Introduction

Today, we will delve into the second part of Romans chapter 8. As you listen, feel free to raise your questions. Learning with questions in mind is vastly different from learning without them. As brothers and sisters, we must learn to study with questions. Why have I set aside this time for you to share? It is not because I need you to raise questions through sharing; when you come with questions, your learning will be倍增 (doubled).

Today, you should know precisely why some people learn well while others do not. Those who learn well prepare questions in advance. When their questions align with what the teacher says, it's like a hook, catching on immediately. I believe this is a very effective learning method. Today, brothers and sisters, you can listen and organize your questions. I will answer them at the end.

Romans chapter 8 brings Paul's argument to a climax. I have divided Romans chapter 8 into three parts. The first part is: We are freed In Jesus Christ; the second part is: We are now children of God; the third part is: If God is for us, who can be against us?

Problems Originate from the Flesh

Today, we will discuss the second part, from verse 12 to verse 30. In previous chapters, we talked about the body of death. Paul said: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? In fact, a person's problems throughout their life come from within themselves, from their flesh.

The Bible never says that the Holy Spirit is opposed to evil spirits. There is even a passage in the Bible that is quite surprising, where the sons of God are before God, and Satan is among them. Isn't this strange? It is because we have not understood these things clearly. If God wants to save us, the devil is no match. Indeed, the Spirit wars against the flesh. So what should we do with this body of death? Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we can be freed. Paul argues that the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ has already freed us, so our choices become crucial.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:12-13)

Do We Have the Heart of a Son or the Heart of a Servant?

We must begin to understand that the choices we make in our hearts are very important. I have seen many people who lack the heart of a son.

Let me give you an example. When parents discipline their children, if the children have the heart of a son, they will be grateful after being disciplined. But if the children have the heart of a servant, they will be rebellious and disobedient after being disciplined. Today, brothers and sisters, we must repent from rebellion. Can you imagine how you grew up? If your parents did not love you, did they not raise you with great care when you were young? But when you grow up, you have the heart of a servant. Isn't that strange?

Today, what do you have in your hearts? If you have hated your parents since you were young, isn't that strange? What hatred does a person have at birth? Why would you hate your parents? It is because you have received not the heart of a son, but the heart of a servant.

We need to know that we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to it, because Jesus Christ freed us when we were still sinners. He died on the cross for us and rose again for us. What is our concept of God today? If you believe that God is a good God, you will receive a good God. If your concept of God is that He is a harsh God, you will receive a harsh God. In other words, your reception of God is not an objective matter at all; it is entirely your own reception in your heart.

In fact, our reception of God is far from reality. For example, some of our brothers and sisters often say: You don't love me anymore. That is their own reception, completely different from the truth. We must not be ignorant in our understanding, because the result of ignorance in our understanding will make our inner feelings very strange. We can feel that it is real, but where does this feeling come from? It actually comes from wrong ideas.

Today, many brothers and sisters do not know that they should receive the heart of a son. If you don't think God treats you as a son, how can God treat you as a son? In fact, God truly treats us all as His children. We must know for sure that if God did not love us, why would He free us? Why would He bear our sins and curses? Why would He die on the cross for us? Aren't these questions very simple?

Jesus Christ died on the cross in the hope that everyone would turn to Him. Today, many people think: I seem to be a child of God, but I don't seem to be. How can I know that I am a child of God? I believe someone will definitely ask this question. The key lies in whether you believe that you are a child of God. This question is crucial. If you believe that you are a child of God today, then you are a child of God. Now ask yourself, do you have the heart of a son or the heart of a servant? Are we children of God or servants of God in our home?

Today, I want to tell you that our inner thoughts will cause serious problems, which will affect our faith. How can I know that I am a child of God? It is simply because I believe. This is what Paul argues, from faith to faith. You can only begin if you believe. If you believe that you are a stepchild, that God wants to punish or curse you, then what you receive is what you perceive in your heart.

We must know very clearly in our understanding that we are children of God, that God has freed us, and that God will help us overcome our flesh. This is how we escape the control of the flesh through Jesus Christ.

Today, many theological systems emphasize the sovereignty of God. You may notice that I rarely teach on the topic of God's sovereignty. When does the Bible talk about the sovereignty of God? Does God intend for you to die? God intends for you to live, the key is whether you choose to live. God intends to accept you as His child, but are you willing to be God's child? We must understand God's will, rather than using God's sovereignty as a fig leaf for our disbelief.

Why are so many people healed among us? Why does God heal you and free you? Is it God's sovereignty or our faith? God's intention is to free us. Today, let each of us tell ourselves in our hearts, I am a child of the living God.

Only through belief can we receive. We must understand God's will. We turn to God, and God turns to us. The way our God is portrayed in the Bible, in one sentence, is that He offers a warm face to a cold backside. We often put our cold backside to God's face. How disgusting are we!

Can our faith turn back to God today? God has already saved us, God has already freed us, but we are still emphasizing God's sovereignty. Can we believe that God has already healed us, that God has already freed us? Let us stop using God's sovereignty as a fig leaf for our disbelief, because that is God's intention. God died on the cross for us when we were still sinners. God intends to save us, God intends to free us, and God intends to heal us.

By Jesus Christ's wounds, we are healed. By the precious blood Jesus Christ shed, we are redeemed. Through the poverty of Jesus Christ, we become rich. Because Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, He bore all the curses for us. No matter who you are, as long as you are willing to believe, you can enter into the grace of Jesus Christ. Then you will believe even more, you will receive more grace, you will put to death more of the evil deeds of the flesh, and then you will become more like Jesus Christ.

You know, after listening to the words of the Bible, we feel that God often offers a warm face to our cold backside. What did Jesus say? I am like a hen, I often want to cover you chicks with my wings, but you are unwilling. It is not that God does not want us, but that we do not allow God to protect us.

Today's generation often emphasizes God's sovereignty, do not steal God's glory, also avoid isolation from God. Therefore they don't emphasize that God is mine, and everything of mine is also God's. Because we are children of God, if we put to death the evil deeds of the body through the Holy Spirit, we will live!

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:14)

We think the Spirit of God does not want to guide us, but in fact the Spirit of God is willing to lead everyone. However, when God is guiding us, are you willing to follow? So I always tell myself, the Spirit of God guides me, I must follow. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

The relationship between us and God is that of Abba, Father, and children, so it is our natural right to draw grace from God. We believe that God has healed us, God has redeemed us, and God has freed us. The Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. The Holy Spirit is already there waiting for us. God has already done what needs to be done. The key lies in whether our hearts receive it. Even if our faith is as small as a mustard seed, it doesn't matter, we can still begin to believe.

Brothers and sisters, use faith as small as a mustard seed to say that you are children of God. If you have the mindset of a child of God, then you are co-heirs with Christ. If everything of God's is yours, will you still lack anything? We will have the same mindset of suffering as Jesus Christ. We receive the title of children of God, no longer a theology of isolation from God, but a theological system of being one with God. We are beginning with faith, and leading to faith.

Today, I tell you that our unbelief that we are children of God is the root of all problems. For example, when some brothers and sisters are at work, they feel finished when their boss says something, and all kinds of worries and fears come up. They are very afraid of losing their jobs. The more they are afraid of losing their jobs, the more they live like slaves, and the more their boss despises them, kicking them a few times when nothing is wrong, and the more painful they live.

We are children of the living God, are we still afraid of losing our jobs? When we go for an interview, we know that we are children of God, and we have a noble image. It is not that I need this job, but that this job needs me, because which company I am in, that company will be blessed. If we have the hearts of sons, God will surely protect us.

Put the Flesh to Death

Today, brothers and sisters, if we are children of God, we will walk the path of a child of God. It is not because you believe that you are a child of God, and then you can immediately live out the image of Jesus Christ, but you must suffer the suffering of the flesh with Jesus Christ. Since we are in the flesh, what we have to do is to put to death the evil deeds of the flesh through the Holy Spirit. Do you think it is not hard to put to death the evil deeds of the flesh? It is very hard. The Bible mentions that if we suffer with Jesus Christ, we will also be glorified with Him!

To suffer together means the suffering of putting the flesh to death. Many people read this passage and think that getting cancer is putting the flesh to death. In fact, cancer is a curse. I want to tell you emphatically that the root cause of cancer is based on pampering the flesh and the knowledge of good and evil. This is what I have concluded after ministering to one brother and sister after another. They have a common characteristic, which is pampering the flesh plus the knowledge of good and evil. This is the root of cancer.

Why is this so? It is because these people have lost the glorious image of God's children. The suffering we suffer today is the suffering of putting the flesh to death. Putting the flesh to death is very difficult. Today, when we read the Bible, we will find that we want to obtain the glory of the freedom of God's children, that is, no longer being controlled by the flesh.

that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)

The Lord Jesus was complete, healthy, and nailed to the cross to die. Today, let us not think that we have other ways. We only have one way: to imitate the death of Jesus Christ, that is, the death of putting the flesh to death. Our Lord Jesus has opened up a way for us to put the flesh to death, and we will continue to be like God's Son.

Worldly things are quite common. The fears, strife, jealousy, and things that make us uncomfortable are all worldly, but the Lord Jesus does not have these things. Although He lived in the flesh, He had the image of the Son of God. Jesus was originally the Son of God. Today we must know for sure that we will be glorified with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must completely reject the wrong theological concepts of isolation from God and stealing God's glory. In fact, God wishes we would share His glory with Him. We must know for sure that every time we overcome, we are glorifying God's name and will receive the glory bestowed by God. That is, in the process of putting the flesh to death, we will become more and more like God. One day, we will obtain the complete freedom of the children of God that God bestows.

now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:17)

Striving Forward with Hope

Therefore, we must press on with such hope. What hope? That with each victory, we become more like God. With each victory, each battle, every step is towards the next goal. The Bible says:

For in hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:24-25)

Waiting for what? Waiting for the adoption as sons. Do not think that we sit and wait for death today, and then have glory after death. Actually, our God is a very real God, our God is the God of the living, that is, when we are alive, waiting for the adoption as sons, which is the redemption of our bodies.

When we are constantly climbing on spiritual peaks, standing at your height, you don't know what is above and below you. But if we hope to climb the next step, we will see what is hoped for. Although I don't know, but when we keep climbing, every time we climb a level, we see it; once we see it, it will no longer be what we hope for, then we hope for newer and higher levels.

When we reach a level, we begin to hope for a higher level, this is striving. Do not stay where you see. Many Christians always say: Ah, I have already obtained it! I am already saved! I can go to heaven after I die! As a result, they do not live well. Today, we must know for sure that the key to human life lies in hope. Once a person loses hope inside, it is troublesome.

Yesterday, a sister told me: I am very depressed, there is no hope inside. Because everything she hoped for was obtained. If everything we hope for today is obtained, what remains for us is despair and disappointment. No matter what level you stand at today, will you set a goal, in the process of knowing Christ, so as not to be lazy.

Although we have not seen it yet, we have the name of God's children on us. As long as we are a little bit unlike Jesus, we continue to climb until we obtain the adoption as sons.

When God created man, He was very clear about the key elements of human life. People actually need hope very much. Today, all of us who are desperate, all of us who have no hope, you can no longer hope for things of the world, there is really nothing to hope for, the result of hope is despair. But if what we hope for is to obtain the adoption as sons, we will begin to become more and more like Jesus Christ.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it. (Romans 8:20)

It was not of our own will that we came into this world, it was God who put us here, so we were born from our mother's womb. We cannot decide our origin. It was not our will to come into this world, but since we have come, we need to have hope.

Hoping to Enjoy the Glory of Freedom

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. (Romans 8:18-19)

That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)

In the end, it will all be revealed whether one is a son of God or not. How is it revealed? Some are striving to climb, and some have given up, those who choose to give up continue to love the world; some do not believe that they have obtained the adoption as sons, and people live their lives like this. In the end, the sons of God are revealed, those who have hope will one day become more and more like Jesus Christ, that is, obtaining the adoption as sons, which is the redemption of our bodies.

Even if we sigh and toil, we still have such hope, hoping to enjoy the glory of the freedom of the children of God. Every step is because of hope, every step is because of faith, every step must be more like Jesus Christ.

Because people come into this world, whether they like it or not, today is tomorrow when it passes, and tomorrow is the day after tomorrow when it passes, 2018 has passed, and no one can go back. We humans cannot control time, the days pass day by day, you live one day, and I live one day; it is walking whether you walk this way or that way, but in our hearts:

For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:22-23)

Why is there sighing everywhere? Every family has its own problems. Problems are problems whether you dwell on them or not. Therefore, today we hope to obtain the adoption as sons, hope to obtain the glory of the freedom of the children of God, hope to suffer with Jesus Christ, and we will also be glorified with Him, that glory is victory. Every victory will glorify God's name, but every victory is hard-earned. Brothers and sisters, do not always think: Ah, I am very peaceful! I am fine! I am very comfortable. As a result, you end up in hell. Therefore, brothers and sisters must constantly deal with the flesh, we also have times of weakness, but remember that God will help us.

Believe that We are Called by God

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:26-28)

Today, God loves us, God has already done the things of loving us, but do you think you have obtained the adoption as sons? Do you think what you have received is the heart of a son, or the heart of a servant? Today, put down all fear, because what we have received inside is the heart of a son, we know that God loves us, and gives us the adoption as sons. Our love for God is our choice, loving God will surely obtain benefits, because if you love God, you can receive God's love, if you do not love God, you will not receive anything.

Some people say to me: My parents don't love me. It sounds very strange, actually it is that you don't love your father and your mother, if you don't love them, you will not receive their love, today it is the same with God, if we love God, we will obtain benefits.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son. (Romans 8:29)

God has long known how much we weigh, knows how we will think inside, and knows whether we are willing to imitate the image of His Son, He has determined who will imitate the image of His Son according to those He foreknew. You say isn't this predestination? Some people will say: I have not obtained predestination. Brothers and sisters, don't get it wrong, it is that you believe that God has predestined you to imitate the image of His Son, the right to choose is in our hands.

So that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (See Romans 8:29-30)

If people want to live a wonderful life and live out God's glory, they must learn to walk the path of faith. Our God is a good God, we must all firmly believe that we are the ones God has predestined, we are the ones God has called, otherwise how could you be here? If we are called by God, God has already paid the atoning sacrifice for us, and He calls us righteous. We are thus called righteous by the name of God's children, and we obtain the glory of the freedom of God's children, and God will surely help us.

Conclusion

When I was sharing last week, while I was sharing, many people were being released on the other side, that was not what we did, it was because you began to believe inside that God was going to release you, so you began to be released. Today, our brothers and sisters, don't live like servants anymore, start living like children of God.

If you have the glorious appearance of God's children on you, that is God's will; if you only have a little of the appearance of God's children on you, and there is still a lot that is not like it, then constantly let your appearance become more and more like Jesus Christ.

There is a deep hope in me, I know that my hope will not be put to shame, this hope is a relatively difficult wish, this hope is that I can become more and more like God, more and more like Jesus Christ, and be able to do the things that Jesus Christ did, isn't this God's will?

God gives gifts to everyone according to His own will, that is God according to His own will. But if we have faith, God will accomplish it according to our faith, if you believe you will receive, you will receive, so I believe I will receive, and I will receive. If I don't believe I will receive, and use God's sovereignty as a fig leaf for my unbelief, how can I receive it? Today, start telling ourselves: God will surely help us! May God bless everyone!