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Bro. Otis Fisher
Go to the book of Hosea, chapter 6, verse 6. Do you have it, Greg? Not yet. Well, don't read it yet.
Getting close. Okay. Hosea 6 -6. Hosea 6 -6. Read it to us. For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Now, since you've read it, explain it. It's brand new to me.
I need to think about it a little bit. This is God talking about himself. And, David, what does he say? He's saying that the important thing is the relationship with him, knowing God. The knowledge of God means knowing God.
That's right. The thing that pleases him most is to learn and to know him. That means, Debbie, study the word. This is very honorable.
Now, go to Acts 17 -11. Debbie, read that to us.
These were more noble than those in Bethlehem, and that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were such. And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night to Berea.
Do not accept as truth just because I said it. You check it. Check the scripture. Check everything I tell you. Now, come to our study in the Book of Romans, please. The 8th chapter and the 20th verse.
Let me back up to the 19th verse. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. Where it says creature, it is creation. So the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Somehow, David, some of my notes got in another transcription somewhere. So I want someone to find in the Old Testament, in the Book of Genesis, and it will be toward the beginning of it. It was at this time that they began to call upon the name of the Lord.
That's at the very last verse of, I don't know, it might be somewhere before chapter 6, I think. And also, someone else look for... 426 is the first one. Okay, 426. Now look for... When the sons of God came into the...
When the sons of God saw the women of... 6 -2. 6 -2. And what was the other one? 426. 426. Alright, the reason for that is in the 19th verse it says... It closes with the words of the sons of God. Now I want to help you understand something today, way back in Genesis.
Genesis 420. Who has that open? Everybody? 20 or 26. Well, whatever you told me. 26. 26. Russell, read that. Alright, that full script at the bottom. Men began to call upon the name of the Lord. That is the beginning of the separation of Christians from non-Christians.
It doesn't mean that that's the beginning of their existence. It means that the people were now beginning to congregate together to worship God. Okay, to call themselves by the name of the Lord. Now go over to 6 -2 in Genesis.
David, read to us. That the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose. Now it goes on to talk about giants and about mighty men and so forth.
And there's been so much taught incorrectly about this. First of all, many, many preachers will or do believe that the sons of God here are talking about angels. But that's not true. If they are sons of God, they would not have committed such a thing.
So, the sons of God, what does it mean? Well, we saw back in the fourth chapter where they begin to call themselves by the name of the Lord. And in the sixth chapter, then we see where the sons of God.
These are human beings. The word for sons here is bane, B-A-N-E. And it means the progenitor of a family, father of children. So what was taking place was that these that called themselves by the name of the Lord are looking at the unsaved and picking out beautiful women to marry.
It was not angels. Angels do not experience any sexual activity. I know angels can inhabit people. But this is not the case. And those that misinterpret it base their belief upon a scripture in the New Testament, by other notes have it, where the angels that did not keep their first habitation.
Well, the first habitation was in heaven. And those that did not keep it are those that chose to go with Lucifer when he rebelled. And all of that wrestle has nothing to do with Genesis 6 -2 where the sons of God married the daughters of men.
6 -2 is talking about the followers of God marrying the unfollowers of God. Now, we come to 8 -20 where our lesson starts. Romans 8 -20. For the creature, which means creation now, was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.
For at the creation, I want you this morning to begin to think in terms of creation, of what we call inanimate objects. But we're told in the scripture, Debbie, that these inanimate objects are groaning.
That sounds very foreign to us, doesn't it? That a rock or a tree or something would groan. But the scripture says they do. Why do you suppose they do? Because they think they're groaning. Alright. Alright.
Now, the creation was made, which is passive, past tense, by some other being, was made subject to vanity. David, what's vanity? I think in this place, something were to use there. Just what does the word mean?
Well, a vain person is a... Can somebody get him a cup of coffee? Yes, somebody help him. How do you hear? A little more quickly next time. You sit right behind her at the dictionary and help me out. Pathetic.
Someone help him. Well, Greg, you help him out. Always vanity affects social experience. Vanity is usually empty or useless. Alright. Empty or useless. First of all, maybe we need to take some exercise.
You're all supposed to be awake by the time you get here. Alright. The creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly. Dennis, not willingly means what? Along with it. It was not the choice of this creation.
Doesn't it seem strange, Russell, that the creation seems to have had a will? Not willingly, but by reason of him who had subjected the same in hope. Who is the him?
Roger, be very careful. What?
Who was it that subjected the creation to this unwilling curse?
I was thinking Adam, but not God. Adam didn't have God. But it was he who, as God the Father had allowed him to do that, was going to occur.
Well, Roger, remind me to speak to you after class. Seriously. Did Adam pronounce the curse upon the creation? Who did? The Lord himself. Now, what would have happened? Let's play the what-if game. Where's Diane?
We're going to play the what-if game now for a minute. Do you remember what I told you yesterday? What if man in his fallen state had been left in a perfect environment, which is what it was before the curse was put upon the creation?
Bill, what do you think? Well, that's the reason. If they could stay in that environment, there'd be no reason for change. They'd want to move away from it the way they already were. Alright. Anyone else?
So you think fallen man would have corrupted it some way? Russell, what do you think?
Man would have had nothing to push him to change for the fallen state. In other words, if man had fallen and been in a perfect environment, he would have no reason to grow or to subject himself to God or anything like that.
Alright. Let's go back to Genesis 3, 17 or someplace right there, where the Lord's talking to Adam and tells him about this curse on the creation. David, when you find it, read it. And then to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it.
Cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrowed shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Now, where is that? That's Genesis 3, 17. Okay. As you read that, do you notice the little words, Cursed is the ground for thy sake?
Why are they put in there? To see exactly what God meant. Exactly. So, he's saying, it would be best for you if the entire creation is cursed. Wouldn't it have been terrible for a fallen man to be left in a perfect environment?
It was nothing to do. So, the creation today, which is living under a curse, was put that way for the benefit of man. That means that man is going to have to work, in fact he tells him in the next sentence or two, By the sweat of thy brow, it's actually by the sweat of the bridge of your nose, you will work all of your life.
Next time, next summer when you're out working, and you tie a bandana around your forehead to keep the sweat from running down, work until the bridge of your nose begins to sweat, and you'll see just how hard it really, really is.
Now, ever since that has been pronounced, Debbie, man has been doing his best to eliminate it, to do away with work. How many can remember when there was six days labor in the business world, instead of five?
At first it went to five and a half, and then six, and some places now it's four. Some places less than that. So, man forever has tried to eliminate work, when, Greg, it's necessary. It's absolutely necessary.
We're made in such a way that we're supposed to work. We have a head, a mind, two arms, two legs. And I know what happens to me. Yes, Russell?
I was in France the other day, I had to manage a 35-hour work week. Where was this?
France. Well, they're usually way ahead of us. Well, it'll keep on until all man has to do is sit around and he'll grow one great big finger because he'll just have to push buttons. It'll probably get to where he just has to think.
All right. Verse 21. Now, do you understand that it was the Lord that had subjected the creation to this and not Adam? 21. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
So the creation itself shall also be delivered from the bondage of corruption. What's going to happen to it? Parents, what's going to happen to this old creation? Well, will it just utterly be wiped out totally?
No. Okay. I think where it says the very elements will burn, the word element is sticky on, and we get our word Adam from the same thing. So I really think it'll melt down to Genesis 1 .1 where there were no atoms.
Now, the creation itself shall be delivered. It will get a new body, Roger, just like we did. So that begs the next question. I know the scripture tells us that the Lord came to redeem that which was lost.
What was it that was lost? What comes to your mind first when you read that? He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Don't ever let anybody read it, that which is lost, because that's a totally different picture.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. We always think about His people that were lost. And if you're not that far along, you think about people. But does it mean just His people? It's the whole creation.
What? It's the whole creation. He came to redeem that which belongs to God. Everything that belongs to God. Now, what is there here that does not belong to God, Roger? That is an existence in creation.
That does not belong to God. Yes. Did not come from God. Those are not His own. Okay. The sin that's in this world, which includes Satan and his people, did not originate with God. Now, we know Lucifer did.
But that was the highest archangel. And he rebelled. And he took a third of the angels. How many was that, Debbie? Five. All right. So, I want you to get it fixed in your mind today that our Lord came to seek and to save that which was lost.
That's the whole creation that belongs to God. So, we'll get a new body. The creation will get a new body. And we'll live. And we'll, the same as live, just as. And this is what it appears to be. This is not what it was.
But it appears that when the creation was made and Adam and Eve were put in it, it was a utopia. Everything was absolutely perfect. Well, He is going to go back to the same thing. Not because He was forced to.
But because you cannot force God. But that's what He intended from the beginning, was to have a people that would live with Him forever, that would bring glory to Him. That's what He's going to have. Why is Satan here with his group?
God sovereignly willed it to be so.
Well, that's a safe answer. And it's true. He is using them as a tool. He's using Satan as a tool. And Satan's seed to conform us into the image of Christ through suffering. How in the world does it do that?
I don't want to suffer.
That's just a fact. We exist in the world. That's why He's using us. They bring about trial, tribulation, and things that throw us closer to God.
George? It's all for the purpose of showing us mercy.
Well, that's the safe answer. To make us be overcomers. All right. If it were not for trials... We're all right. No, you're all right. You're all right. If it were not for the evil in the world, we would amount to nothing.
We, too, are under a curse. The world's under a curse. If it had not been the wisdom of God to bring into the world... See, sin did not come into the world against God's will. Understand that. But God's not the author of sin.
So, if it were not for the evil influence in the world, we just would not amount to a thing. I watch my wife every year move all her movable flowers to the front porch. It's a protected area. Both in temperature and wind and everything.
And they usually do real well. But Clarence, the next spring, when it comes time to move them out, she doesn't take them all out at once. She brought them all in at once. Or had somebody do it. She used to be me, but not anymore.
John Carpiac now has replaced me. But when she moves them out, it's just one at a time, very carefully. Why? How many horticultures are there here? They're all weak. Weak because they were hampered. They're weak.
They look good, but they're weak. They haven't been buffeted by the wind. So she trims them way back, puts them on a table in the garage as she works on them, and then maybe a few days or a week later, she'll begin to move them outside.
Same way with us. We need to be buffeted. We need to be blown about. We need to develop strength. And if it was not for the evil influence of the world, we would not develop any strength. And it is, as David said, an instrument that God is using to make us fit to live with Him forever.
So sin is something we run from, or should. Trouble and heartache we want to get rid of, but we can't. So whatever comes, know that it was sent by God and that you can handle it for it would not have come.
We cannot work our way around it. We have to work our way through it. And with the presence of the Holy Spirit, we know we can do it. We know it better after we've done it. I want us to get to where we know it before we even start into it.
And for that, Joe, at the end of his trial, he went into the trial saying, you know, we only thank God for those things that are good. He went into the trial, and I still realize he's out of control. And at the end of this trial, not only did he know how much he loved God, but so did everybody else.
That's right. There are so many examples in the Scripture. It's just full of them. All right,. 22. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And that's current.
That's right now. Go to Jeremiah, the 12th chapter and you will get confirmation of this.
Diane, do you have that? Yes. Would you read it to us? How long shall the Lamb mourn in the earth that ever shall wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts are consumed and the birds, because they said, ye shall not see our last hour.
So yes, how long is all of this going to go on? Meaning that it is going on. 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body, of our body.
Now, in the first part of that verse, David, are you awake yet? Okay. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, what's that? Well, the firstfruits of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit.
Who is called the firstfruits? Y 'all trying to trick me, isn't it? That's right. Jesus. I don't know about this man. And he's going to preach to us later. That's why they'll start at 11. I guess he wakes up at 11.
What did you say, Russell? Jesus is the firstfruits of the Spirit. That's right. Now, how is it that we have him? The Holy Spirit. Okay.
Are we in him? Is he in us? That pretty well constitutes the fact that we have him. And not only they, the creation, but ourselves, we that are his, we have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
Now, Greg, what would it mean we groan within ourselves? Well, let me ask you this. Are we aware of the groaning? Well, then you ought to be able to tell me what it is. It's that unhappiness I have that I am doing the things I would not want to do.
All right. We find ourselves continually doing things we don't want to do. And that makes us unhappy. And that's part of the groaning. I think it's possible for us that we do groan without being consciously aware of it.
Russell?
First, teaching us that we know we're going to be the firstfruits, and this is a reference to us as believers being raptured and given a new body, and the creation being renewed later after other things take place.
Yes.
For we are saved by hope. What's that mean? By hope. You'll have to talk up. My battery's dead this morning. All right. We're saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. Now, Roger, hope that is seen is not hope.
So what is hope? Hope is everything that you don't see. What do we call it? Faith. We're saved by faith, but faith does not save us. Dennis, you understand that?
Explain it to me. We have faith in Christ, and Christ is going to save us. Right. Is the faith of us? No. So it's his faith. He extends, he imputes his faith to us, right? And we're saved by what action, Debbie?
We were saved by what? What actually saved us? His death on the cross. His death on the cross. But hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth. Why does he yet hope for it? Which just makes sense.
For that that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Remember this. If two things are so interrelated that the presence of one assures the presence of the other, then if you have either one of them, you know you have the other.
Example. We'll go back to the life again. Bill, can you see electricity? No. The thing we call electricity. How do I know electricity is there? Because you can see the light. Right. So the presence of the light is here.
Therefore, it's so interrelated with electricity that if we have the light, we know we have electricity. Now, if the faith of Christ is in you and you know it, then what other thing do you know you have?
Eternal life. Right.
Salvation. Eternal life. If you know you're saved, how is it you know you have faith? Because they go together. Like both sides of a sheet of paper. Russell, can you give me just one side of a piece of paper?
It's impossible. Faith and salvation are coupled in such a way that if one's present, you know the other is. So don't doubt your salvation anymore. Since God's faith is a procuring cause of condition of sonship with God, then the existence of faith is the evidence that one is a son of God.
Faith is a substance of things hoped for. So since we have faith, we have the product. But as yet, it is still in the form of substance. Did you hear me? Faith is a substance of things hoped for. So since we have faith, we know we have the product.
But the product is still in the form of substance, not the finished product. When will faith be finished? When we don't need it anymore. When we're in his presence. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities.
For we know, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But the spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So don't try to write them down because you can't.
Likewise, the spirit, the spirit here refers to who? The Holy Spirit helpeth our infirmities. Now there's no automatic deliverance from miseries. Don't count on that. I've known one, perhaps two Christians that later on in their life they were very disappointed because they were laboring under this apprehension that when they become saved everything will be right.
There'll be no more problems of any kind. So the spirit helps our infirmities. Joy, what is infirmities? All right. Weakness of the body. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought to pray. Well, Greg, I thought I knew how to pray.
I thought I knew for what to pray. But it just made the flat statement that I don't. How can that statement be in the Scripture? Because it's true. Well, what does it mean we don't know for what to pray?
Why don't we know? Because we don't know God's will.
We don't know His passion and what He's going to do. All right. We don't pray the flesh. We don't like suffering.
We want to pray away suffering. And He tells us that that's part of it. And He tells us to rejoice in it. And we have to do it for Him. Good. Turn to Philippians 1... 29.
You all are learning. What's that say, Russell? For in you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him but also to suffer for His sake.
You know, we like to read that first part. The belief has been given to us and we try to ignore the other. But His suffering has been given to us, too. Two things are so interrelated. All right. We do not know for what we should pray.
For one simple reason. You do not know the immediate future. How many of you know what's going to happen 60 seconds from now? Nobody? I hope David wakes up. We have a hope. We have a hope. We have a hope, but we don't know, do we?
As someone over here said, we don't have the big picture. He's the one that painted it. Oh, my mind's going so many ways this morning. Did you realize there was no past or future tense with God? You did?
Why have I always thought there was? You live in a time, a man-made time. All right. There is with us, but not with God. Everything from God's viewpoint is present. Right now. Everything. We're forced to walk through it in what we call time.
And He made it that way. All right, so we do not know for what to pray because we don't know what the next second's going to bring. We don't know the outcome even of our own plans. So how can we pray?
So, David, for what should we pray? Or how should we pray? We should pray in the Holy Spirit. Say amen. All right. And God directs us. As you do that, you should pray for what God places in your heart.
Pray for it. Okay, follow your good intuition as a Christian. Even though it may seem silly, think that way. God does nothing in secret and He does nothing for what He involves His saints in it. And He tells us ahead of time.
Who was it that prayed for rain? Elijah? I get Elijah and Elisha confused. But Elijah prayed for rain when he knew it was going to rain. But he prayed anyhow. Jesus knew that the cross lie ahead of Him and He knew what all had to undergo.
But he prayed anyhow. We're to do the same thing. We do not know how to pray. It's not to... We do not pray to God because He's ignorant. Now, with groanings which cannot be uttered. Greg, what would that mean to you?
It can't be expressed in words. That's right. Have you ever in your prayer life been to a point that you just absolutely quit talking because you had run out of expressions and words and how to describe your feelings?
Does... Is there any being that knows then what your feelings are? The Holy Spirit does. He's the interpreter. Prayer is impossible without the presence of the Holy Spirit. It's just a exercise and experience.
There's no prayer to it. This means that the lost cannot pray to the Heavenly Father. Do you realize that? If a lost person prays to the Heavenly Father and that prayer is honored by the Heavenly Father, what's that mean about the lost person?
Do you want me to say it over? If a lost person prays to the Heavenly Father and that prayer is honored by the Heavenly Father, what does the lost say? He might have been lost immediately before, but the lost cannot pray to the Heavenly Father.
Only those that are redeemed. Let me read the 26th verse from the Amplified Bible. So too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness for we do not know what to pray, what prayer to offer to God.
But the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplications and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. We need to stop here. We'll start with verse 27. Is there anything from anybody this morning?
Nothing? I have a thought. Is it proper to, when you're praying to ask the Holy Spirit twice all year? Sure. Isn't there a time? That's acknowledging that He does. That we need to ask the Holy Spirit twice all year?
Well, He won't do it just because you ask Him to, but that's His function in our prayer life and to acknowledge that you think He would already be doing it or you wouldn't be praying it that time anyway.
If it's a prayer, remember this also, a genuine prayer does not originate with you, it originates with God. Man can originate nothing whether he's saved or lost. Many times we see in the sports world where a player or sports person does a prayer, that doesn't prove that that person is God.
Now, is that a statement or a question? That's a question. Does it, I'll say, I sense it does not prove anything but just giving God credit for it because that doesn't mean that's a prayer. Is this still a statement or a question?
How do you know when somebody else is praying, really praying? Well, I just don't know how they can pray and play football. Well, you can pray.
We see so much of that today and I'm probably aware of it. That's true, but it's not up to me.
To say whether it's genuine or not. But you're absolutely right, we have used the name God so much that it becomes an elderly gentleman living next door.