Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.heritagesermons.org/sermons/64822/the-liberty-of-the-children-of-god-quality-good/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] In dependence upon God, we will turn to the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 8, verse 21.

[0:12] Paul's Epistle to the Romans, the 8th chapter, verse 21. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

[0:48] The last clause of this verse is the word that dropped into their spirit at tea time today.

[1:02] The glorious liberty of the children of God. And I hope that personally speaking we felt a little warmed and enlarged in our own soul.

[1:20] What a wonderful word this is. The glorious liberty of the children of God. However, it seems that some comments are advisable and necessary concerning the context.

[1:38] Although I find great difficulty in speaking from the context. However, with the Lord's help we will attempt at least a few words.

[1:51] This beautiful chapter contains a number of precious things. Things concerning the flesh and the spirit.

[2:04] The carnal mind. The spiritual mind. Life and death. And bondage. Liberty.

[2:16] Corruption. And immortality. Although I think that word immortality is not mentioned in the chapter. But it's there. It is there in the word glory.

[2:30] It is there in the word deliverance. The creature shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Friends, that's glory, isn't it?

[2:41] That is glorious and glory. And that is perfect liberty. We find groanings mentioned in this chapter.

[2:52] And such groanings as cannot be uttered. Perhaps you feel your groanings cannot be uttered. No. You are not the author of them.

[3:04] If you were the author of them. You'd have little difficulty in uttering them. You find difficulty in uttering them because the spirit of God is the author of them.

[3:18] That's the secret of that. I'm sure of that. Things that are of the flesh are not so difficult for us to attempt.

[3:29] But when it comes to the spirit, it's very different. Groanings. Inspired by. Understood by.

[3:40] The spirit of God. And which groanings are registered in heaven. Even upon the heart of God. Seeing that he, in the person of his dear son, their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Is touched with the feeling of their infirmities.

[4:03] But are not infirmities and groanings so closely connected? They certainly are. So we have groaning. We have in this chapter burdens, sufferings.

[4:19] I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

[4:30] Not simply to us, but as here, in us. Glory revealed in us. If we have any measure of the spirit of truth in us, that is the spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, we shall have a good deal in us revealed.

[4:55] Sin and corruption and wretchedness and woe. Because that's the spirit's work, it is revealed in us rather than to us.

[5:07] And although Christ is revealed to us, he's formed in us. He's formed in us, as Paul himself says, when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to form his dear son in my heart, to form him there, that Christ should set up his throne, his kingdom there in my heart and in my affections.

[5:38] So did the dear man cease to confer with flesh and blood, even though still in a body of sin and death.

[5:50] And it is the spirit of Christ within a sinner that makes him groan and makes him hope and look to Christ and expect deliverance.

[6:05] And we find here in the context this expression, the earnest expectation of the creature. not every creature, but the child of God.

[6:21] Not that all sinners have earnest expectations of a kind, but here is the earnest expectation of a child of God.

[6:33] And he waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. He waits for that personal manifestation of the son of God to his soul.

[6:45] And he waits to be manifested himself, personally, as a son of God or a daughter of God. This is his earnest expectation.

[6:58] But there is an intimation here concerning the body in this word creature. Not so much the soul, but the body.

[7:10] For we read a little later on in the chapter of the redemption of the body. Not only they, that is to say, all creation who groan and travail in pain together until now, but, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first roots of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption.

[7:37] To wit, the redemption of their body. Not redemption of the soul, or that is most precious, of course, but the body also is brought in into this subject before us.

[7:55] Hence the reference, or rather the several references to the creature, the creature itself, the body itself, the body of a believer, the one who is made a real Christian and who is washed in the Redeemer's blood and has union with the churches living head, he shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption.

[8:24] That is to say, when his present body returns to dust, after being laid in the grave, after having been sown in weakness, shall be raised in power, shall be raised a glorious body, that which thou sowest, says Porter the Corinthians, is not that which shall be.

[8:53] When it is sown, when the body, when the creature, is sown in the earth, that is sown which is. but it is not sown that which shall be.

[9:11] And hence we think of that wonderful scripture, that he, the great, the almighty God, with whom nothing is impossible, shall change a vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.

[9:41] God, this is the earnest expectation of the child of God, not only as to his redeemed soul, but as to his body also.

[9:54] Therefore glorify God in your spirit and in your body, which are his. He has a claim upon us, soul and body, he has.

[10:08] And so we read in this 21st verse, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption.

[10:22] So to be subject to corruption is clearly to be in bondage and not to be at liberty. One cannot be in bondage and at the same time at liberty.

[10:37] think of dead Lazarus. Was he at liberty in the grave? No, nor yet. When he immediately came forth from it, being still bound in grave clothes and the napkin about his head, he wasn't free.

[10:58] A little later on he was. Loose him and let him go. Being let go, he went to his own company. Therefore we read that Lazarus was one of them that sat with him, with Christ at the table.

[11:15] He was at perfect liberty. He had been released from the tomb and from death and from the grave clothes and there he was.

[11:28] Shall we say a monument of grace, yea, and more than that, a demonstration, a living, open demonstration of the almighty power of God such as is set forth in the words of this verse.

[11:47] Now do you groan, friends, being burdened. We that are in this body do groan, says Paul, being burdened. not for that we would be unclosed, but closed upon what we is with our house which is from above, that this, this life, shall we say this death, might be swallowed up of eternal life that this mortal must put on immortality.

[12:22] creature itself, is this you? Are you that creature here referred to in God's holy word? Or you will feel to be a poor sinful creature if you are?

[12:37] How you will long to be free? How you will pray that God the Holy Spirit will come and grant you sweet and wonderful liberty until the Lord comes to a poor sinner.

[12:54] He knows nothing of bondage, yet he's in it. He knows nothing of corruption, yet all the while subject to it. He's in darkness and in ignorance.

[13:07] And wonderful is the grace and love of a dear Lord in coming to poor sinners in bondage and corruption.

[13:18] think of the wondrous way in which he brings the sinner out of it. First, he lets them know and see and feel and confess that they are in it, that they are subject to this bondage and this corruption, that they are corrupt creatures by reason of the fall.

[13:43] And the knowledge of this, so painful yet so good, and so vital, is such that it soon deals effectively with the sinner's pride.

[13:58] When thou with rebukest dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth, crushed.

[14:10] all God deals his people some crushing blows, doesn't he? Not that he will crush the souls whom he has made, certainly not, but he does nevertheless deal us some heavy blows at times.

[14:31] What a blow when you get a look into your heart. What a blow when you go a little deeper into the depths, even the hitherto unknown, unsuspected, unlocated dens of iniquity, such as we read of in one of the prophets.

[14:54] go and look in that hole in the wall. I suppose until that hole was pointed out to the prophet, he didn't know it was there.

[15:10] A hole in the wall. Look into this hole, go through it. What do you see there in that compartment or room?

[15:21] Is but a den of iniquity and of dreadful hellish vice? Seest thou these things, these abominations?

[15:34] Thou shalt see greater abominations. Pass through, so to speak, pass through that door over there into the next room.

[15:47] And thus did the Holy Spirit teach his servant the prophet. and so does he teach personally all who are the children of God.

[16:01] This dreadful bondage of corruption. Oh, it isn't an imagined thing, it's a real thing. It's all too real, my friends.

[16:13] You know something of it? God's God's love. I say this now to my utter shame, but I'm sure that in my teens, even after I had first begun to attend the house of God, which I did not, I wasn't brought up to that at all, but after I had begun to attend regularly God's house, I think, in fact, I'm positive, that it was not upon the face of the whole earth a more self-righteous creature than myself, and I didn't know it.

[16:51] Oh, I was so good and so great in my own eyes, that I trust through the work of grace in my poor, needy soul, there has been some measure of correction, and reproof as to that, and that the Lord only knows how much more the work is necessary to the humble, and to bring love, and to sanctify, and to grant a meek and a contrite spirit.

[17:28] And in the work of grace in conviction of sin, and with a view to bringing out into this glorious liberty of God's dear children, two things go alongside in the main, the deepening of that work of solemn disclosure, and revelation of a man to himself, who can tell what depths, and what depths of teaching, and wisdom, and mercy, and love, and grace, there are in this little word or prayer, Lord, show me myself.

[18:12] He'll do it if you're his, and if you're his, you'll pray that. You think it's a strange thing to pray that, but you'll be brought to it.

[18:24] Lord, show me myself. Introduce me to myself. Not for a handshake or a congratulation, it won't be that, but it will be something that will, well, it will be a revelation.

[18:42] That is revelation, leading up to the revelation of Jesus Christ, and to this final consummation, which God has in his eternal view, and in the purposes of his grace and salvation, in dealing with his dear people, in showing them where they are, bound, bound by the Satan's chains.

[19:18] I used to work with a man who was a retired naval commander, a nice man, an upright man, and a strict churchman.

[19:31] One day he asked me to witness his signature for something to do with his naval pension. I wrote my name, and then it said underneath it a description.

[19:46] I had to write what I was, and I purposely paused. And he wondered why. I said, I'm thinking. I said, I don't know whether to put 500 pence debtor, or my name is legion, for we are many.

[20:08] Or, he said, you malign yourself. people. So by that, I knew that he understood very little about himself, yet a very strict churchman.

[20:23] And if you possess that volume, or those two volumes called Bunhill Fields, you'll find that man's name in there, because his grandfather was buried in Bunhill Fields.

[20:35] Well, so much for that. How is it with you, and with me? Do you feel to be a 500 cent debtor?

[20:48] Do you feel to be just like legion sometimes? My name is legion. My real name, by nature, and according to what God has shown me of myself, is not the name I'm known by, but this name which is more myself, more me, legion.

[21:14] What legion in liberty or bond? It was chains, and so strong were those devils by whom he would possess, that those chains were so weak, he burst them all of thunder.

[21:31] For it was a mercy, you know, for the inhabitants, those who dwelt in the locality, if there were those so near, that he was kept within the tomb, wasn't he?

[21:43] He didn't break out. He was kept in. He was kept in in more ways than one. Now, what happened?

[21:54] The Lord Jesus drew near. You'll find this, that wherever there is liberty to come, it is through Jesus Christ. The law was given by Moses.

[22:08] What for? For this reason? To make known to the sons of men, that is to say, the children of God, to make known to them the exceeding sinfulness death of sin, but as their schoolmaster, to bring them to Christ, that their salvation would be known to be by them a matter of faith.

[22:39] Now, the law is not of faith, is it? You won't get faith from the law. You won't get grace from the law. You won't get liberty from the law.

[22:51] Grace and truth obtained by Jesus Christ. Grace and truth at liberty. The truth shall make you free, set you at liberty.

[23:04] When he, the son of man, shall come, he shall make you free indeed. Now, the time is going so fast.

[23:15] What about this, the glorious liberty? of the children of God. It would be wonderful even if we read about this, the liberty of the children of God.

[23:29] This is the glorious liberty of the children of God. And who liberates the same dear man of God's own children and acquaintance, even the man, Christ Jesus, who were taken captive to let poor captives go.

[23:55] What did he say in the garden when they came out with lanterns and saves to apprehend him? Whom seeked him? Said they, Jesus of Nazareth.

[24:06] them, they all went backwards, falling to the ground. And again, the same question was put to him, if he seek me, said Christ, let these go their way.

[24:19] things, so he freely delivered himself up to them, put himself into the very jaws of death, voluntarily.

[24:36] He volunteered then, if this was voluntary, he volunteered. He did, yes, he did, to be the sacrifice and the offering to God for us.

[24:51] Glorious liberty comes about through the precious love and righteousness of this dear man, Christ Jesus. The liberty that he brings to the soul is said here to be a glorious liberty.

[25:08] They are liberated into a state of glory, even in the expectation and anticipation of it here below, which is but a forerunner of that glorious liberty in glory itself.

[25:30] Do you know something of this, dear friends? Have you had an inkling of it, a taste of it? Just the earnest forerunner of it in your soul?

[25:44] Has Christ made you free? Have you been made free in the sense that Paul says here? If we can find it quickly.

[25:55] I do not think I can find it quickly, but never mind, it is to this effect that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death, which is in my memory, made me free.

[26:16] Of course, we shall always be sinners, and always have a body of sin and death, but as to its influence and power and dominion, that's the thing. Either we are under the law, condemned, or not under it, that is to say, not subject to its curse and condemnation, but under grace.

[26:39] To be under grace is to be subject to Christ. To be subject to Christ as their glorious liberator, is to be set free from the bondage of corruption.

[26:54] Or you may say, I wish I knew what this was. Why do you wish it? Why do you wish it? You say, well, it's so attractive, so good, especially when I view everything here below.

[27:11] The vanity and vexation are clearly stamped upon it all. And as for myself, why? I'm such a slave to sin, such a slave to Satan, and so quickly, and so simply, so easily takes me captive of his will.

[27:33] My will is to be free. And you may say, there's nothing in God's word for me. There is. I'll tell you what it is. It is but one of those things for you.

[27:45] A captive exile, hastily, that he may be loose, that he should not die in the pit, and so on, or he struggles.

[27:59] And yet, the struggle is not so much his, but the striving, the working of the Holy Ghost within him. And that sentiment can be expressed in the words of David, David, like this.

[28:14] Oh, that I had wings like a dove. For then would I fly away and be at rest. And also in this word, let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest.

[28:31] Rest is liberty. Restlessness is earthbondness. Oh, do you struggle to be free, to know something of the glorious liberty of the children of God.

[28:47] Oh, what a favored happy people God's children are. There's none like unto them. the glorious liberty. Yes, this is only for the children of God.

[29:00] Even if you do not feel to be like a child of God, well, try in prayer and supplication that you might be manifestly one of them.

[29:13] Make me thy child, a child of God, washed in the sage of precious blood, from my whole heart from sin set free, a little vessel full of peace.

[29:27] Now, if you get that, that's all. If you get a view of Christ, if you are favored with sweet assurance of faith that he did in fact and indeed as well as in truth and in love, expire to you upon the accursed tree, why then, your sin is pardoned, and if sin be pardoned, you are free.

[29:57] Now, the full glory, the full glory and the full enjoyment of this glorious liberty of God's children will not be fully known, appreciated, understood, and enjoyed until her body and soul dismissed from each other's company, to be united nevertheless in the glorious resurrection and more, and then the marriage sufferer of the last.

[30:31] all things are now ready for you. All things are now ready for you. sinners groaning under the weight and burden of your sin.

[30:42] All things are now ready for you. An uttermost salvation, a perfect redemption, a glorious liberty, an endless pleasure in the presence of God forever and forever and forever.

[31:03] all things are now ready. All things are now finished. The gospel table is spread, fully furnished.

[31:18] This then is seen to be the glorious liberty of God's people, which is their earnest expectation. Oh, how earnest it is too.

[31:32] And thine expectation, if it's that, shall never be cut off for sinners. Never. You may feel that you will make shipwreck of faith.

[31:44] You dread that. You'll never make shipwreck of faith if your faith centers upon the person of Christ. And if you are sheltering beneath his precious blood, you cannot perish there, my friend.

[32:01] Never, no, never. Whatever depths you sink to, whatever burdens you yet have to bear, whatever sins you may yet be guilty of, and need to.

[32:16] you see, all is settled. All is settled. And the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ approves of it well.

[32:29] He rests in his love, in other words, he rests in his own love. love, the creature itself, subject to death, subject to vanity, made subject to vanity, in the sense that you can find in the third chapter in Genesis, not willingly, as it were, against his will, well, there is nevertheless a hope, hope, and glorious liberty, a glorious expectation, a glorious redemption, a glorious salvation, through this man who is, their glory and their peace.

[33:16] Let not the mighty man glory in his mind, and so on, but let him that glory, glory in this, that he knoweth and believeth me.

[33:30] the creature itself shall be delivered, shall be delivered from the one thing into the other, inasmuch as they pass from death unto life, and from condemnation unto justification, they shall certainly pass from this bondage and this corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

[33:58]  May he add his blessing amen. Amen. Amen.