The Spirit of Bondage
A Sermon on Spiritual Bondage from Romans 8:15-16
Scripture
15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Sermon Description
The Christian may feel the Christian life is filled with burdensome tasks, an endless to-do list. When living in an antagonistic world, the tendency is to turn the faith into nothing more than a higher law. Holiness becomes nothing more than an occupation. To what does this lead? It leads to a wrongful fear of God; a tormented view, seeing God as merely a distant law-giver. This doesn’t lead to a life of joy, but rather a spirit of bondage. In this sermon on spiritual bondage from Romans 8:15–17 titled “The Spirit of Bondage,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses this issue through examining the doctrine of adoption. The Christian is invited to call God “abba.” A slave cannot call their taskmaster “father”––only a child can do this. Adoption means that God is not a distant law-giver, but a father who is near. Listen as Dr. Lloyd-Jones explains that desire to live a holy life must not come not from an attempt to appease God. On the contrary, that desire to live a holy life is because He is the father and Christians are His children. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. The moment this is realized, everything begins to change.
Spiritual Depression
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.