About this sermon
1. Because of our status as adopted children of God, the Father has sent the Spirit into our hearts (vv. 4-6).
2. The Holy Spirit is identified as the Spirit of God’s Son (v. 6).
3. The Holy Spirit enables us to commune intimately with God as a loving heavenly Father (v. 6).
Sermon transcript
Just turning to your Bible, Galatians 4, my sermon text this morning, Galatians 4, verses 4-7. Now in order to offer the full context, I’m going to begin reading in chapter 3, verse 23, and I’ll read through chapter 4, verse 7, but our focus will be on chapter 4, verses 4-7 in particular. as we continue our Foundations of Faith sermon series this morning. So beginning at chapter three, and you’ll find this passage on page 1156 in your Pew Bibles, beginning in chapter three at verse 23, let us hear God’s holy word. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word today. Almighty, most merciful God, our gracious heavenly Father, once again, we are thankful that you have disclosed yourself to us. You have revealed yourself to us in the Holy Scriptures. This scripture is the word of God, which is breathed out by you, for all scripture is indeed God-breathed and profitable. We pray, O Lord and Father in heaven, that you would grant by your grace that each and every one of us would profit from this portion of scripture that we consider today.
And we would ask that your word would find a lodging place in our souls this day and would bear much spiritual fruit in our hearts and in our lives, and also in our fellowship as a church. We would pray, Heavenly Father, that you would once again set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, may declare only that which is faithful to you, glorifying to your holy name, and edifying to your people. We pray these things through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. As you can see, the title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith, I Believe in the Holy Spirit. And if you have a sermon, your sermon outline, a number of keywords that you can listen for in my sermon today.
And one keyword I wanna point out to you, and I’ll be explaining in a little bit what this word means, but it’s filioque, F-I-L-I-O-Q-U-E. So I hope I’ve piqued your curiosity. You might learn a new word today. Well friends, I believe in the Holy Spirit. So begins the first affirmation contained in the third credo, the third I believe section of that classic Bible-based creed of the church that is known to us today as the Apostles’ Creed. The Creed has been guiding this Foundations of Faith sermon series in which we’ve been reviewing some of the foundational truths of our holy Christian faith. And it is important and good for us to do that periodically, to go back to the basics and review the basics. And we’ve been seeking to do that. Now as we’ve already considered earlier in this series, the Word of God and the historic Christian Church in all of its Orthodox expressions teach that the one true Creator God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, exists in three co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential persons, namely God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
In the words of our Shorter Catechism, in answer to question six, the question being, how many persons are there in the Godhead? We read this Bible-based answer. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, or essence, or being, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Now as we’ve seen in the Creed, the first credo or I believe section deals with the first person of the Holy Trinity, namely God the Father. It also deals with the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of creation typically being ascribed to the Father. The second credo section deals, of course, with the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, both with his divine person and with his historic works in accomplishing our redemption.
Well, this third credo section of the creed that we are beginning to consider today deals with God the Holy Spirit. And by implication, it deals with his ministry of applying Christ’s work of redemption to us and of sanctifying us. Today we turn our attention to the deeply important subject of the person and the work of the Holy Spirit. A subject that in itself could fill a lengthy sermon series since there are so many passages, multitudes of passages in the Word of God that touch upon the subject of the person of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit’s ministry to God’s people and to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But friends, Since this foundation series is simply intended as an overview, as a review, I will resist the temptation to multiply sermons on the Holy Spirit, at least at this time, and I will confine myself today to one sermon on one specific passage dealing with this subject.
And the text which I’ve chosen for our consideration on this Lord’s Day morning is found in the Apostle Paul’s fiery, white-hot letter to the churches in the first century region of Galatia in the Roman This morning we consider a very central passage in Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, namely chapter 4 verses 4 through 7. And our special focus today will be on verse 6 in particular because verse 6 describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of His or God’s Son. the Spirit who enables us as believers to enjoy an intimate relationship with God as a loving Heavenly Father, as is expressed by that prayerful cry, Abba, Father. Now, what are we to make of this letter, this epistle that Paul writes to the Galatians? The Holy Spirit inspired this letter and included it in the canon of Holy Scripture.
You know, Galatians is arguably Paul’s most intense epistle. And I don’t know about you folks, but as I read Paul’s writings, Paul seems to me, I get the impression from Paul’s writings that Paul was naturally sort of an intense individual. But here we find the most intense, if you will, of his letters. And what accounts for this intensity, the fiery nature Indeed, Paul is intense and forceful in the letter to the Galatians because the stakes are so high. Paul is intense and forceful in this epistle of Galatians to the Galatians because the very gospel message itself is being threatened by a group of Jewish Christian false teachers, false teachers who are typically referred to by the Bible scholars as Judaizers. These Judaizers, these false teachers, were seeking to convince Gentile Christians in Galatia that their faith in Jesus Christ, while certainly important and necessary, was simply not enough to bring them into a saving relationship with God and into full covenantal standing among the covenant people of God.
The Judaizers taught that these Gentile Christians must, in addition to believing in Jesus Christ, they must also be circumcised and keep the law of Moses if they would be saved. In other words, Gentiles must become Jews first before they can become fully initiated Christians of an equal standing among the covenant people of God. According to the Judaizers, we are justified, that is to say we are declared righteous before God by faith in Jesus Christ plus works of the law. So they preached and taught a faith plus works scheme of salvation. But friends, according to the gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by the Apostle Paul and indeed by the other apostles, we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ, not plus works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ apart from works of the law.
Or as the reformers put it, we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone, sola fide, faith alone. In the particular section of Galatians where we find our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, Paul has been driving home the point that both Jewish and Gentile believers are adopted sons of God and therefore are equally heirs of salvation. We see this, for example, let me just review a couple of verses. If you go back to chapter three and look at verse 26, Paul writes, for in Christ Jesus, you, and who’s he addressing? He’s addressing these Gentile believers in Galatia. In union with Christ Jesus, you, you Gentiles, whether you be Gentile or Jew, in fact, you are all sons of God through faith. And then he goes on to say, if you skip down to verses 28 and 29, he says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And here’s the clincher, verse 29. If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. Even if you don’t have any of Abraham’s genetics, even if you are not a physical descendant of Abraham, if you are a Gentile but you believe in Jesus, you share Abraham’s faith, then you too are Abraham’s offspring in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we see this also summarized in verse seven of our passage for today. So you are no longer a slave. but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Again, remember, he’s addressing these Gentile Christians in contradiction to what the Judaizers have been telling them. The Judaizers have been saying, well, yeah, you can become a fully initiated member of the people of God. You can become a fully initiated Christian, but you gotta be circumcised and keep the law of Moses and not just believe in Jesus.
And Paul says, no. By grace through faith, if you trust in Christ and Christ alone, you too are Abraham’s offspring. And you’re no longer a slave, you are a son. You are a child of God, a son or daughter of God. And if you are a son or daughter of God, an adopted son or daughter of God, then you are an heir through God. You’re an heir to the promises of God. You are an heir to everlasting salvation. So friends, in this section, Paul also drives home the point that the law given through Moses served as a guardian of God’s people until Christ came in the fullness of time. The law’s function in redemptive history was to prepare God’s people for the coming of the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. And similarly, one of the main functions or uses of God’s moral law in our personal lives is to show us our sin and therefore to show us our desperate need for a sinless savior, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.
So with all of this context in mind, let’s dive into our text for today and consider, first of all, that because of our status as adopted children of God, the Father has sent the Spirit into our hearts. Because of our status as adopted children of God, the Father has sent the Spirit into our hearts. as we are told in verse 6. Now let’s start at verse 4. In verse 4 we read these words, In the fullness of time, what’s Paul referring to? What does he mean by the fullness of time? Well, one commentator says that this means the time set by God for His children to become adult sons and heirs. As he had been discussing in the previous section of this chapter, were heirs, but they were not fully adult heirs until the coming of Christ.
So now is the time in redemptive history when they were to become adult sons and heirs. In other words, this is referring to the divinely appointed time in redemptive history. And at that time, what happened? It says, God sent forth his son. There’s so much rich theological and doctrinal and redemptive historical truth just jammed into these few verses. First of all, this points out that this highlights the father’s sending of his son. And this is a clear teaching throughout the New Testament scriptures. Let’s compare scripture with scripture a little bit. Let’s turn to a couple other verses. Let’s go to John, very familiar passage, John 3, 16 and 17, speaking of the father’s sending of his son into this world. You’re familiar with this, right? For God so loved the world that he did what?
He gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And then it goes on to say in verse 17, for God did not, what? God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. So we see there, the father’s sending of his son. This was a unified, this was the united teaching of the apostles of Jesus Christ. We see this also in the Johannine corpus in 1 John 4 9-10. If you turn to 1 John, the letter of 1 John 4 9-10, we read similarly these words. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God did what? God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. So getting back to our passage for today, when did this sending forth of the Son occur? It occurred in the fullness of time, at just the right time in redemptive history. And I know I’ve said this many times before, some of you might be getting sick of hearing me say this, but what is history? Children, you know it, history is his story. God is working out his plan and purpose in history. He prepared for the coming of Christ through the long ages of human history prior to the incarnation and virgin birth of Christ. Prior to that time, God was preparing humanity and in particular, preparing his people for the coming of the promised Messiah.
But now in the fullness of time, at just the right time in God’s preordained plan, he sent forth his eternal divine son. And this is another thing that is implied by this language here. The language that speaks of God’s son, of Jesus as God’s son, highlights Christ’s full deity. Christ is the son of God in the sense that he shares the same divine nature as The Father, there is one divine being, one divine essence shared fully by all three persons of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So Jesus, by being called the Son of God, that does not subordinate his deity, but it points out that he shares fully in the same nature, the same being as the Father. But he was also born of woman. This indicates our Lord’s full humanity. This is Paul’s way of saying what John says back in John 1, 14, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. So he is true God, fully God, and fully man in one divine person. And he was not only born of woman, but we are told that he was born under the law. What does that mean? Well, not only was Christ as a Jew obligated to keep the law of Moses, but in a deeper sense, he was born under the law as a covenant of works, as the second Adam, in order to obey and keep that law on behalf of all of God’s people. And that leads us to verse 5, where Paul goes on to say, He, that Christ came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to do what? To redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Christ accomplished our redemption so that we might be adopted as children of God. In our fallenness, in Adam, we are not children of God. We are, spiritually speaking, we are children of the devil. We are part of the kingdom of darkness, but in his saving mercy, Christ redeems his elect. He brings them out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his great grace. But what does that word redemption mean? I like how Dr. James Montgomery Boyce defines redemption. He says, redemption means to buy out of slavery. Men were slaves either to the law as Jews or to the elemental spirits of the universe as Gentiles. Christ paid the price of their redemption and set them free.
So, what does this point to? This points to the fact that the Father has planned salvation. We have been chosen by the Father. Christ executed the plan of redemption. But that plan of redemption that Christ accomplished is useless to us unless it gets applied to us. And how is that work of redemption applied to us? It is applied to us by the sovereign spirit of Almighty God. And this is what is pointed to And this is what we infer from Paul’s words here in verse six. See, we’ve been redeemed by the blood of Christ. We have been adopted as beloved sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ. Verse six, and because you are sons, God has done what? He has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Back in verse four, we are told that God sent forth His Son, but here in verse six, we learn that not only has God sent forth His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, but now that Christ has come and has accomplished our redemption, God also sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. not just into the world outside of us, but into our hearts to apply to our hearts and lives the redeeming work of Christ.
Again, not only did God the Father send forth His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Redeemer, in this verse, we learn that the Father also sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts. And by implication, He did so in order to apply to us the benefits of Christ’s redemption, and therefore, to bring us into a close personal communion with God as our loving Heavenly Father, an intimate spiritual communion which is expressed when we cry out to God in prayer, Abba, Father. Now, I’ll speak more about the significance and meaning of that term in just a few moments, but let me make a couple points of application at this particular time. Friends, first of all, the Father’s sending of the Spirit into our hearts implies an important truth that is clearly taught throughout the Word of God.
Namely, the truth that the Holy Spirit is a person, not a force. And this is important. If you’re taking notes, write this down. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a force. In other words, the Holy Spirit is a he, not a she. an it, and I have to confess, and I’ve probably done this myself, I sometimes hear Christians in their less guarded moments, and again, I probably have done this too, when speaking of the Holy Spirit, referring to the Spirit as an it rather than a he. And that’s kind of, that’s certainly would be understandable if we were Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, you may or may not know this, but Jehovah’s Witnesses reject the doctrine of the Trinity. They are an anti-Trinitarian cult. And they teach that Jehovah is the Father, that Jesus the Son is a God, lowercase g, that he is divine but less than Jehovah.
But how do they explain the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God’s active force. That’s how they describe the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s active force, they say. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us clearly that the Holy Spirit is a person. And just as, again, as we compare scripture with scripture, let’s jump to a few passages that underscore this truth. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 12, verse 31. Matthew chapter 12, and look at verse 31. And here in this discourse of the Lord Jesus, he says this. He’s being accused of performing his miracles by the power of Beelzebub or Satan, the prince of demons. And his enemies are accusing him of doing his works by the power of Satan rather than the power of God.
And Jesus says this, therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Now let me ask you this, if the Holy Spirit is a force rather than a person, how do you blaspheme a force? How do you blaspheme a force? No, you can only blaspheme a person. You can only blaspheme God. And so the Holy Spirit is divine and He is a divine person. And consider also Acts 5, verse three, Acts 5, verse three. where Ananias and Sapphira lie in order to make themselves look better to the Christian community than they actually were in terms of their generosity. And when Ananias is confronted with this, the apostle Peter says the following. If you look at Acts 5, verse 3, it says this, Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
What did Ananias, what was he guilty of doing? Was he guilty of lying to a force? How can you lie to a force? I mean, one force is the force of gravity. Can you lie to the force of gravity? No. but you can only lie to a person. So this too implies that the Holy Spirit is a person. Not only that, if we turn to Ephesians 4.30, and again, I’m sure you get the point, but I just wanted to underscore the importance of this point and the testimony of the scriptures to the personhood of the Holy Spirit. We see this in Ephesians 4.30. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom, not by which, but by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Again, let me ask you, dear friends, Paul warns the church against grieving the Holy Spirit, but can an impersonal force an active force, if you will, experience grief? Again, no. So clearly, the Holy Spirit is a divine person. And we learn in this passage, too, that the Spirit applies the work of Christ to God’s people and indwells them. Praise be to God. The Spirit graciously indwells the people of God. Let’s look at another passage in which Paul teaches this. If you turn to Romans chapter 8, and comparing our passage for today with Romans 8 is very helpful because these two passages, in these two passages the Apostle Paul brings out some of these truths with slightly different emphases. But let me read verses 9 through 11 in Romans chapter 8. Paul writes this, you however are not in the flesh, meaning the flesh meaning the sin nature.
You’re not dominated by under the dominion of the sin nature if you are a believer in Christ. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit if, in fact, the spirit of God does what? Dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. The Spirit who the Father has sent to Christ’s redeemed children indwells them. Dear listener, does the Spirit dwell in you? He does dwell in you if He has convicted you of sin and you are trusting Christ as He’s offered to you in the gospel.
But if you’ve rejected Christ and rejected the gospel, the Spirit does not dwell in you. But God calls you through the gospel to repent, turn to Christ, trust in Him and Him alone as your all-sufficient Redeemer. And then you can be assured that the Spirit of God applies the saving work of Christ to you and dwells within you. So the Spirit of God dwells in the hearts of God’s adopted children. We also learn, however, in this passage, and this brings me to my next point, that the Holy Spirit is identified here as the Spirit of God’s Son. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God’s Son. It says in verse six, because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, the Spirit of His Son. Again, it’s helpful to compare this terminology which describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God’s Son.
Let’s compare that with the terminology that Paul uses back in Romans 8 9. Again, Romans 8 9. How is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, described in Romans 8 9? You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of whom? The Spirit of God, meaning God the Father. So in Galatians 4, verse 6, the Holy Spirit is defined as, described as the Spirit of God’s Son, but here in Romans 8, verse 9, he is described as the Spirit of God the Father, and then in this verse, Romans 8, verse 9, it goes on to say, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God the Father and the Spirit of Christ the Son. And this passage, therefore, my friends, would seem to support the so-called Filioque clause in the Latin or Western version of the Nicene Creed. where we say that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.
In contrast to the Eastern Orthodox version of that creed, which does not contain the Filioqueor and the Son clause in it. as I mentioned, means and the Son. And based on passages like John 15, verse 26, where Jesus says that the Holy Spirit, described there as the Spirit of truth, proceeds from the Father, based on passages like that, the Eastern Orthodox version of the Nicene Creed, which I believe was the original one, because it was simply parroting the words of John 15, verse 26, that version of the creed affirms that the Holy Spirit only proceeds from the Father and not from the Son. But on the other hand, the Western version of that creed adds the words, and the Son, philioque. So the Western Catholic churches confess that within the triune Godhead, the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, philioque, whereas the Eastern Orthodox churches confessed the Holy Spirit proceeding only from the Father, thereby rejecting the philioque clause.
And now you may be scratching your heads at this point saying, okay, pastor, it’s afternoon. This is kind of a finer point of theology. Is it really all that much of a big deal? I mean, on the surface, this may seem like a rather minor and abstract theological difference. But friends, we need to understand that in the 11th century, it was regarded as such an important theological difference that it ended up being at least the theological catalyst and basis for the so-called great schism. between the Western Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox churches in the 11th century during the Middle Ages. Now we could certainly debate whether or not this difference over such seemingly fine points of theology should be such a severe schism or division in the visible church of that time, but it does show us how seriously the church at that time took theological matters.
I mean, the things that matter most to you will be the things that you fight for the hardest. And according to the church at that time, the most important thing or one of the most important things was how they understood God and what the God, the nature of God, the persons of the Godhead, and so forth, and how they relate to one another. Now, there were, of course, political and other factors, you know, that fed into the great schism, but this was the theological issue. But in any case, with that history lesson in mind, the language of our passage for this morning would seem to support the filioque clause, the and the son clause. And it is because of such passages as this that we are considering today that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and our Westminster standards confess as biblical the truth that the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from both God the Father and God the Son.
As it says, and I invite you to turn there, so on page 940 in the back of your Psalter hymnal, Larger Catechism Question and Answer 10, page 940. The question is, what are the personal properties of the three persons in the Godhead? The Bible-based answer to that question is this. It is proper to the Father to beget the Son, and to the Son to be begotten of the Father, and to the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit to what? To proceed from the Father and the Son. And it is because the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity that our passage can speak of the Lord Jesus as, speak rather of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God’s Son. So with this in mind, you might be thinking, okay, well, is the purpose of this passage simply to tune us in to these finer points of theology?
And these are important points. But I will close my sermon today with this final point. See, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s person and work, it’s not an abstract doctrine that is only to be relegated to the halls of the theological seminary or relegated to questions such as how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and so forth. Now friends, the Holy Spirit, we learn in this passage that the Holy Spirit enables us to commune intimately with God as a loving Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit enables us to commune intimately with God as a loving Heavenly Father. Verse six, and because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying what? Abba, Father. the indwelling Spirit of God, the Spirit by whom we’ve been born again and renewed, the Spirit whose indwelling presence sanctifies us through the Word, the Spirit by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption, as we are told by Paul in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.
That Holy Spirit, my friends, is the one who enables us as believers to cry out to God in prayer as a loving Heavenly Father. And again, I know I’ve been referring often to Romans 8, but we see this, Romans 8, Paul kind of fleshes this reality out. In Romans 8, verses 15 through 17, we read these words, it says, For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Or we think in verses 22 and 23, Paul goes on to say, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we await eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. and skip down to verses 26 and 27, we learn that the spirit also ministers to us in a very personal way. As Paul writes, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray for as we ought, or excuse me, we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. You know, sometimes when you’re praying, you can’t figure out what to say. You don’t know what to say. but those groanings in your soul, that’s the Spirit interceding for you. The Lord Jesus intercedes for us at the Father’s right hand.
The Spirit himself, though, intercedes within us with groanings too deep for words. And it says in verse 27, he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to God. the will of God. What does that word Abba mean? Some have suggested that it means daddy, and it was used in that way. But others have suggested, well, you know, applied to God, that’s kind of a trivialization or a sentimentalizing of God to say that Abba means daddy. Well, again, I like what Dr. Boyce says. He says, it may be sentimentalizing the word Abba to translate it daddy, but it should not be forgotten that the word is a diminutive and implies intimacy. Think about the implications of that. God is not, our God, brothers and sisters, is not a distant, uninvolved deity that we can only know from a distance.
He is a God who has become one of us. He has taken upon himself in Christ our full humanity and he died to redeem us so that he might send the Spirit to dwell within us and bring us back into communion and fellowship and friendship with God our creator as a loving heavenly Father. Dear ones, God has created us and redeemed us in Christ in order that we might commune with Him, fellowship with Him in love and friendship, both now and forevermore. In Christ and through the Spirit’s application of Christ’s redemptive work to us, we may enjoy personal communion, friendship, and spiritual intimacy with God as a loving Heavenly Father. It was revolutionary when Jesus referred to God the Father as his Father. And when he called his disciples to pray, our Father which art in heaven.
Certainly Israel viewed God as the Father of the nation, but this personal approach to God was unheard of before the coming of Christ. But now in Christ, although it is hinted at in the Old Testament, we see that kind of personal intercourse with God exemplified in the book of Psalms, for example. But nevertheless, in Christ and through the Spirit, we, brothers and sisters, can have a deep, satisfying, personal, spiritual connection to God as a loving, heavenly Father. Dear listener, do you have a personal, intimate relationship with God? as your loving Heavenly Father? This is not sentimentality to ask this question. This is the goal of our redemption. What is man’s chief end? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. God desires that we delight in Him as our chief and highest goal, our chief and highest joy.
Or do you view God as a distant, austere, stern judge? Now I will say that if you are apart from a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, you ought to fear God. to view God as an offended judge because he is. Now God is good to all. He is kind, he’s good, he’s loving. He causes his sun to shine on the just and the unjust and sends the rain on the righteous and the wicked because he is a benevolent and kind and patient and forbearing God. But he is a God who has an attitude of holy righteous wrath towards those who have rejected him. and who have blasphemed him and who reject his son. Oh, turn from your rebellion. Turn to Jesus Christ who offers himself freely to sinners in the gospel. Turn in repentance and faith to Christ.
Receive and rest upon Christ alone as your Lord and Savior. And you too, by the grace of God, can enjoy this intimate saving communion and fellowship with God. You too will be enabled to cry Abba, Father. And so the next time you confess the Apostles’ Creed and confess those words, I believe in the Holy Spirit, think about these things that we’ve considered today. Amen, let us pray. Thank you and praise you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of adoption, the spirit by which we are enabled to cry unto you, as a loving Heavenly Father, Abba, Father. Lord, we would pray that we would truly desire above all other desires to love and commune with you and to serve you with all that is in us out of gratitude for your amazing gift of salvation.
We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. As we close our time of worship, let’s rise and respond to what we’ve heard from the word by singing together Psalm 46a, God is our refuge and our strength, 46a.
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