From His Heart

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Today on from his heart, discover if God is your Abba father and what that means for you today and for forever. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

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Now you think of the Abba Father. You know that's only used three times in scripture, that word "Abba." That's an Aramaic word. It means papa. It means daddy. It's what a little child cries out when the little child is relating to dad—a special name.

Only children call the father Abba. A slave never would call his master Abba, because you didn't do that. You have the relationship with God.

Can you say Abba Father? Is he your daddy? Every scar is a mark of real truth, real love.

Speaker 1

When we talk about becoming a child of God, a lot of people have a wrong understanding of what that means. They believe that everyone is a child of God, but that's simply not the truth. Everyone is a creation of God and actually a child of wrath. So how can you know if God the Father is your Father?

Galatians, chapter 3, verse 26 says, "In Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith." In John, chapter 1, verse 12, the Bible tells us, "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God." This is clear, and this is from His heart.

With Pastor Jeff Shreve, today we celebrate Father's Day with a perfect message that describes what that perfect father should be like. The message is entitled "When God Becomes Your Father." We heard part one last time, and we'll have part two today. It's important you understand the traits of a perfect father as we celebrate Father's Day, and we will discover those traits in our lesson today.

Let's appreciate our relationship with God our Father and learn how to become a child of God in today's message. Here again is Pastor Jeff.

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You know, it's one thing to be able to say God is father, but it's quite another thing to be able to say God is my father. He is my Savior. The Lord is my Savior, my Lord, my King, my Redeemer. It is personal. And when we talk about becoming a child of God, lots of people have a wrong understanding of that. They believe that everyone is a child of God. That's not true. Everyone is a creation of God, not a child of God, a child of wrath.

Question. How can you know if God the Father is God your father, if God the Father is? Is God your father, if he is really your father and you're really his child? Well, there are three blessed assurances in the passage that we just read. Blessed assurance number one: A true child of God has the internal witness of the Spirit. The internal witness of the Spirit. Look at verse 16 again. The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, the Spirit himself. Now he works in us so that we can become more and more like Christ. And one day he's going to bring about glorification, where we say goodbye to this body of sin. We get a brand new body from the Lord, a body that is not tainted anymore by sin. It's all the work of the Holy Spirit.

So a true child of God has the internal witness of the Spirit. Now you mark it down. The telltale mark of a believer is the indwelling Spirit. And the indwelling Holy Spirit testifies with evidence that we are in Christ. The Spirit, verse 16, bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. He testifies. That's what that bears witness means. Testifies, testifies jointly with us that we belong to Christ. That word also means to corroborate by evidence that we belong to Jesus Christ. And when the Lord comes in by his Spirit, things change.

And here's the biggest witness that you and I receive as Christians. All of a sudden, our attitude towards sin is totally different. Totally different. You see sin differently once you become a child of God. Hey, do you have the witness of the Spirit that tells you you belong to him, that tells you that you are his, that you belong to God, that you're a child of God? You know, if you can sin and it doesn't bother you to sin, that's a huge indicator that you've never been saved. You know, when the Lord saves you, he doesn't fix it so you can't sin anymore. He fixes it so you can't sin and enjoy it anymore. A Christian has a new nature. He's become a partaker of the divine nature. And if he falls in the mud, she falls in the mud. You feel the dirt. That is the witness of the Holy Spirit.

So that's the first blessed assurance. A true child of God has the internal witness of the Spirit. Secondly, a true child of God has the ongoing leadership of the Spirit. Verse 14: For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. So are you on the team? Because the team leader is the Holy Spirit. That does not mean that you do everything the Holy Spirit wants you to do. Otherwise, you're off the team. He doesn't kick you off the team. He is leading the team. And so we have that assurance that, wait a minute, I'm on the team. The Lord is the leader. The Lord's Spirit is the leader.

Now, the Lord, you mark it down. He is faithful to lead us, faithful to lead his children. The Lord wants you to do his will. He's not trying to hide his will from you. He's not trying to trick you or trip you up. He wants you to know it. And so those who are sons of God, they will be led by the Spirit, and the Lord will be faithful to do that. You think about it in the Old Testament. How did the Lord do it in the Old Testament? He was leading his people in the Old Testament when they came out of Egypt, going into the promised land. And it was very, very clear that God was leading them. Isaiah 40, verse 11 says, he shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those who are with young. The Lord is our shepherd, and he leads us to green pastures. And he will be faithful to lead because he's the leader of the team in Christ. Are you on that team?

Now, the Lord is faithful to lead us, but a Christian is to be faithful to listen and obey. A Christian is to be faithful to say, yes, Lord, and to follow where he leads me. I will follow, as the song says. And we need to have that time with the Lord. Are you having that time with the Lord? What I found is when people start to really struggle with wondering, am I really a Christian? It's typically because there's sin in their lives. And they start to say, well, if I'm on the team in Christ and the Holy Spirit is my leader, I'm not following very well. So I guess the Lord is done with me. I guess maybe I'm not a Christian because I'm not following very well.

Well, the leader of the team in Christ is the Holy Spirit. Whether you follow well or not, the question is, have you put your faith and trust in Christ? Because if you put your faith and trust in Jesus and Jesus alone for salvation, you're on the team. And then the goal of the team is for you to listen and obey to do what he said. You may remember in First Kings, chapter 19, Elijah, who just won a great victory on Mount Carmel in chapter 18, is now running for his life because he heard that Queen Jezebel was going to kill him. He is so discouraged and so depressed; he comes off the mountaintop experience on Mount Carmel, chapter 18, to just down in the dumps. And it happened just like that.

He says, it is enough. O Lord, take my life. I'm no better than my fathers. He prayed for God to kill him. And God wasn't going to kill him. God was going to give him an experience with him. And so the Lord brought him up to a mountain, and the Lord was going to reveal himself to Elijah. If you remember, the Lord had him stand on the mountain before the Lord. And behold, the Lord was passing by. Elijah heard and saw the strong wind that was breaking the rocks, but the Lord wasn't in the wind. Then there came an earthquake that shook the mountains, but the Lord wasn't in the earthquake. Then came a fire, but the Lord wasn't in the fire. And then there came a still, small voice, the sound of a gentle voice blowing. God's whisper, this is the way, walk in it. And that's where the Lord was—in the still, small voice, in the gentle blowing, in the gentle whisper.

How are you and I going to hear from God? We have to get everything out, and we have to focus in on him. The Lord says, and you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. He will be faithful to lead. We need to be faithful to listen and obey.

And then assurance number three: Not only the internal witness of the Spirit, not only the ongoing leadership of the Spirit, because it says in verse 14 we are being led. It's ongoing; it's not past tense, it's present tense. And then thirdly, a true child of God has the loving adoption of the Spirit. So the Spirit leads us, the Spirit gives us a witness. You belong to Christ. And the Spirit adopts us into the family. Verse 15: For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father. Adoption as sons.

What the Holy Spirit does now, it says that we haven't received a spirit of slavery that leads to fear again. What's he talking about? Well, he's talking about the Christian is no longer a fearing slave of sin. You don't have to fear. You're not under law; you're under grace. So Romans 8:1 says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and of death. You haven't received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again. Oh no, I'm under the law again, and I'm failing. And the law condemns me. He says, you don't have that anymore. You've received a spirit of adoption. You've been adopted into God's family, and you are now a beloved child of God.

We don't have to be living under the fear of being separated from God. What shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation or distress or peril or famine or sword? No, nothing. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing can separate you from that. And so a Christian, once you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you are a beloved child of God.

I was listening to a message by John Lennox, Dr. John Lennox, a mathematics professor at Oxford. He's retired now, professor emeritus. He has debated Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, very well-known atheists. I got to talk to John Lennox from England. I was able to interview him. I was a little nervous because John Lennox is a really smart guy, and Pastor Jeff is not. I'm not the village idiot, but talking to this guy, you know, it's like a five-talent guy and a one-talent guy. And so I felt a little out of place there. But I was listening to something that he had done. He was talking about his wife and he was talking about salvation.

Salvation is not as a result of works, lest anyone should boast. He said this: he said, you know, I've been married for 40 years to my wife Sally. He said, what would it have been like if I had gone to her and said, well, Sally, I have a little gift for you. And she opened it up, and it was a cookbook. And he said to her, now listen, it says on page 147 how to make apple cake. And if you make apple cake just the way I want you to make it, along with all these other recipes in this cookbook, maybe after 40 years of marriage, I'll accept you as my wife. He said, it doesn't work like that, does it? He said, no, it doesn't work like that at all.

He said, but that's the way we have it with God. We think, well, I have to do all these things, and if I do all those things, then God will accept me. Listen, the moment you receive Christ, Ephesians 1:6, you are accepted in the beloved. I accept Christ; he accepts me. It has nothing to do with me, how good a guy I am, how circumspectly I walk. It has to do with Jesus. Remember when David wanted to show kindness to Jonathan's son Mephibosheth? Mephibosheth was hiding out, thinking David, the new king, was going to kill all the line from the old kingdom from the house of Saul.

And so they go get Mephibosheth. He's living in Lo Debar, which means place of no pasture. They get him; he's crippled in his legs. They bring him before the king. He thinks for sure David's going to kill him. And David says, I want to bring you to my house. I want you to eat at my table. I want you to have all the blessings of my kingdom. And Mephibosheth says, why would you do that for a dead dog like me? And he said, I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for your dad, Jonathan. For Jonathan's sake. Ephesians 4:32 says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God for Christ's sake also has forgiven you. It has nothing to do with you; it has everything to do with Jesus.

And we're accepted in the beloved. The moment that we accept Christ as Savior and Lord, that is good news. So the Christian is a beloved child of God. We're able to cry out, Abba, Father. Now we're adopted into the family. Here's something you need to remember. The Bible will use different kinds of analogies. So the Bible talks about being a slave of Christ, a doulos of Christ. And we are. The Bible talks about being born again and being a son of God. We are. We're the born ones of God. And then the Bible talks about being adopted into God's family.

You say, well, I don't get this. I mean, if I'm born into God's family, why do I need to be adopted into his family? Well, the analogy of being born into God's family, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, unless a man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He can't even see the kingdom of God. You must be born again, Nicodemus. Well, to be born again, that means you take the divine nature of God. We are partakers, as stated in Second Peter 1:4. We're partakers of the divine nature. But adoption into the family means you have standing before God, legal standing before God, to be an inheritor of all that God has for us.

And then the Bible also says we're the bride of Christ. So all those images are put together so that we would fully understand what we have in Jesus. Now, you think of the Abba, Father. You know, that's only used three times in Scripture, that word, Abba. That's an Aramaic word. It means papa. It means daddy. It's what a little child cries out when the little child is relating to dad. Special name. Only children call the father Abba. A slave never would call his master Abba. Because you didn't do that.

You know, I have three girls. Those three girls call me dad, Daddy, Dodie. Sometimes they have different names for me, but they're able to do that. Nobody else can do that. You start calling me Daddy, and I'm thinking, what's up with you? I mean, that, you know. But my girls can do that because they have that relationship with me. You have the relationship with God. Can you say Abba, Father? Is he your daddy? You know, Jesus was the first one to say that when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here with me. Watch and pray. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

He went a stone's throw from Peter, James, and John. He fell down on his face. He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Let this cup pass from me. When he was in the very toughest time in his ministry, when he was facing the sin of the whole world crashing in upon him, so much so that he began to sweat drops of blood, what does he do? He cries out and he says, Abba, Daddy. Father, save me from this hour. We're able to do that as children of God. We can cry out to the Lord, and we can say with confidence, you're my Abba.

You know, the Spirit doesn't have us say, I am a child of God. He has us just cry out, Daddy, Father, you're my father. You're my God. And not only is the Christian a beloved child of God, but the Christian is a joint heir with Jesus Christ. The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God. And if children, or a better translation, since children. He's not saying maybe or maybe not. He's saying, if we're children, since we're children, heirs, also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

So here is the progression. We were in Adam, slaves to sin, under the condemnation of death. But then we receive Christ. We become a child of God; we're adopted into the family. We're given sonship; we're given standing. And we're made to be heirs of the kingdom of God. We receive everything as a son would receive of the kingdom of God. A joint heir with Jesus Christ says in Matthew, chapter 25, the parable of the sheep and goats. Judgment. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. That's true for every Christian. We'll get to inherit the kingdom.

And what is the ultimate inheritance for a Christian? It is God himself. We get to see his face. God will dwell among us. And I don't care what other thing there could be. There's nothing that can compare. We're living with God for all eternity, and we see his face. That's what's in store for every Christian. If we suffer with him. And he's speaking of the Christian life, discipleship; we suffer with Christ. Why? Because Jesus said, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. Paul said to Timothy, suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. Yea, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him. And that is coming in the future.

Hey, we have so much in Jesus. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.

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If you don't know Jesus Christ in a personal way, if you can't say that you know that you are a child of God, and if you'd like to become a child of God, it says in John 1:12: "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." You can do that today. When you repent of your sin and put faith in him alone to save you, he will be your Father in heaven, and he'll be your Father now too on earth. He will never ever let you go.

We invite you to go to fromisheart.org to find out more about what this means. Click the "Why Jesus" link there. To have an assurance of your childhood and walk by faith with the Holy Spirit inside you, go to fromisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link. As we've been learning today, Christians are to live as if Jesus died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back tonight. This perspective keeps us excited to live for the Lord every second of every day.

Hey, do you have the anticipation in your heart for the coming of the Lord? Are you longing for the return of Christ? He's coming at any moment, and we need to be ready. Find out how and much more when you get Pastor Jeff's six-lesson series, "More Than Conquerors," a study of Romans chapter 8. It contains the full message you heard today called "When God Becomes Your Father." In this series, you'll also learn how to long for all of creation to come to the glory of the Lord, and you'll want to be a part of that transformation.

To get "More Than Conquerors," the series and the single message "When God Becomes Your Father," go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Listen" link or call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE). God is good, and God is glorified in our love and actions on his behalf. Praise the Lord.

Time has gone for today, but we are excited you were with us for a message aimed at strengthening fathers. We hope that you'll join us next time as Pastor Jeff Shreve continues his series, "Life is Hard, but God is Good." Be with us next time when Pastor Jeff Shreve will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart, here on From His Heart.

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Real truth, real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

From his heart is the listener supported broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve proclaiming the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

Find out about that when you go to fromhisheart.org.