to us, and that final installment involves a new resurrection body. It is dubbed here, called here, labeled here, the adoption, not a, the adoption. And when it occurs, and the sons of God are manifested, then the curse will be lifted from creation, and we will have the delightful joy of enjoying a creation totally delivered from the curse. In this day and age in which we are living, we are constantly amazed at how much we're discovering about our universe. The invention of powerful telescopes, space machines, new scientific theories are all expanding our universe, until you begin to realize that we are but an infinitesimal speck of dirt in this universe, the vastness of it. If God should take a deep breath and just blow it toward earth, planet earth, and it would disappear like this, it would have absolutely no effect, apparently, upon the operation of this vast universe of ours. And yet, on this speck of dirt, God has been pleased to erect the stage on which the whole drama of human redemption is played out, and we're involved in it. What's it going to be like when we can enjoy the vastness of a delivered creation? I don't know what your thoughts about heaven are. It's easy for us to let them get limited to some simple, simple things. Some people think that heaven is going to be nothing but one grand, glorious, forgive me, brother, concert. Well, I'm not a concert person. I can eat more peanuts in a concert, and sometimes sleep better in some concerts that I've gone to than you can imagine. And especially, especially, do I have trouble accepting harp concerts. Maybe it's because in our town there's a funeral parlor, and every time we had a funeral, there was a lady playing a harp down there. Whenever I hear the harp, I think of, I smell the flowers and think of the funeral, and I say, do I have to listen to this for 20 quadrillion years in heaven, Lord? Could I please go to sleep part of the time? If that's all we're going to do when we get to heaven is just have musical concerts. My petition is already registered in glory. I want a vacation as soon as I get there, and a pair of wings if I have to have wings. I want to move out into the vast universe. I think God made this universe for man, redeemed man to enjoy it. Not alone the glories of the earth, this little thing that we've been on, but maybe we will be able to inspect, and enjoy, and stand in constant awe of what's going to happen as we absorb the vastness of the creation delivered from the curse of sin. It will have the glorious liberty of the children of God, and we will in turn have a glorious liberty that we can hardly conceive of. Well, I think Paul has kind of swept us a bit away from the mundane, the ordinary, the commonplace of life, and parted the curtain just a bit so we can look down the vista of eternity yet to come, and give us a glimpse of the glory that we're headed for. What a difference that makes in life when you catch that glimpse. I was in the city of Lagos in Africa some years ago. I had been up in central Africa, up in the Ubangi-Shari district. Along the river, the Ubangi river, lived a special group of people, and they were noted, the women folk, were noted for something very special. They were the women who, in circuses in America, were called the Ubangi savages. They were the women with the big disc lips. You know, you've seen pictures of them, or maybe have seen them. And I saw ladies up there with lips that I could hardly believe. They had a bottom lip. One lady, I have a picture of her, she had a bottom lip that had a disc in it 12 to 15 inches in diameter, and a bottom lip inserted there. And the upper lip was about seven or eight inches in diameter. And I asked about how, why they did this. They said, well, a long time ago, the Arab slave traders came up into our country here, and they captured our people, and they dragged them down to the coast, and they sold them to slaves, and shipped them out to parts of the world. So that they wouldn't take our women, our little girls. As soon as a little girl was born, the mother would pierce the little girl's upper lip and lower lip, much as ears are pierced for earrings, and she would insert a little twig, tiny twig in that hole, and then let it heal. And when it had healed, she'd pull it out, and then insert a little thicker one in both lips, and keep that process up, increasing the size of the twig till it got to be a piece of wood, as big as I've just suggested, 12, 15 inches in diameter, stretching the lips. So they disfigured their women, so that the slave traders would be discouraged from taking them. They wouldn't bring a high price in the slave market. And they still, by tradition, carry on this process. And many of those women are so disfigured as even up to now. Well, then I went on down to Lagos, and I was preaching in the Church of England church there on the coast, right where you could see the ocean. And the vicar of the church began to tell me some stories. And he said, right out there, and I looked through the window, there's a tree that had been cut down, and all that was left was the stump. And it made a sort of a block on which a number of people could stand. He said, right on that slave block is where thousands upon thousands of people were auctioned off as human slaves. And many of them were sent to your country. I didn't feel too happy about that when he spoke about slaves in our country. And while he talked, in a way, he lost me, because I remembered a fine story. One of those, I guess it was a missionary that told me this, they said that when the Arabs went up there and they took a large number of captives and dragged them down, they would oftentimes tie their legs together with ropes, or their hands, or their necks in a long train. And they would scuffle and shuffle along, realizing that they were headed for maybe a terrible fate. But they said in this one instance, there was one tall, black, ebony giant. He was well over six feet tall, barrel-chested, slim-waisted, magnificent physical specimen. He was sweaty, and when the sun struck that wet body, it made his skin glisten like velvet. And he caught the eye of everybody, and particularly those slave traders. And they thought, oh, this man, he'll bring a high price. And they dragged him down to Lagos. They put him on the slave block and auctioned him. And while they were doing it, somebody said, who is that man? He is a magnificent specimen. And the Arab trader said, oh, he, he's the son of a king. And he never lets himself forget it, not for a moment. Well, I want you to know something. I'm a son of the king of kings. And I don't want anybody ever to forget that. And I don't want to forget it. And so are you. If you're born into his family, and you're his child, you're a son and daughter of the king. Don't ever forget it. Live like it. You're his. Father, we thank thee for thy word, and for what it tells us about the future that thou hast planned, and the glory that shall yet be revealed to us and in us, and that we'll share in. Lord, help us to remember, as we walk this pilgrim way, that we need not slink through life as though we were slaves. We've been delivered. We've been redeemed. We're free. And more than that, we're sons and daughters of the king. Help us to live that way. For Jesus' sake, and in his name. Amen.