Welcome to Studies with Stearman.

Join us as we look deeper into the Bible.

Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching.

And now, here's Gary.

Romans 8.15, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've

received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Now the spirit of adoption is an interesting phrase.

This morning I'm going to show how that phrase actually refers to the rapture of the church.

You might be somewhat surprised by this fact, because usually we think of the adoption as having occurred

when by faith we receive Christ, or baptized in spirit. At that point, we were adopted.

Well, yes and no. Positionally, we were, but our adoption will not be complete until the catching

away of the church. And this is true of every believer, even those who have passed on, have not yet been

adopted. And we'll see that this not only provides us with an interesting bit of knowledge,

but it also, I think, is a faith-building thought. That is to say, once you fully realize

how this functions in your daily life, suddenly it's

going to change the way you look at the Bible, the word, the spirit, and so forth.

Romans 8, the sanctification chapter.

Romans 8 speaks of the dynamics of the spirit-filled life.

22 times in Romans 8 there are references to the Holy Spirit operating in sanctification.

Nineteen times in Romans chapter 8, the Holy Spirit as sanctifier is mentioned directly by

that name.

So if you want to understand sanctification,

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