What the Spirit Says to God's Children

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8 for our time of study and the word this morning. We are doing a verse by verse study through Romans 567, and 8, a journey to the heart of the gospel and as we, continue in our study of this section of Romans, we come this morning to Romans 8:16, and my goal this morning is to try to cover verses 16 and 17. We'll see. how, how we do, with this.

And the title of the message this morning is what the Spirit says to God's Children. What the Spirit says to God's, children. You'll notice, in verse 16, it says, the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that And then what follows through the rest of verse 16, and then all of verse 17 is the content of what the Spirit is giving testimony to as he speaks to our hearts, or speaks to our spirit, and we'll try to unpack what that message is, that the Spirit is perpetually speaking to us.

Let me start with this though.

A few months ago, when we were back in Romans 6, Ray Steadman, In his commentary on the Book of Romans, told a story that's stuck with me, ever since I read it. And I've been thinking about it even more as we've gone deeper into Romans chapter 8. But it's a story about a young gal who was a daughter of one of the wealthy royal families over in Europe a number of years ago, and, she had the misfortune of having a crooked, misshapen, and bulbous nose. Bulbous is Ray Steadman's word, not mine.

And it caused her to, people looked at her and thought she was unattractive because of that, and she herself looked at herself as ugly and unattractive as a result of her nose, and it was such a consternation to her. And to her parents that they hired a plastic surgeon to reshape the contour of her nose and so she went under the knife and the plastic surgeon performed the surgery and he did his job well and he was satisfied with how the surgery went. And the day then came for the surgeon to take the bandages off of her face and to look at the work that he had done.

So when that day arrived, he peeled the bandages off from around her nose, and to his great and pleasant delight, he saw that the surgery had been a tremendous success.

And as he looked at her nose, he realized, what, when the incisions are totally healed and all the redness is gone, this girl is going to be a beautiful girl. So excited was he that he grabbed a mirror and held that mirror in front of the girl's face for her to be able to see that the surgery had been a success, but so deeply ingrained was this girl's ugly image of herself that she could not see any change at all. In fact, she exclaimed and said, Oh, I knew this surgery wouldn't work.

And was very upset about it.

And Ray Steadman said that the doctor had to spend about 6 months with that girl persuading her and helping her to come to see that her nose did indeed look different. The surgery had been a success. And when she began to believe that, her attitude and perspective began to change. I don't start with that this morning.

because I'm advocating for plastic surgery or nose jobs, But I'm intrigued by the different roles that that surgeon ended up having to play. Maybe when he went into this task, he didn't realize all that he would have to do. But think about what this surgeon had to do. Number 1, he had to perform the surgery and fix the problem.

He did that well. Number 2, he had to provide and hold up a mirror for the girl to see that indeed the surgery had been a success. But interestingly enough, a successful surgery and a good mirror was not sufficient to persuade this girl that the surgery had been a success. The surgeon then had to over the next 6 months play the role of coming alongside of this young girl and to help her to believe.

And the success of the surgery and to learn to view herself accordingly. I think about that story as we go deeper into Romans chapter 8 because that in a sense is exactly what God has to do when it comes to our salvation. God has saved us. He's our Savior and He's done a pretty good job, right?

the moment that, God drew us to Jesus Christ and granted us faith and repentance to, to believe, and on the day of our conversion, God forgave us of a whole lifetime of sins, declared us not guilty of every sin that we ever have or will commit throughout our lifetime. God also justified us. In Jesus Christ. He gave us His Spirit.

He adopted us into His family. He shattered sin's chains which had held us to where we are no longer under sin's guilt, condemnation, or power, and on and on the blessings can go. God has given to us a great salvation. But that's not all that God does.

He doesn't just save us and then leave it to us to figure out what He has done. God also provides for us a mirror, right? And he holds this mirror up to us and says, I want you to see what you look like now. Look at what I have done and the salvation that I have accomplished for you.

Now here's the interesting thing God's salvation being what it is successful and even giving us a perfect mirror of Scripture, do you realize that those two things by themselves are not sufficient for us to begin to see the fullness of what He has done? And how different we are in Christ and to think and see ourselves and live accordingly. No. God has to do a third thing, and that is God gives to us the Holy Spirit.

God the Holy Spirit comes alongside of us, and day after day after day, the Spirit who is within us illumines our minds as we look into the mirror of God's word and trains us, shows us the success of the salvation that God has accomplished for us, and trains us. And brings us along in teaching us how to see ourselves and our relationship with God, how to view our salvation and how to live accordingly. It is only through the Spirit that we can look into this mirror and actually have illumined minds and be able to understand what it is that we see there.

And we've been learning a lot about the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 8 and what a beautiful, fantastic role he plays in our lives.

In Romans chapter 8, verse 14, Paul tells us that the Spirit of God leads us, who are sons of God. Verse 15, he leads us beyond a lifestyle of slavery. To sin and slavery to the law and even leads us beyond simply seeing ourselves as slaves of God. And leads us into something deeper.

He also leads us beyond a lifestyle of being afraid or terrified or suspicious of God, and he leads us into a lifestyle of seeing ourselves as children of God who come to our Heavenly Father and cry out to Him in admiration, Abba, Father, our dear Heavenly Father. That's the nature of the Spirit's leadership. And in verse 16 and 17, Paul continues to unpack how the Spirit goes about leading us in the ways of our sonship, in the ways of the salvation that God has accomplished for us.

Let's read verse 16 and 17 and observe what it is that the Spirit is doing for us and taking us deeper into the glories of our salvation.

In verse 16, Paul says the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that here's what he testifies to we are children of God. Now we have to be careful to not stop there. A lot of times we think, oh, yeah, the Spirit testifies that we're children of God, and it ends there. But no, the Spirit's not done testifying.

All of verse 17 also includes the content of what the Spirit is saying to us. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And here's what else he says, if children heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Here's how we'll break this down.

We'll look at 5 assurances or 5 things that the Holy Spirit speaks to us or says to us, who are God's children. God knew the salvation he accomplished in us and for us is so incredible, we would never get it on our own, or believe it on our own, or rise to a comprehension of it on our own. So he gives us the Holy Spirit. So that the Spirit can bring us along in an understanding of these things, and we learn here the Spirit's talking to us deep within our spirits, and he's saying some really good things that amount to fantastic news.

In a sense, the Spirit is evangelizing our spirits, speaking good news to us. Let's look at these 5 pieces of good news or 5 assurances, 5 things that the Spirit says to us who are truly God's children. The first thing that he does or says to us is this He tells us that we're children of God. Those of us that have believed in Christ, we learn here that the Spirit is testifying with our Spirit that we are children.

Of God, God didn't just make us His children and then neglect to tell us what He did. He tells us in His word, I've made you my children, and I'm sending my Spirit into you so that my Spirit can day by day, continuously, repeatedly testify to this fact and bring you into an assurance of the reality that you are indeed a child of mine. If God has made us His children, then God is glorified when we who are His children believe that we are His children. God is not glorified when His children doubt that they are his children.

And they live in uncertainty. Now when the Spirit speaks to us and says you're children of God, there's so many things that's included or embodied in that assurance, not the least of which is the assurance of salvation. the Spirit is assuring us you're children of God, as opposed to children of the devil, you're children of God, rather than children of wrath and telling us that we're children of God. He's telling us you are saved.

And the Spirit of God is wanting us to know this. He doesn't want us to live in uncertainty about this. One writer says this about this very verse, he says, God does not hold his children over the fires of anxiety regarding their salvation. Neither is it his pleasure to keep them guessing whether or not they belong to Him.

God has sent his spirit into the heart of each believer to produce an inner conviction of God's sovereign. And irrevocable love for them, thus freeing them for praise, witness, and service. I love that. I know, and I've mentioned this to you before, when I was a freshman in seminary, I I was plagued from one day to the next with uncertainty over whether or not I was a child of God.

And on one day if my performance was up to par and I was seeing evidence of saving fruit, I would think, OK, maybe I am a believer, but if on the next day I failed to see sufficient fruit or I was actually seeing bad fruit in my life, I began to doubt that I was a child of God. In fact, there were many days I was absolutely convinced that I could not be. A child of God. And in that state of uncertainty, the fuel that drove my quest for holiness was uncertainty.

It's like, I'm not sure I'm a child of God or not. So I better try to really live the life that shows that I am. And uncertainty and doubt was the fuel that drove my quest for fruit and for holiness. But imagine a lifestyle where holiness is produced in the life of a person, and that holiness is fueled by certainty.

By absolute assurance, I am a child of God, and the certain knowledge of this reality and the fact that God would make me his child makes me want to love God all the more and seek to obey Him. God is pleased. He's pleasured when those who are His children believe that they are His children and have assurance in that. In 1 John chapter 5 verse 13, the apostle John, or more accurately, let's say the Spirit of God inspiring the apostle John, says these things I have written in First John to you who are believing in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

I want you to know with certitude. that you have eternal life. So those who are genuinely God's children, God wants them to walk in assurance. And so he gives them the Spirit who speaks this assurance into their spirits that they are indeed children of God.

But there's something else that's going on. When the Spirit tells us that we're children of God. He's not just assuring us in our salvation, but he's assuring us of our status in terms of our relationship with God, and assuring us in the love of God for us. There are people who probably are not doubting whether they're saved or not.

But they don't tend to think of themselves as God's children. They might say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that I'm God's child. They might say that with their minds, but their mentality is more that, yeah, God has saved me, he's forgiven me, but I don't think God would really want that close of a relationship with me. And when the Spirit speaks to those who are God's children and says, you are a child of God, the Spirit's not just saying you're saved, the Spirit is calling them up to the status that actually is theirs as a saved one.

He's saying you are a child of God, not just a slave of God, not just a servant of God, although there's a way of looking at your relationship with God where that would be an accurate way of seeing things, but you're more than a slave. You are more than a servant of God. You are more than an employee of God or a hired person of God. You are more than merely someone that God has chosen reluctantly to save and to forgive.

You are a child of God. In assuring us of this, the Spirit is not only telling us how to view ourselves, but he's telling us how to view God. He's Leading us to view God as not only our Father, but our Abba Father, our dear heavenly Father, our Dad, this one that we can have a close and intimate relationship with, and he's assuring us in God's love. if we're God's children, we don't earn our way to being God's child and therefore continuing to be His child through today and tomorrow is not Something that we maintain by our works.

God is affirming us through His Spirit of His love for us, and He gives us the Spirit to daily beckon us into this deep abiding relationship with Him as a child. would relate to his or her father. The Spirit's also, I don't have time to elaborate on this, but embodied in this that you're children of God is direction, like stay under God's fatherly provision, stay under his fatherly authority, be like Him. There's so much that's embodied in this affirmation from, the Holy Spirit.

just as an example, if I, let's say theoretically, you moved next door to the Vincent household. And I've got 4 children, 2 of them are 3 of them are now at home. And imagine that the day that you move in, every morning my 3 children would come over to your house for breakfast. And then at noon they came over for lunch and in the evening for dinner, and they brought their laundry over every day for you to do their laundry and when they needed money to go somewhere on an outing, they came over and asked you for that money.

What would you do? You would probably at some point sit them down and say you are children of Milton and Donna. You would make that statement, but it's a loaded statement, right? What you're saying is, Get your laundry done by them and let them provide for you the food and the sustenance and the clothes that you need.

Let them be your parents in providing for you. And so when the Spirit comes to us and testifies to us, you are children of God, you see how there's so much in that. He's like, let God love you. Let God be your Father and let Him provide for you, and then walk inside of his loving provision and stop going outside of the bounds of His provision.

And doing things that you ought not to be doing. Walk under his authority, not under the authority of sin, or the world, or the evil one. May God give us ears to hear what the Spirit is daily saying to us when He comes to us and says, You are children of God. There's a second Assurance or a second thing that the Spirit says to us who are God's children.

And that is he tells us that we're heirs. of God. We are heirs of God. He tells us verse 16 that we are children of God.

And you say, OK, that's great. I'm a child of God. What does that mean? And the Spirit says, I'll help you and unpacking what it means that you're a child of God.

If children, you're heirs also, heirs of God. what it means to be an heir. It means you get something. It means that you have something coming to you.

It means that you are entitled to receive something. And the Spirit has been sent by God. This is how passionate God is and wanting you to have everything that belongs to you in Christ. God sends a Spirit into your life to tell you you're a child of God, and being a child, you get something, you are entitled to receive something.

And that right there ought to grab all of our attention, right? I got an advertisement in the mail about a week ago from a car dealership that will remain unnamed. Telling me that I was a guaranteed winner, and that I was going to receive something. Well, I was all ears or all eyes.

I was like, well, what is this that I'm going to receive? And they were even kind enough to list off what I'm guaranteed to receive. It was one of four possible prizes, $1000. B, a flat screen TV, C, an iPad.

So I was getting more and more excited as I read this. Or D, $5 or a travel bag. So I immediately lost interest, but when I get something in the mail that says you're a winner and you are entitled to something, I'm interested. And the Spirit says, you're a child of God, you're like, what does that mean?

The Spirit says, you get something, you are entitled to receive something, and you're like, Well, what is it that I am entitled to receive? And the Spirit says this, you are an heir, and you say an heir of what? He says, you're an heir of God. You get God.

You receive God. Now on the surface, we read a statement like this, and if we're being hasty and brushing over it, we think, OK, we're heirs of God, which means we're going to get an inheritance in heaven. And the inheritance comes from God. That's actually a theological truth, and I would not deny that, but is that what Paul is saying in this passage?

I love what John Stott says in his commentary on this verse. He says at first sight, this seems to refer to that heavenly inheritance which God is keeping in heaven for us, but Paul has in mind not something God intends to bestow on us, but God Himself. Another writer says God Himself is the inheritance of His children. God sends a spirit.

He's like, I want to give myself to this child of mine. But I know that this is so grandiose that my child is not really going to be able to fully comprehend it. So I will send my Holy Spirit into my child's life so that my child will be supernaturally enabled to see it and understand it and lay hold of it. But he commissions the Holy Spirit into our lives to persuade us that we get God.

That God is wanting to actually give Himself to us. And we began to realize that the greatest good of the gospel, God gives us thousands of things in Christ, but the greatest prize of the gospel, the greatest good. that God bestows upon us in the gospel is the gift of Himself. Yes, He justifies us.

He gives us justification. He gives us forgiveness. He gives us redemption. He gives us cleansing.

But God would say, I did all of that to get the sin problem out of the way so that I could bring you to me and I could give myself to you. You look forward to going to heaven. Why? You look forward to that because God's going to be there?

Christ would say the only reason I'm going to take you to heaven is so you can be with me. You will be able to have me there. When you get to heaven. Yes, there's streets of gold, and maybe that interests you, but think about it.

Where do those golden streets lead? They lead straight to the throne of God, as do all of God's gifts to us in the gospel. The ultimate blessing, the ultimate prize of the gospel is God, and the greatest news of the gospel is that God stands ready to give Himself to us. We inherit God.

John Piper in his book, God Is the Gospel says in order for the Christian gospel to be good news, it must provide an all-satisfying and eternal gift that undeserving sinners can receive and enjoy. For that to be true, the gift Must be three things. First, the gift must be purchased by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Second, the gift must be free and not earned.

And third, the gift must be God Himself above all his other gifts. We actually have in Scripture, places where saints of God relished the fact that God was their inheritance. In Psalm 16, the psalmist says, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup. The Lord is my inheritance.

God is my inheritance. I inherit God. I get God, and what does he think of that inheritance? Verse 6, the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.

Indeed, my inheritance is beautiful to me. I don't care what I have or don't have. I have God. I inherit God.

And if that's all I ever have, my inheritance is beautiful. The lines have fallen to me in very pleasant places. You also read in Psalm 73, the Psalm, one of the Psalms of Asaph, who by the way, was a Levite, and Levites in the Book of Deuteronomy were told all the other sons of Israel, they got allotments of land in the promised land. The Levites, God says you don't get any land, you get me.

That was the inheritance of the Levites, and Asaph was one of those Levites, but he reached a point in his life where he looked at the prosperous, wicked and how they had their stomachs full and their eyes bulging with fatness as they banqueted and feasted and had all this wealth and all of this seeming blessing, and he looked at himself, and he's like, What do I have? I have hardly anything, and I'm afflicted and stricken every morning as I try to be pure and please this God.

And he became bitter and pierced within until he says he went into the sanctuary of God and began to look and behold God. And it was there that he also began to perceive the end of the road for the wicked, and it changed his way of thinking, and he began to fall back on the reality of, what, I have God.

He says, Whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, God, I desire nothing on earth. My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart. He is my portion.

He's my inheritance forever, and I'm OK with that. In fact, I am a rich man indeed. If God is my inheritance. And so we need to think this way.

The Spirit's training us to think this way. You get up in the morning tomorrow morning. And imagine your first thought being hearing the Spirit say, pointing to the Father, saying, you get him today. He's yours today.

You find yourself in the middle of a heartrending trial, and in the midst of that trial, the Spirit speaks to you and points to the Father and says, you get him in the midst of this trial, in the midst of this hardship. You find yourself in the midst of temptation. maybe temptation that you're embarrassed that you're even tempted with and you feel ashamed to even be suffering from a particular temptation. But in that moment, the Spirit says, Don't run away from God.

He points to your Father and says, You get him in the midst of this temptation that you are battling right now. He's all yours. And what, even on the other side of sin, on the other side of failure, When we've royally messed up and we've sinned against God, we've sinned against others, even on the other side of our failures, when our instinct is to shrink away from God and say he would not want me in His presence, the Spirit points to the Father and says, you get him on the other side of your sin.

He's all yours.

I think again of the story of the prodigal son where the son didn't want his father. He's like, just give me my inheritance, and the father gave him his inheritance and then the son left his father, wasted his inheritance on sinful living. But then came to his senses. And he said to himself, I'm going to go back to my father.

And I'm going to say to my father, I've sinned against God. I've sinned against you. Could you at least make me one of your hired persons who can work for you and maybe I can earn a little money? I'm not even worthy to be your son.

And so the son begins his journey back to his father, and imagine this. Imagine being the son, and you see the house in the distance and then you see something. You can hardly make it out someone coming towards you, and then you notice the person is running. They're running quickly and as the person gets closer and looms larger, you see that it's your father on the other side of all of this sin and mess.

Your father is running towards you and then he comes to you and he embraces you and he's hugging and kissing you. Even before you can speak your rehearsed confession. That prodigal son on the other side of his sin. He inherited his father.

He got his father, all of his father, who's hugging and kissing all over him, the other side of his failure. Whatever your circumstance, wherever you're at in your spiritual journey, whether you feel like you're succeeding or failing, The Spirit can speak to you right now, wherever you're at and point to your Heavenly Father and say, you get God. He's yours. And he's ready to give himself to you again.

Feel the passion in the heart of God. God wants this is not just something he, well, I guess you found out about it, so I'll give myself to you. He wants you to know this about Himself, so he tells stories like the story of the prodigal son. And he sends a spirit to testify into your spirit to help persuade you that he stands ready to give Himself so freely to you.

We inherit God. The Spirit says you are children of God, #1. 2, he tells us that being children of God, we are heirs of God. And then there's a third thing that the Spirit says to us, and that is he tells us that we are co-heirs with Christ of God.

We are co-heirs with Christ of God. Verse 17, and if children, heirs, also, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ. Honestly, I'll confess I'm still trying to figure this out. and all I feel I can do this morning is tell you about a portion.

Of, I'm sure the full scope of this because I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it, but understand that what the Spirit speaks to us is, OK, we're we're saved, and he calls us up higher and says, No, I want you to view yourself as actual children of God. We're like, OK. And then the Spirit says, and I want you to also know that you're an heir of God. You get God.

You inherit God. He's your inheritance every single day for you to enjoy and then throughout all eternity. And then we might think, OK, so I get God, he's going to get himself to me. but to what degree?

And the Spirit beckons us to the very highest place we can imagine. We know from Hebrews 1:2, that Christ is the heir of all things. Christ inherits everything, everything. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 2.

We have no trouble looking at the absolute flawless righteousness of Jesus when he was on earth, and then his flawless righteousness and surrendering himself to death on the cross. Showing incredible love for God and for his fellow man, perfectly fulfilling the law. We have no trouble believing that God raised him from the dead. Well, of course he would do that.

Look at the righteousness of Jesus. Look at what he deserves. And then after being raised, we know 40 days later God is to his right hand, far above all principality and power and ruler and might and on and on the list can go and seated Christ at his own right hand in the heavenly places. And we say, of course, the Father would do that.

Christ deserves that. And if I can just get some blessing from God, because of what Christ has done, that would be awesome. But the Spirit says, no, no, no. He beckons us up to the very right hand of God.

And read Ephesians chapter 1 and 2 guys. We learn about what God has done and accomplished in Christ in raising Him from the dead, seating Him at His own right hand far above all principality and power. You then come into chapter 2 and you find out that God has raised us from the dead. We inherit resurrection.

From God with the same power that God raised Jesus with. And God has also raised us up. He's ascended us to his very right hand in Christ, we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places. And Christ who inherits all things.

And if we are fellow heirs with him, what that means is that all that Jesus inherits comes to us because we are in Him. We receive as much of the Father as Jesus Christ is entitled to. One writer says all that Christ claims now as his belongs to all of us as well. In fact, we now come to understand when we think about it that actually this is what salvation was all about anyway.

In this amazing relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this dance from all eternity past as the members of the Trinity were thoroughly enjoying one another, and then just imagine Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity. enjoying his father, and he did not want to enjoy his father alone. And so the whole plan of salvation was Christ coming into the world and living a perfect life, doing what we could not do, dying the death that we deserve to die, so that ultimately he would be raised and ascended and could raise us and ascend us to be with Him so that we now can be with him as he enjoys his Father.

And we now are fellow heirs with Christ of God.

The Spirit says to us, you get God, you get to enjoy the Father, as Jesus enjoys the Father. This was his prayer in John 17, praying to the Father for all of us. He says, I pray that they may be in us. Just wrapped up in us, Father, I desire that they also whom you've given me be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation.

The world When you think about it this way, you begin to realize that when you enjoy God, you never enjoy Him alone. Whenever you're enjoying your Heavenly Father, all you're doing is entering into the enjoyment that Jesus has of his Father. You're enjoying co-heirship with Jesus. You get to enjoy the Father with Jesus.

Whenever you enjoy Jesus, you're just entering into the joy that the Father and Spirit have in Christ. Whenever you enjoy the Holy Spirit, you're merely entering into the enjoyment that the Father and the Son have. In the Holy Spirit, and we ourselves become participants in this dance amongst the members of the Trinity. We are co-heirs with Christ.

We are co-heirs with the second member of the Trinity of God. You see how this is like too good to believe, and why we need the Holy Spirit to daily testify of these things and to bring us up to a persuasion of these things. All that Christ claims now as His belongs to us because we are in Christ. There's a 4th thing that the Spirit tells us.

The 4th thing that he says to us. Who are God's children. And that is he tells us that when we suffer, we suffer with Christ. When we suffer We suffer with Christ.

Look what he says in verse 17. And if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Hi And again, if you're not careful, you're going to miss the point. You might go, Oh, OK, that's the downer here. That's the small print.

We're children of God. We're heirs of God. We're fellow heirs with Christ. But oh yeah, we've got to suffer.

That's a part of our inheritance too. We've got to suffer. No, that's not what he's saying. Here's, here's your inheritance that when you suffer, you suffer with Christ.

You suffer in relationship and in companionship with Jesus Christ. Your inheritance is that you never suffer alone. But you suffer with him. He is with you.

This is affirmed in so many places through Scripture. Paul in Acts 18 was in the city of Corinth, and you put all the pieces together, he was a mess when he was in that city. In Acts 18. Reflecting later on his time in Corinth, he said to the Corinthians, I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much physical shaking.

We also know that he was worried when he was there about the Thessalonians and feeling like his ministry to them was totally in vain and the devil had wiped out. All of his labor on behalf of the Thessalonian Christians. So he's agitating over that. In addition to that, he's being run out of wherever he goes.

And so he's paranoid and looking over his shoulder. And wondering what shoe is going to drop, and it's then in Acts 18:10 that Jesus makes a personal appearance to him and says, Stop being afraid, and then he says, I'm with you. I'm with you, Paul. I am here.

With you. We all are familiar with Psalm 23, where the psalmist says, the Lord is my shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. And in verses 4 and 5, he says, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no calamity because you're with me. You're with me.

He's not saying no calamity will come necessarily. He's just saying I'm not afraid of it because you're with me. I can take calamity. If you're with me, your rod, your staff, they comfort me, and you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil and my cup is overflowing, here I am in the valley of the shadow of death, and I don't mind being here because you're with me, you're comforting me, and you're even preparing.

In a banquet table for me. You're anointing my head here in the valley of the shadow of death, and you are giving me something to drink, Lord, and you have so much to give me to drink that my cup is not big enough to hold everything that you are pouring out for me. It's not so bad being in the valley of the shadow of death and suffering here, because you are with me. I know that many of us can testify to this truth that a part of our inheritance in Christ is that when we suffer, we suffer with Jesus.

He's present with us. I remember probably I don't know 8 or 9 years ago I went through about a 6 month spell where I was having tremendous back pain. And sciatica lightning bolts going down my left leg and my right leg and And long story short, I went 6 months, and not one night in 6 months did I sleep longer than 2 hours. I would wake up every hour and a half or so with my back just seized up and in terrific pain, and I had to get up out of bed and just pace the floor for like half an hour or longer until the pain went away, and then I could go back to bed for another 1, 11.5 at most, 2 hours.

And at first it bugged me. I was going batty during the day because I wasn't getting sleep at night. Some of you can identify with that, but it wasn't long before it turned into something very sweet between Jesus and me, and I look back on that time period with fondness because it literally got this way to where I would be awakened like at 2 in the morning. And I would know I've got to get out of bed and pace, and it was as if Jesus was standing next to the bed, and I'd wake up, open my eyes, and he was like, Come on, let's go.

And literally I pace the floor of our house downstairs with Jesus every night. And would meditate and pray and enjoy fellowship with Him. Every step he walked with me until the pain went away and I was able to go back to bed for another hour and a half or so. During that time, and I know that my suffering during that 6 months is really nothing compared to the suffering that a number of you have and some of you are going through, and especially the suffering that believers in Sudan and some Muslim countries are experiencing right now.

My suffering is nothing compared to all of that, but to the small degree that I have known suffering, I can testify, as I know many of you can. That as a believer, one of the luxuries we enjoy is that when we suffer, we get to suffer with Jesus by our side. And that's That beautifies our suffering. It's not so bad to suffer.

Because we get to suffer. With him. a quick thought, not only do we have Jesus with us in our suffering, but he's feelingly with us. In our suffering.

it's one thing to have someone with you when you're suffering, but imagine having someone with you when you're suffering who's not sympathetic at all. How much of a comfort is that? you would actually rather that person leave, right? Christ is not only with us, but he is sympathetically with us.

He is present with us in a feeling way. We know from Isaiah 53:4 that Isaiah looked ahead and saw Christ on the cross and says, Surely our griefs He Himself bore and our sorrows he carried. Every grief, every sorrow, every pain we will ever know, Christ placed Himself underneath that at the cross intentionally, because he wanted to feel every pain we would ever know. We never enter into any pain that Jesus Christ has not already felt because he wanted to feel it and experience it.

At the cross, it's almost as if going to the cross Christ said, Father, When I'm on the cross, I know I will bear the sins of the world, but can you also put every grief and every sorrow that all of my people will ever know, and could you put that on me because I want to feel it all. And the father agreed. And when Christ was being crucified, it says in Matthew 25, I believe, that they tried to give him wine mixed with gall in order to dull his senses to the pain, and Christ refused it.

Because he wanted to feel it all.

Christ will never hand us a cup of suffering that He Himself has not drank from. Taste it. And not only did he experience our pain then, but even now, he is with us in a sympathetic way. Hebrews 4:15, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us.

That word sympathize literally means suffer together with. So he's, he's with us in a feeling sympathetic way inside of our circle of pain. And so when we suffer, we suffer in relationship with Him. And as we look upon his face, we see that sympathy, we feel that sympathy.

The Spirit, God wants us to know this so much He gave us His Spirit so His Spirit can tell us that. That He is with us in a sympathetic way. When we receive news that devastates us and breaks our hearts. Of a wayward loved one, or the passing of a loved one, or a terminal condition of a loved one, when we ourselves are on the receiving end of harsh wrongdoing from another person.

Whatever wounds and physical and emotional pain that we experience, all we're doing is entering into in those moments to what Jesus intentionally allowed himself to experience on the cross. And we never have to suffer. Alone. But we get to have him with us.

In a feeling way as our ultimate companion. Let me just give you the last one so you can at least fill in the blank and we'll pick up here next week. But the fifth and final thing, the spirit. says to us as he tells us that we will be glorified with Christ, with a glory that is enriched by our present suffering.

Paul's going to unpack this in the coming verses, but the Spirit is speaking to us and And says that not only are you a child, but you're an heir of God. And not only that, but you're a fellow heir with Christ of God. Not only that, when you suffer in this life, you're suffering with Christ. And not only that, but you are bound for glory that's going to blow you away.

And the greatest thing about your future glorification is you're going to be glorified with Him. So just like you're a fellow heir with him of God, and just like when you suffer, you suffer with Him. So in glory, when you're glorified, you're going to be glorified with Him. Even now in this life, we are enjoying the Father, and we look at Jesus and our eyes meet and it's like, wow, the Father is so amazing.

And we're enjoying the Father with Jesus. And when we suffer in our moments of suffering, we can look and meet eyes with Jesus. And we're going through this together. And so it's only fitting that when we enter into glory and we're glorified, that at some point, we meet eyes with Jesus, and say, what, we enjoyed the Father through life together, we suffered together, and how appropriate that we experience this glorification together.

And what makes it the richest of all, is that I get to be glorified with you, my most amazing companion. God is a great God, and our salvation is awesome, so awesome we would never get it if it were not for His word. And if it were not for His Holy Spirit to daily testify of these glorious realities to us, Let's bow our heads in prayer. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment.

We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads you to give. Let's pray together. Lord, if there's any in this room that have never come to know. This incredible good news as their own.

I pray, Lord, that You would lead them to a place today of repentance of their sins, repentance of their righteousness. They would abandon their sins and their righteousness and And trust in you as their Lord and Savior. And receive your Holy Spirit who can begin to speak these good things to them each day. For those of us that are your children, Lord, forgive us for not hearing what your spirit says to us every day, for not embracing the fullness of it.

Give us the faith to dare to believe every word that your Spirit testifies to us. Also, Lord, receive these funds that we give to you in this offering this morning and do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, You