♪♪♪ <i>female announcer: What if one
chapter could change your life?</i> <i> What if there was one passage
of Scripture that allowed you</i> <i> to leave the past behind you,
to look beyond</i> <i> your present challenges,</i> <i> and provided the hope
for a brighter tomorrow?</i> <i> Turning the page
to these powerful words</i> <i> can turn a page in your life,</i> <i> giving you the confidence
you need</i> <i> for every step you take.</i> <i>Words that contain God's desire
to breathe renewed life</i> <i> into you through
a divine promise</i> <i> just waiting to be claimed.</i> <i> A promise that you
will never be abandoned,</i> <i> never be alone,
and always be cared for.</i> <i> A promise that you are chosen
and called by God.</i> <i> How would your life change
if you knew</i> <i> you could endure every trial?</i> <i> That nothing could stand
in your way,</i> <i> knowing there's nothing
God wouldn't do for you?</i> <i> Is it too hard to believe
that such an arrangement</i> <i> of simple words
composed beautifully,</i> <i> authored divinely,
nearly 2000 years ago,</i> <i> could be so great?</i> <i> What is this chapter?</i> <i> Romans VIII,</i> <i> the greatest chapter
in the Bible.</i> Dr. David Jeremiah:
Hello, I'm David Jeremiah. Imagine if you received a letter
or a phone call saying you've been named an heir
by a distant relative and would be receiving a check
in the mail. Now that kind of surprise
would change your life. That's unlikely to happen
for many of us, but today I'm going to tell you
about a letter you've already received:
Romans 8, and how it can change your life
with its teaching about your inheritance
from God. Romans 8 may be the greatest
chapter in the Bible and it reveals our birthright
as followers of Christ. There's no hidden agenda
or surprise letter. Your inheritance
is clearly detailed for you in this powerful chapter. So I hope you join me
for today's message, "The Ministry
of the Holy Spirit," to discover all
that your inheritance means for you
as a child of God, coming up right here on
"Turning Point." <i>male announcer: The act
of writing out Scripture by hand</i> <i> is a powerful practice.</i> <i> In fact, it is a command
directly from God.</i> <i> God understood how writing
with your hand</i> <i> imprints the words
on your mind</i> <i> and that's why Dr. Jeremiah</i> <i> has created
"The Written Word Journal."</i> <i> Use "The Written Word Journal"</i> <i>to write Paul's wonderfully rich
letter to the Romans,</i> <i> word for word.</i> <i>As you do, record your thoughts,
reflections, notes, and prayers</i> <i> on the adjacent page,
charting your personal journey</i> <i> with God
through the book of Romans.</i> <i> "The Written Word Journal"
is yours when you give a gift</i> <i> of any amount in support
of this program.</i> <i>And if you give $60 or more,
Dr. Jeremiah will also send you</i> <i> his current teaching series,</i> <i> "Romans VIII,"
on CD or DVD,</i> <i> along with a correlating
Study Guide.</i> <i> Or if you give generously
to the ministry,</i> <i> you will receive
"The Written Word Journal,"</i> <i> and a genuine leather
Jeremiah Study Bible</i> <i> in the New King James
Version.</i> <i> Contact "Turning Point" today.</i> <i>female announcer: Thank you for
watching "Turning Point."</i> <i> Now, here is Dr. Jeremiah
with his message,</i> <i> "The Ministry
of the Holy Spirit."</i> Dr. Jeremiah: The first
11 verses of the 8th chapter have shown us
what Christ has done for us, how he delivers us. Remember the verse: "There is
therefore now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus." But what you need to know
about the writings of Paul concerning the 8th chapter
of Romans is that Paul follows
a pretty routine process when he writes. Here's what he does. He gives you
all of the doctrinal things, all the theological, all the biblical things
you need to know in the beginning, and then he makes
a transition into, "Now that you know all this, here's how you should
respond to it." And what Paul is telling us
in the book of Romans is this: if you really believe
that God has rescued you through Jesus Christ
from your old life, given you this new strength
over the flesh which gives you the opportunity
not to sin, before you couldn't
help yourself. Now you can. If you believe all of that, what responsibility do you have
because that's true? If this is true, if God has
loved you so much that he's done that, there's certain things
that he wants you to know. Now, this pattern of doctrine
first and duty second is what makes
Christianity different than all of the other religions. You see, in religion,
the other religions, if you wanna put categories
around it, in religion it goes like this. Your acceptance with God
is based on what you do. To the degree that you work hard
and live a good life, you'll become a child of God. That's what they teach. And it's involved
with catechisms and classes and standards and regulations
and rules and all of that stuff. But God turns that around. God says that's not the way
it works. Christianity is
the exact opposite. Listen carefully. Christianity says that
your acceptance with God is based not on
what you do for God, but what Christ has already done
for you. So in Christ,
God makes you his child and then he asks you
to obey. Totally different process. And this is the model
that Paul follows here in Romans 8. He tells us that a person
who's been blessed by God the Father
is to respond obediently to the Holy Spirit
who lives within him. Yes, it's wonderful to be
a child in the family of God, but it comes with some
responsibilities. Can I get a witness? He is obligated to live
in a new way, even though he is by no means
capable in his own life. How many of you know
if you try to live the Christian life
in your own strength, you'll be a failure. And we've failed,
haven't we? We've all tried that. The Christian life is not hard. The Christian life
is impossible, apart from the Holy Spirit. So what God does is he puts you
in his family, he tells you some things
that you need to do and then he gives you
the Holy Spirit to help you do it. But there's a wonderful
cooperative that goes on here
that we can't forget. God gives you
what you need to obey, but he wants you to obey. This is a little bit sticky
for the lot of people. Some people think,
"Well, I'm a Christian. I'm just gonna hang out
and let God do his work." "Let go and let God," they say. They don't wanna lift a finger
to do anything of themselves, so they just think
God's gonna do it. How many of you know
that doesn't work? God wants us to obey and,
in the process of obeying, God helps us
by his Holy Spirit to do it. But we are still responsible. The Bible says we're to
"work out our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in us
to will and do for his good pleasure." God is doing his work in us. He's putting the Holy Spirit
in us. He wants us to take steps
of obedience so the Holy Spirit
can work in us to make us the people
God wants us to be. So the first thing you need to
know from Romans chapter 8 is the believer is responsible
to the Holy Spirit. Verse 12 says: "Brethren,
we are debtors-- not to the flesh, to live
according to the flesh." Before we became Christians,
we didn't have any choice. You might have thought, "Well,
before I came a Christian I was a pretty good person and I didn't do all the bad
things. I did some things that
I shouldn't have done." Listen, let me tell you
what the Bible says. "We have all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. There's not one righteous,
no, not one." If you doubt that,
read Romans chapter 3 this week and you will be
totally convinced. Even our motives are bad
before Christ comes to live within our heart. But when Christ comes,
he doesn't take away the old nature, he just gives us
a new nature and enables us to live our lives
according to his will. Verse 10 says in Romans 8 that
"the Holy Spirit who lives in us is the spirit of life." And that means
that when he comes to live within our heart,
he brings life with him. The Bible calls it abundant
life, new life, real life. We may not all understand
what happens when we become Christians and the process we go through,
but something changes. The Bible says:
"Old things pass away; and behold,
all things become new." Something happens in us
when the Spirit of God comes to live within us. Our sins are gone,
our guilt is gone. We know that we're gonna go to
heaven some day when we die. Everything about life is changed
for one simple reason: that God loved us,
sent his Son to die for us, and in the process gave us
his Holy Spirit to live in our hearts. And we then are responsible
to live this new God-given life and put to death those things
which get in the way. Now here's where we're gonna
find out how we cooperate with God in the living
of this Christian life. We are reinforced
by the Holy Spirit in doing it. Here's what it says in verse 13: "If you live according
to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit
you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live." Now let me
just get clear about this. When you become a Christian
you have still the old nature. You know that. We've always joked about that. If you don't believe that,
ask your partner. They will verify the fact
that you still have the old nature, amen? So you don't get a chance
to eradicate the old nature. Paul is not telling us here
that there's something you can do to make
all of those things that are still a part
of the old nature go away. Here's what he says:
You can crucify the deeds of the old nature. You can get rid
of the old nature? No, but you can take care
of the things the old nature wants you to do
and you can deal with those. Paul says that when,
as Christians, we discover that things
from our old life are slipping back into our life and starting to take hold
in our lives, how many of you know
that happens? When you become a Christian
you don't just get rid of all
your old experiences and sometimes things
that were true of you before you became a Christian,
that's what we call the flesh, sometimes those things
get back into your life and all of a sudden
you look up one day and you said, "Man,
what am I doing here? I'm a Christian.
Why is that happening?" Paul says when
those things happen, you have to crucify
those things and you have to take
that responsibility and deal with them. You don't just sit around
and wait, "Well, I'm just gonna wait
for God. Maybe he'll take it away." No, he won't. God isn't gonna do for you
what you're unwilling to do for yourself. By the Holy Spirit's power,
he will help you obediently do what he asks you to do but you have to take--so
let's just talk about. What does it mean
to crucify the flesh? There are some characteristics
about crucifixion that we all know from
the Passion narrative. Crucifixion is personal. You've got to do this yourself. This is not a corporate deal. This is not something we do
together as a church. We don't come together on Sunday
and, together, this Sunday, we're gonna all crucify
the things in our body that shouldn't be there. No, you have to do
this yourself. Crucifixion is individual,
personal. So what happens is you know
something's in your life that shouldn't be there. You're a Christian.
You're a child of God. You're in the family of God.
You're a privileged person. You're in God's family.
He put you in his family. And when you're in God's family, he has certain expectations
of you and some of the thing you
may be doing right now are not on his list of things
he expects you to do. So you have to deal with that.
That's what the Scripture says. You do it personally.
And you do it painfully. How many of you know sometimes
those things get in your life and they get really attached
to you and it's not easy to say "no" to them. Here's what Paul says: "However
painful it may be, crucify it. Deal with it." And crucifixion
is also pitiless. I remember watching
"The Passion." Couldn't help but cry to see the
way they brutalized his body. And then when they put him
on the cross, how pitiless it was. Listen to me, you have to deal
with the things in your body-- in your life that aren't godly
in the same way that the Roman soldiers dealt
with Jesus Christ on the cross. That's what it means,
to crucify the flesh. They put nails in his hands
and in his feet and it was permanent. Sometimes,
when I talk to Christians, I hear them talk about, "Oh, yeah, well, I know
I'm doing some things. But I'm sure I'll get--
one of these days I'll get-- when I turn 80,
this will all go away," right? No, how many of you know
the things that are in our lives that shouldn't be
in our lives, don't naturally go away? You gotta confront them. You gotta deal with them. And the whole idea
of crucifixion is to help us understand
how brutal we need to be with the things
that are in our life that ought not to be there. We're Christians,
we're children of God. The Holy Spirit lives within us. And there are just
certain things that we may allow ourselves
to get into and when we do that it
just destroys the peace and joy and the life that God
wants us to know. And when we deal
with those things, what will happen is God
will bring back that sense of peace and joy
and life that we once knew before all of these things
started to reappear. I hope this is helpful to you because what I want you
to know is this: you can know the joy
of the Lord in your life as a Christian, and when he identifies
something in your life, and it may not be anything
like a relationship. It might be some
little simple thing. I mean, I tell you what. Television can be one
of those things, the Internet can be one
of those things. You all know there's a list
of things that can get in your life and start messing up
your relationship with God. Whatever they are, just be
determined in your heart, "I am not gonna tolerate that. I'm gonna prosecute it
to the fullest extent, and get it out of my life." The Holy Spirit reinforces us
when we do that. When we take
that responsibility, we sense him coming along
to help us. Then the believer is ruled
by the Holy Spirit. Did you know that? Verse 14 says: "For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God." What does it mean to be
led by the Spirit of God? Well, if you're a Christian,
God gives you the Holy Spirit in your life
and when you become a Christian, something really does change
in your heart. The Holy Spirit
is like the automatic sin detector in your life. You know, the Holy Spirit can
make you really uncomfortable if you're doing something
you shouldn't do. He comes to be your guide,
he comes to be your tutor, your teacher, your leader. And when the Holy Spirit
is in your life, you have a whole new sense
of direction. The Holy Spirit loves
to take the Word of God and help you understand
how that Word of God relates to your life. When you're reading
the Scripture, you may have read it
a hundred times over, but all of a sudden,
now you're a Christian, and you really wanna walk
with God and you read and all--
it jumps off the page. That's the Holy Spirit
in your heart taking the hard drive
of God's Word, the Holy Spirit is the software,
and he brings out of the hard drive the truth
that leads and guides and directs you. The Holy Spirit leads.
He leads in godliness. But he also leads in general. How does he lead us? Here's one of the best
paragraphs I've ever read about the
Holy Spirit and how he leads. I want you to listen to this
very carefully because this will tell you
what to expect from the Holy Spirit
as he leads you in your life. Here's what it said:
"The Holy Spirit never coerces, never compels,
never puts on the pressure, and never bullies. He does not drive, he leads.
He leads, we follow. He leads us into all truth. He leads us in the path
of righteousness. He leads us step by step. He leads gently,
understandingly, unerringly. He leads us
in our daily quiet time. He leads us by the godly
counsel of Spirit-taught men. He leads through the
circumstances of life. He leads by gently witnessing
with our spirit in the innermost recesses of our being. He leads by quickening
our conscience. He leads by encouraging us
or by restraining us, by assuring us or reproving us. He leads but he never drives. He never gives us
that "now or never" feeling or that, "Do this or else,"
urging. He leads and we follow
one step at a time. The Holy Spirit
is the gentle leader of the Christian. It's the gentle inward awareness
that God is with you, that he is in you, and if you listen carefully
to his sweet voice, he will take you
where he wants you to go. When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes
to live within you to encourage you
from the inside out to be the person God
wants you to be. So now you're in the family
of God, you've got the Holy Spirit, you're dealing with the things
in your life that shouldn't be there,
and God says: "For you did not receive
the spirit of bondage again to fear,
but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom you cry,
'Abba, Father.'" According to the 15th verse
of chapter 8, we have been brought
into the family of God through the process of adoption. The word for adoption
in the Greek language is really interesting. It means to place a son. That's what God has done for us. He's adopted us into his family. How many of you know
we don't have the right to be in God's family. We don't. Somebody had to do something
for that, so God took us out
of our whatever we were in and when we accept
Jesus Christ as our Savior, we become the children
of God. The Bible says when you're
adopted, you become God's child. Now, the other thing
that happens here is also very interesting. When you get adopted, you get to call God
by a new name. Because the Bible says
that when you're adopted, God's name is Abba Father. "By whom we cry out," verse 15,
"'Abba, Father.'" Let me talk to you just
a minute about that. That's one of the most
tender terms in the Bible. It actually means Daddy
or if it were a grandchild, it would be Pappy. That's what my kids call me,
my grandchildren, or Papa. It was an ordinary family
word in the days of Jesus. Abba was a common word. It conveyed intimacy,
tenderness, dependence, complete lack of fear. Modern English equivalents
are Daddy or Papa. In other words, an everyday
infant could call their father "Daddy." Now, here's the interesting
thing about this term, men and women: no Jewish person,
no Old Testament person, would have ever dreamed
of using this very intimate term to address God. Jesus always used this word
in prayer to his Father, except when he was on the cross. When you become a part
of God's forever family, when you're adopted
into his family, you end up gaining
a relationship with God that gets away from all of this
"God is so far away." Now God becomes so dear to you,
you call him "Abba, Father." You refer to him in intimate
term that's reserved only for people who are
in the family. If you're not a Christian,
you don't get to do that. In fact, it's the very term that
Jesus used to teach us to pray. How are we supposed to pray? "Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be your name." Same terminology. I gotta tell you something. When we are afraid,
when we're filled with terror, that's when we cry out
"Abba, Father." He hears us when
we're at our lowest point. I can't think of anything more
wonderful and glorious than to know that your heavenly
Father cares about you. When you cry out to him,
"Abba, Father," he hears you. And then, here's the fifth thing
about the Holy Spirit in this chapter: the Holy Spirit
reassures the believer. He comes to reassure you. Here's a verse of Scripture
that I have--truly, have to be honest with you, I've misunderstood
this passage of Scripture my whole adult life. And I finally got it right. I mean, I'm not perfect. I try to be accurate as I can
but I never realized the impact of this verse. Here's what the verse says:
"The Spirit himself witnesses with our spirit that we are
the children of God." Now, here's how that
is normally understood. Somebody comes and say,
"Are you a Christian?" "Yes." "How do you know
you're a Christian?" "Well, let me tell you
how I know I'm a Christian. The Spirit of God witnesses with
my spirit that I'm a Christian. That's how I know
I'm a Christian." Now, that may be true, but that's not what
this verse means. This verse does not mean
that there's an emotional sort of a mysterious way
that if you're a Christian, God witnesses
by his Spirit with your spirit
that you're a Christian. That's not what it means. I've always thought that this
verse meant that God's Spirit gave testimony to my spirit
that I was a Christian. In other words, it was like
an inward sort of confidence that I belonged to the Lord. And there's a sense,
maybe, where this is true, but let me tell you
what it really means if you dig into it. Paul is not saying that
the Holy Spirit bears witness to my spirit that I am
a child of God, but rather that the Holy Spirit
witnesses with my spirit that I am a child of God. In other words, at the same time
that I am praying and calling God my Father
from within my spirit, the Holy Spirit
is doing the same thing from within me so that there
are two who call God Father every time I pray:
the Holy Spirit and my spirit. It's a dual evidence
of my sonship. When I call God "Father,"
the Holy Spirit is witnessing right alongside me. He's saying, "Yes, yes, David
Jeremiah's your son, Father. He's yours.
He belongs to you." Here's number six: the believer
is rewarded by the Holy Spirit. Look what it says in verse 17:
"If children, then heirs-- heirs of God and joint
heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer
with him, that we may be also
glorified with him." In this verse, the Bible
tells us that in the future, because we're in God's family,
certain things are true. First of all,
we're God's children. If you're in the family,
he's Abba Father. Who are we?
We are the children of God. John 1:12 says:
"As many as received him, to them he gave the right
to become," what? "The children of God." 1 John 3:1 says: "Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called
children of God." Not only are we children,
the Bible says here in this verse that we're heirs. We're heirs of God. An heir is one who has not yet
received his inheritance but is anticipating it. 1 Peter 1:4 says it this way:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to
his abundant mercy has begotten us again
to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead," now watch this, "to an inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled and that does not fade away." One of these days,
we're going to inherit eternity. We're gonna be with
the Lord forever. We're gonna be in heaven. We're going to be
heirs with God. But here's the most
important term in this verse. We're not just children,
we're not just heirs. We are joint heirs.
That's what it says. Joint heirs with Jesus Christ.
What does that mean? Well, let me explain to you
what it means 'cause it's one of the best
truths in the whole passage. If a man dies leaving
a large farm to four heirs, the estate is divided evenly, and each heir receives 25%
of the whole. But if a man leaves a farm to
four of his sons as joint heirs, then each son owns
the whole farm. Each one can say,
"This house is mine. Those barns are mine.
Those fields are mine." When the Lord tells us
that we are heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ, what he is saying is
that God the Father has given to the
Lord Jesus Christ his inheritance
and everything he gave to the Lord Jesus Christ
he gives to us. We are joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. Everything God gives to Jesus,
he gives to us. We're not just a fourth
of what he got, not a half of what he got. Because we're joint heirs,
we own the whole farm, wow. I'm a joint heir
of Jesus Christ. When I read what God says
about Jesus Christ concerning the future,
it's true of me. Why is that?
Because I'm a joint heir. I'm a joint heir. So let me ask you, are you gonna
live like you are an heir or are you gonna scrounge around
the rest of your life, just trying to get by
as a Christian? You know what I hear
from some Christians? Listen to me. "I try to live as close
to the edge as I can without going over the edge." And what they mean by that is,
live as carnally as you can as a Christian, just don't step over the edge
and do something that will ruin your life. You should be trying to
live exactly the opposite way. Live so close to Jesus
you're not even tempted for some of this stuff. Don't live like you don't have
any inheritance, because you have
the inheritance that is the same as that
which was given to Jesus Christ. You are joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. Let's commit ourselves as we go
forward this week, that we're gonna live like that. We're gonna live according
to our privilege. We're gonna be children of God
and we're gonna be proud to be children of God,
and we're gonna live like children of God,
amen? Amen. <i> announcer: Dr. Jeremiah
will return in a moment</i> <i> to close today's program
right after this.</i> <i> male announcer: Thank you
for watching "Turning Point."</i> <i> Dr. Jeremiah would like
to offer you</i> <i> "The Written Word Journal:
Romans,"</i> <i> sent to you in appreciation
of your gift</i> <i> of any amount in support
of this program.</i> <i> And for a gift of $60 or more,</i> <i> Dr. Jeremiah will include
his current teaching series,</i> <i> "Romans VIII: The Greatest
Chapter in the Bible,"</i> <i> on your choice of CD or DVD,
and a correlating Study Guide.</i> <i>Or, if you give a generous gift
of $100 or more</i> <i> in support of the ministry
of "Turning Point,"</i> <i> you'll receive
"The Written Word Journal"</i> <i> and a genuine leather
Jeremiah Study Bible</i> <i> in Dr. Jeremiah's preferred
New King James Version.</i> <i> Thank you for your support
of "Turning Point."</i> <i> Contact us today.</i> <i> female announcer: And now,
with one last word</i> <i> for today's program,
here is Dr. Jeremiah.</i> Dr. Jeremiah: When it comes
to claiming your inheritance from God, there's really only
one question: are you his child? Are you part of God's family? The Bible says God's family
consists of those who have trusted Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior. So I want to encourage you today
to put your faith in Christ and become God's child
now and forever. As you begin your walk of faith,
I would like to send you a free booklet called,
"Your Greatest Turning Point," and to further
your spiritual growth I'd also like to send you
our monthly devotional magazine called "Turning Points," full of inspiring articles
and daily devotionals. We will gladly send both
of these gifts to you, free of charge,
if you will contact us here at "Turning Point" today. <i> announcer: Next time,
on "Turning Point."</i> Dr. Jeremiah: One day
you will be fully and finally redeemed,
and the Bible says because we know that's true
and because the Holy Spirit who is in us is the first fruits
of that which is to come, we groan,
awaiting the fulfillment of that in our lives. <i> announcer: Thank you
for being with us today.</i> <i> Join Dr. Jeremiah next time
for his message,</i> <i> "Groaning and Glory,"
here on "Turning Point."</i> ♪♪♪
