Book of Romans, 8:16-18 - The Suffering of the Christian (01/26/2020)

I want to welcome our visitors. You've all been here before, so you're no longer visitors.

Just make yourselves at home. Except for Micah, you're a genuine visitor today. Welcome. And I hope all of you can stay for lunch.

We always bring plenty. If your schedule allows you to do it, stay. We'll have lunch right after the service today.

And fellowship and all that good stuff. And Dale, great to have you back with us again today.

Thank you for driving out here. We're going to be in Romans. And I think our first verse today is verse 18.

There's two of them there. You sure one of them's not Brother Ron's? There's two hats.

All right, well, Sunday school was awesome today. We even had a little discussion about the preservation of scripture.

And the Bible not only says God inspired or God breathed the word of God to us, therefore, he's the author of it.

The humans involved were just penmen. Very important penmen, though, chosen by him. And also, the copyist who preserved it throughout the thousands of years were amazing people, if you ever read about them.

But God promised he would preserve the Bible to the last generation. That means we have the perfect word of God.

Now, there are some translational issues sometimes, but that's what's nice about knowing that we have preserved in the

New Testament Greek manuscripts and a proper line of Greek manuscripts if you study hard enough.

I studied manuscript evidence for two years once when I was younger. And so it's fascinating that God has preserved the perfect text in the

Greek for the New Testament and in the Hebrew for the Old Testament, not so much the Septuagint that you were talking about today.

Although, what's interesting is Jesus, Paul, and Peter, many of them quoted from that one, which was the Greek translation of the

Hebrew scriptures. Don't you think it's interesting that they quoted from that rather than the Hebrew sometimes? But it was the language of the world.

It was the language of commerce when Jesus was here, just like English is now. So I guess it makes sense.

He was reading it in a language everyone could understand it. But we still have the

Masoretic text, which is the Hebrew Old Testament, and all of that is preserved word perfect to the jot and tittle, the cross, the

T, and the dot of the I, and we have it. Now, sadly, as you mentioned, Bill, Satan gets involved through the seminaries, through people wanting to make money by selling

Bibles and so forth. We have a lot of translations, especially in English, that are incorrect.

They don't even come from the correct line of Greek, and that's where the problem enters in. So it's not that we have mistakes in the

Bible, but we can find some things in the English version where there might be some translations that could be better, but most of the time, that's not even the case with the

King James. Usually what it is, it'll be an archaic word that we just don't use anymore, and you just need to switch it into a more modern word that makes sense, which is not difficult, because the old words are still in the dictionary.

It's just we don't use them. You have to look them up and see what the word originally meant. And what's interesting is

Satan will change languages over time, and there are several words in the

King James English that mean the opposite now in our usage, so you kind of have to know that.

But if you know all that, even the English version can be correct. You just have to know a few things.

But the Lord did tell us to study to show ourselves approved. Part of the reason God allows all of this is keeps us studying all the time.

We can't take anything for granted, right? So I'm excited about this, because when I got to verse 18, when

I got done last Sunday with 17, I was done with months of study that I had to start over with a new study this week.

So that means you're in trouble, because now we have new months of stuff ready to go.

So I will go until you start falling off the vine today, and you can't handle anymore, and then we'll stop and eat lunch, all right?

So we're starting with chapter eight of Romans, verse 18, preaching verse by verse through the book of Romans.

But I'm going to go up two verses. It won't make sense if I don't, especially if you're a visitor. So I'm gonna go up, start with verse 16.

Let's pray first, though. Lord, we ask you to bless this time of the service. We've already been blessed. Thank you for the answered prayers, the praises we've heard.

Thank you for the ongoing answered prayers, because you knew them before we asked them.

And thank you that you're our Father, and you care for us more than we can ever even imagine, more than we can care for our own children and grandchildren.

And we don't see how that's possible. But we know it is, because you are our Father in heaven.

And thank you for that, Lord. Thank you for giving us Lord Jesus, who died in our place so that we could be made to be your children and adopted into your family.

And Lord, we ask you to bless now this study time in Jesus' name, for his sake, amen.

All right, verse 16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together with him.

And the reason I had to read 16 and 17, because verse 18 is going to begin to address 17b, the second part of 17.

If he had left us hanging on that one, it might not have been very pleasurable for us, because it talks about suffering, right?

Talks about suffering, but he didn't leave us there. He begins with verse 18, and the following verse is deal with that topic.

So we're going to deal with the topic of suffering a little bit today, which is very fascinating passage coming up, it's kind of a difficult passage that few people want to study.

You'll see as we read through it, it's a bit cumbersome. But it's very clear, if you take it in context and you understand what it's talking about.

It actually even refers to the rapture. So I doubt you'll stand it to make it as far as I can go into that today.

So that may be next time when we get to that, who knows. But I have it with me in case, because I've always got plenty of ammunition. You know, when

I was a young preacher, my greatest fear was to get up here and preach 10 minutes and be out of ammo. So it's never happened since the very first sermon.

So let's read verse 17. 17 is so beautiful, I can hardly, since some of you weren't here last time,

I can't hardly not say this, where he talks about joint heirs. We had this wonderful older gentleman who was a member here for 13 years, and then he went to heaven, sat right over there behind Brother, well, right where Brother Bill is actually, he and his wife.

He had been teaching the Bible 50 years before I met him, and I was his pastor. So it was a challenge to preach in front of this man.

He was so godly too. He was not just a theologian, he knew God. Brother Otis Fisher was his name.

But he asked me, dealing with verse 17 once, we were at breakfast and he said, Brother David, do you know the difference between a co -heir and a joint heir?

And of course I didn't, I'm not a lawyer, right? Neither was he, but he knew all this stuff. He said, well, he said, a co -heir is if you had a brother and your parents died, you would get half and the brother would get half, that's a co -heir.

And I said, well, what's a joint heir? He said, a joint heir is you both get all of it. And I had to crunch on that for a while, a week or two.

All of the children get 100 % of it. Now, if you really think about it, could a human make that happen?

Probably not, a human parent. Because anyway, you cut it, you're splitting it up, right? But can a heavenly father whose resources are endless accomplish that, where each of us get all of it?

Absolutely, we don't understand how, but he can do it. He can do it because he has endless resources.

He owns everything, he made everything. Jesus made it by himself, for himself, and for us.

So everything, listen, we may not fully understand all that at our level, but one thing we know is everything

Jesus has, we own. We own all of it. Each one of us owns everything Jesus owns, which is everything.

Think about that. You know, some of you guys were discussing mental health and praying for that, that'll help.

It helps to know who you are. It helps to know who God says you are, because the world will tell you you're somebody totally different.

You're a loser, you're part of a number, you're just part of a group. No, with God, it's individuals. We're all individuals.

He stresses the value of the individual. And he spends an infinite amount of time with every individual in the room, and you're the one who controls that, which is kind of sick when you think about it, because we don't want it as much as he does.

So we don't go to him as much as he would come to be with us, but anytime we want to, he'll give us 100 % undivided attention, because he can, because he's not bound by time like we are.

Isn't that something? Isn't that wonderful to know? So now look at this. We are joint heirs with Christ.

That means everything Jesus Christ owns, we own 100 % of it already.

Not that we'll get it someday. We own it now. All right, if so be that we suffer with him, we'll also be glorified with him.

Now, we studied, remember the end of the sermon last Sunday? You guys were already done, and I could tell, but I had to finish, because I wanted to start something new, right?

So I went another 10 minutes. Totally wore you out, but I studied the word if. You remember that?

If, in the Greek language, sometimes means since, or because.

It doesn't mean a conditional, like it always does in English. So I would suspect, from the context of this, it does not really mean if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified.

It's since, or because we suffer with him, we shall also be glorified with him.

Because there's no if there. There's not a Christian in this room who's not gonna suffer in this world. We're in a fallen world. You talked about that some in Sunday School too,

Brother Bill. And during the prayer service, we discussed some things that have happened to families this past week that were horrifying.

Losing a young man to a car accident, different things like that. So it's not if, it's since.

Since so be that we suffer with Christ, we shall also be glorified together with him.

And that's future tense. That means when he comes back. But right now, where it says we're heirs, that's not future tense.

That's now in the Greek. Isn't that something? So now, when we start the passage we're supposed to be studying today, which is starting in verse 18, it refers back to the last part of verse 17, the suffering part, and begins to expand on that for us.

Are you with me? All right, so let's start that. So, and I do love the King James, because it really is written in Texan, because it says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, that's

Texan if you didn't know that, straight from the Greek. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy, listen to this, the suffering you go through,

I mean, you can't name the worst of it. The worst of the worst can come, right? While we're in this life.

But whatever it is, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us in the future.

So whatever bad happens to you, it cannot even be on the same playing field as the glory that you will have in the future with Christ, because you own everything.

You already own everything, but when you get there you'll see that you own everything. Even here you can see that sometimes.

But also, let's say you have some awfully good things happen because you own everything with Christ, but you can also have some terribly bad things happen along with the good, is that not true?

It's always true, in fact, we're gonna get into that. I just wish I could talk faster because I got so much good stuff for today. Anyway, I'm already tired though, so I'll go slow.

All right, so, now think about this. Whatever suffering happens to you, the good that's gonna happen is exponentially higher.

The glory that you'll have with Christ, the good things, the beautiful things for all eternity are exponentially, times exponentially.

How do you make it bigger, Brother Bill? You're the math dude. How can I make it bigger? How about infinitely?

I can't go better than that in our language anyway, right? Infinitely higher than the suffering that we'll have here.

So now that's pretty good to hear right after he said you're going to suffer with him and you'll also be glorified with him, and he comes back and says, but remember this, when it happens, while it's happening, the glory that you're gonna have is infinitely higher than the suffering that you're gonna go through.

Now, don't you think Jesus was looking at that a little bit in the Garden of Gethsemane when he asked the Father, could this cup pass from me?

I don't really wanna die with these people's sins on my body and in my mind and heart, because I'm sinless.

Is there another way? Nevertheless, what did he say? Thy will be done.

So the answer to the first part of the prayer was no, but since he tacked on nevertheless, thy will be done, the answer was yes, his prayer was answered, and he went to the cross.

But did he really, man, he had a rough night that night dealing with the bearing of our sin, not the physical death,

I don't think frightened him at all, but the separation from the Father who he'd never been separated from bothered him.

But you know what the Bible says later in the New Testament, it says that he did it, he endured the cross because he was thinking about what while he was on that cross, what was he thinking about?

Us being with him in all eternity and the fact that he saved us and we'd be with him. So even he had to deal with this suffering thing, realizing that the glory is exponentially higher, infinitely higher, therefore he endured the cross for you and me and for himself and for the

Father. Beautiful, isn't it? Boy, verse 18, we could just stop there, but we won't.

So verse 16 and 17 tells us that when we are saved, we know we're saved.

Let me go back to verse 16, look at this. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

How many people have you ever asked, well, if you die today, where would you go? You don't just ask everyone that question, but I've asked quite a few people that question because it's an interesting question.

And I can't tell you how many Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians will answer it, well,

I hope I go to heaven. Well, you know, verse 16 doesn't say that the

Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we might make it, does it? It says the

Holy Spirit witnesses with the spirit of a saved person so that he knows he is the child of God.

First John 5, 12, and 13 say the same thing. He that has a son has life, he that has not son has not life.

So there's only two groups, you just figure out which one. Do you have Jesus or not? Then you know. And he said,

I wrote these things that you may know that you have eternal life. Now, listen, let me ask you, just math, okay,

Bill, math. If it's eternal, how long does it last? All right, so if it's eternal, when can it stop?

Okay, so if it can't stop and it says you have it, now, does that mean grammatically, Mary Ann, does that mean grammatically where it says you have it in the present tense, does that mean you're gonna get it someday or you used to have it or does it mean you have it right now?

Okay, so if you have something right now that can never stop, how can you lose it?

You can't if you have it. But that's the big if, because there are a lot of false professors in the church.

Not so much the little bitty churches like this one, but in big churches, there's a lot of tares. Those are people that'll never be saved, but they like to play church.

Then there's a lot of lost sheep who will be saved someday, they just don't know it yet. And then you got a whole bunch of saved sheep or found sheep, correct?

That's the three kind of people you have in a church. But the people that are the saved sheep and even the lost sheep who will be saved someday, because Jesus said, of them

I will lose nothing, so they'll be saved someday before the Lord comes back. Right here, it says that the

Holy Spirit witnesses with every one of them that they are the children of God. So the first point that I see here in verses 16 through 18 is that a saved person knows he's saved.

Now, does that mean you would never doubt your salvation? Well, you might doubt it for a split second, but that's where the

Holy Spirit's ministry comes in and he reassures you, no, you're saved, you just messed up, you sinned, and it makes you feel dirty, but you're saved.

So I'm not saying you wouldn't lack assurance sometimes, but in fact, you never lack eternal security.

You may lack assurance because of sin, a momentary sin you just did, because we're not perfect, are we?

All right, but you don't lose your salvation and Satan may come at you and try to convict you, but all you have to do is say, look,

Jesus already said I'm innocent, because he took all my sins on his body 2 ,000 years ago before I was ever born, and he took them to hell on my behalf, and they're gone.

And the Bible says Jesus condemned sin in the flesh when he died on the cross, so what does that mean? The sin that would have condemned me has already been condemned and it's gone.

So you remind Satan of that, remind ourselves of that, and that helps us to understand, but the

Holy Spirit will tell us, if we're saved, he'll tell us, you're saved, and he witnesses to us all the time.

That's the first point that I see here in 16 through 18. So we know we are saved because the

Holy Spirit bears witness to our own spirit that we are the children of God, but he also bears witness that we're joint heirs, not co -heirs, joint, joint heirs.

We own everything Jesus owns. Then we come to the second point we see is that we will be glorified together with Jesus after we suffer with Christ for a season, right?

So it's not if, it's we will, but after we suffer for a season in this life, we will have glory with him forever, and that glory is infinitely higher than any suffering we can go through.

And we always think our suffering's worse than anyone else ever had, and that's never true, but we feel that way, and that's okay, it's human, but it's never true, and the glory we'll have is infinitely higher.

So those are the two things that I see right there in 16 through 18. Point number one points back to the previous verses and speaks of assurance of salvation and what

I have, through the years, like to call symptoms of salvation. There are actually symptoms that a person is saved when they get saved.

It's like you have a cold, you got runny nose, itchy eyes, people can tell you got a cold. When you're saved, you have symptoms also.

Now, false, you know, people that have a, that say they're saved, but they're not, they don't have these symptoms.

Now, they can fake some things for a season, but not for very long because it's not real. It's not really them.

So there are symptoms of salvation. Now, what are some of them? Well, if you just, and we're not gonna do this, but just,

I want you to just remember, because this is talking about it a little bit here. If you went all the way back to Romans chapter eight, verse one, and came down through, you would find several of these symptoms already listed.

First one in verse one was that people who are in Christ walk predominantly not after the flesh, but predominantly after the spirit.

In other words, it's not that they're perfect, but they're seeking spiritual things, and the world doesn't mean as much to them anymore.

It means less and less, especially as they get older. And the longer you walk with the Lord, the less that stuff means and the more he means.

All right, so that's the first symptom. All Christians have that. Baby Christians don't have it as much yet because they still kind of like the world a little bit, but they learn through suffering that the world is not it,

God is it. Jesus Christ and that relationship is what it's all about. Secondly, in verse two, the saved person,

I'm talking about symptoms of salvation, the saved person is free from the law of sin and death.

He is free from the law. He doesn't live according to a set of rules anymore. Even though so many churches will put rules on us, don't let them.

I wouldn't attend a church like that if I were you. It'll pull you into legalism. It snuffs out the life in you, and you can't keep the rules anyway because you're still in a body that tends to want to sin sometimes.

So you can't keep the rules. So the real rule is the law of Christ, and that's the law of love.

And if you love God with all your heart, spirit, and soul, and you love your neighbor as yourself, that'll take care of the list of stuff you're supposed to do and not do, right there.

That'll take care of it. So that's grace. That's the law of grace. We're not under the law of Moses anymore.

That's the second symptom is a real Christian learns to know that, grows to know that more and more. Third symptom is found in verse four of chapter eight is that they have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them.

The true Christians do. Now, that's real interesting language there because fulfilled means crammed full or accomplished, but it's in the passive aorist, which means someone bigger and greater than you does that to you, which means it's not you trying to be perfect or keep a list of rules.

It's that God's righteousness is being fulfilled in you by another who is greater than you, and that person has to be

Jesus, and he does it through the Holy Spirit and dwelling in your body. You can't be the same after you're indwelt as you were before you were indwelt.

So at the moment of your salvation, about 33 things happened to you. One of them was the

Holy Spirit came to dwell in your body with you, and his spirit and your spirit can become one.

That's called being spirit -filled, and if you walk that way, you won't sin, and you'll have perfect physical, mental, you'll be a human as a whole as God meant you to be when you walk in that mode.

When we separate and we walk in the flesh, we can get in trouble even as Christians, but the Holy Spirit's always calling us back.

Jesus is the shepherd. He's bringing us back. Sometimes with that rod that has the hook on it, he'll drag us back, or sometimes he'll use the other end and whip us back, but he'll get us back, and that's a good thing, all right?

So there it says that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us by another, by Jesus having died for us in our place, having lived the perfect life and kept the law, but now he works in us through the

Holy Spirit to fulfill God's righteousness in our life, so it's him working in us is what that's about.

It's not us doing stuff to get saved. We do stuff because we are saved. Does that make sense? The fourth symptom of salvation is found in verse five.

Think about the people that are saved. Think about the things of the Spirit more than they think about the things of the world.

Their thought life, yes, the world will pop in there because all you gotta do is look at a billboard.

All you gotta do is hear a song. All you gotta do is anything, and it can pop in the worldly stuff, but the Holy Spirit will bring you back to thinking about godly things, too, and about spiritual things and about Jesus and about the heavenlies and where we're headed and helping other people rather than being selfish all the time, and all these things that the

Lord teaches us, the Holy Spirit brings that into a saved person's mind, so they mind the things of the

Spirit, not the things of the flesh, not that you won't have some worldly thoughts, but you'll deal with them.

And you'll say, Lord, give me the mind of Christ about this issue right now so I can think like he would think about this circumstance right now if he were here.

Let me think that way, and then you will. So you deal with that stuff. The fifth symptom of a saved person is he's indwelt by the

Holy Spirit, and therefore, they are not in the flesh, but God calls us in the

Spirit. We are a human who's walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh. The sixth thing is found in verse 10 is that we have life in the new man even while we're living in this body of the old man.

We already have life. We have eternal life even while we're in a dead, dying body. We already have eternal life.

The seventh symptom is in verse 11. We have power over the flesh that the natural man does not have.

So because of the Holy Spirit dwelling us, it says the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead quickens us.

What does that mean? What does the word quicken mean? It brings us to life. And it says while we're in this body, by the way.

So a lot of people think, well, a lot of good stuff's gonna happen in the future when we're in heaven, and that's true, but this is applying here while we're in this body, which is not perfect, which is on purpose, by the way.

We're in this body, which is not perfect, but this body is quickened by the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, which means that the true

Christian has the ability to deal with sin and deal with the old man in a way that a natural man cannot do.

He can't help it. He loves his sin. The same person hates the sin and knows how to deal with it together with the

Lord. So the indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives us this ability.

The natural man doesn't have it. The eighth symptom of salvation that I see is found in verse 14. You're led by the

Holy Spirit through this life. So you have the leading of the Holy Spirit. Lost people don't have that. And the ninth thing is found in verse 15.

We have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba, Father. So this is part of the

Holy Spirit witnessing to our spirit that we're saved. He also tells us, look, God is not your judgmental

God anymore, he's your Abba Father, which means daddy in Aramaic. So he's like your close, loving father now, and the

Holy Spirit reminds us of that all the time. All the time reminds us of that. The lost person does not have that.

The lost person is, it's God. I don't, I try more and more, by the way, not to call

God God. I don't, the Hebrews never say that word. They just won't say it, it's too holy. We flip it around like it's meaningless.

I would prefer if you call him father. I mean, it's between you and him, but I mean, that's what I do more and more. I don't say

God told me to do this. I just like, to me, it's crass. It's too holy of a name to use and throw around, but we can call him father, or Abba, which is daddy, which would sound weird, so let's call him father.

Yeah, I can see putting it on the front sign out here. Park Meadows Abba Father Church. Everyone would think we were cool.

No, they would think we were weird, but the point is, that's who he is, and the Holy Spirit tells us that's who he is. Verse 10,

I mean, the 10th symptom of salvation is found in verses 16 and 17. The true

Christian knows that he is saved and that he's an heir, a joint heir. He knows it. Like the Holy Spirit witnesses to his spirit that he's saved.

So all of that, those symptoms of salvation are the first kind of idea in verses 16 and 17, in particular, even verse 18.

But the second point where it talks about we'll be glorified together with Christ after we suffer for a while there in the second part of verse 17, verse 18 picks up on that and really starts to be very specific about it.

So let me start verse 18 again. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Now, it looks forward in time and says that glory is infinitely more valuable than the suffering we go to is bad.

Okay, it's infinitely more good than the suffering is bad. What's interesting in verses one through 17, as we just went through, how many do we have there?

10. 10 symptoms of salvation. In other words, 10 gifts that God gave us the minute he saved us were listed right there.

And that's now. We have all those wonderful things already. Even with the suffering, we already have some good stuff.

We already own all the stuff, but we have some good stuff operating in us to help us get through this life. And it's

God's will that we go through this life, by the way. If I can get to it, man, what time is it? Time is always the enemy.

If I get to it, you're gonna see that he put this treasure, which means the new man and the

Holy Spirit, the new man is you, the new created, the born again you, the regenerate you, which is not the old you, by the way.

It's a different man. I mean, it's you, but it's a recreated you. And he put the Holy Spirit in there with you, but he left you in this old body on purpose.

And he says the reason is so that God may receive the glory even when you do the good stuff, because you'll know you couldn't have done it, that you didn't do it without him.

He helped you do it because you're worthless. And when I say you, I mean your old man. Your new man, on the other hand, is how valuable?

Well, as Brother Otis taught me one day at coffee, it's as valuable as the price that was paid for it.

He said, that's an economics question. You're a businessman, Brother David. What's the worth of the thing? What's the value of the thing?

I couldn't answer the question. He said, it's the price paid for it, dummy. He didn't say the word dummy, but that's how

I felt. The price paid for it. And he said, do you know what price God paid for you?

Well, I started crying because I realized he gave his son for me. So I now knew my worth was equal to that.

So is yours, but that's the new man, right? That's the real you though. So we got so much good stuff in here.

We haven't got to the good stuff yet. So now the following description, when you go into verse 19, this passage starts to get a little bit difficult.

If you don't already know chapter one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven of Romans and everything we've read in chapter eight up to here and what follows, it can be a little difficult, but it's not difficult.

It's very simple and plain and very meaningful. So verse 19 says, for the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

That's difficult language, isn't it? So let me help you a little bit with it in case you hadn't looked at it yet.

This word creature in verse 19 is titsis in Greek and it means original formation.

So it really means the creation. You go back to Genesis one, one, in the beginning

God created, boom. He spoke everything into existence out of nothing.

Now think about that. My biggest question I wanna ask you is how did you exist?

No one made you and you always existed. Nothing else could do that. How did you do that? That's what I wanna ask you. Probably when

I get there, I won't wanna ask that. So Bill, would you ask it for me? And I'll stand behind you and listen.

And if you do okay, then I'll know the answer. All right, but anyway, but think about this. Someone who can speak everything that is in the universe out of nothing and he did it in an instant of time.

And I know later he molded it like the earth in particular and put form into it and all that and then created for six days, didn't he?

And those were literal days by the way. But all of that goes on. So that's what that word creature means.

I would mark it out in your English and put creation. That's exactly what the word means, creation.

So listen to this. The earnest expectation of the entire creation of God, everything that God created that exists in the physical universe, in space and time, all of creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Now the word manifestation is an interesting word. And if you were a Roman Catholic and you studied in Latin, you would know what this word means.

You'll probably figure it out. Apocalypse. So what is the apocalypse?

Well, in the Roman Catholic Bible, the book of Revelation is called the apocalypse. So we're talking about the book of Revelation, the last book of the

Bible. We're talking about the rapture and we're talking about the second coming, which is all one event by the way, contrary to popular belief.

It's all one event, happens at the same time. I mean, there's moments in between different things happen, but generally it's like not divided by seven years.

It happens at the same time. We'll discuss that if we're here long enough, which we won't be today, but you have to come back.

It's a long drive, but you gotta come back next time to hear the rest of this. But listen, this is starting to allude to that because look what it says.

The earnest expectation of the entire creation waits patiently for the manifestation, for the apocalypse, for the rapture and the change of the church when

Christ comes back for it. The whole creation is waiting for that. You wanna know why? Because the Bible says, we will not precede those who died before us, but after they rise in a split second, we will rise with them.

And those of us who remain and are alive will be changed in the air.

That word change is what the whole creation is waiting for. Now, I wrote a paper once called the most misunderstood in the

Bible. Guess which verse it was? John 3, 16. If you're a visitor, you never would have guessed it.

But these guys have heard me say it. So see, I don't need new jokes, just new audiences. I don't need new sermons, anything. Just same stuff.

I say it again and again, they go, amen, Brother David. But I'm supposed to remind you of these cool things.

But anyway, you think about that. We're gonna be changed in the air, all right?

The whole creation of God is going to be saved by that.

John 3, 16 is actually about that, not so much about you individually as people wanna think it is.

Now, it is about, are we not included in the creation? In fact, we are the salvation of the human race.

There would be no humans left even if this event took place and it fixed all the trees and the streams were pure again and everything was lovely and the sun wasn't burning out and the world wasn't getting closer to the sun and global warming and the

Democrats were gone, so was their theory of global warming. All that was gone, okay? But you wouldn't have any humans left if it weren't for the election of a remnant by God before he made anything of a few humans to save, to represent the human race when we get past this moment in time and go into the thousand year millennial kingdom, it will be the elect that go into that.

The non -elect won't be there, that's the tares, the goats, they won't be there. Only the saved sheep will be there.

You wouldn't have any if God didn't choose them because none of them were seeking God. That's what the scripture says, there's none that seeketh

God, not one. So the Holy Spirit had to turn on, had to turn on your eyes and your ears and cause you to love him or you never would have chosen him, but he did that to those who he knew forever, which were always his children, they just didn't know it yet.

I love what Brother Otis used to say that when you get saved, it's not really you getting saved, it's God announcing to you that you are saved, that you're his.

I don't mean that you were saved before that, you do get saved at a moment in time, you get born again, a regeneration takes place in time and space, but you were always his, you just didn't know it, so he's notifying you that you're his at the same time he saves you and does 33 different things to you and then puts the

Holy Spirit in there and all that. All that's happening. So, but listen, that's just one part of John 3 .16.

I'm getting ahead of myself, but I want you to think about it. And verse 19 here in Romans 8 is referring to something that happens in John 3 .16,

all right? So you've got the whole creation of God sitting here groaning, waiting to be fixed because when

Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, it put everything out of whack. It threw everything into a curse. The earth was cursed, the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom and humans were all cursed because of man's choice.

People love to blame that on God. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, because you wanted it. You wanted, you asked for it.

You lived in a place where everything was good, you didn't even know about bad, you didn't even know you were naked. I forgot we're not having children's church today, are we?

Well, this is good for kids to learn. So you're like, you didn't even know that. And God said, but this one thing you can't do, that's mine, don't touch it.

Or well, he didn't say don't touch it, but he said, don't eat it, that's mine. And so what did they do immediately?

I mean, not, maybe not immediately, but eventually their human nature caused them to do what? They had everything in the world they owned and had dominion over except that one fruit.

So they had to have that too, because what did Satan offer them? I'm really getting ahead of myself here.

So you'll hear this more than once if we last long enough. He offered them, oh, well,

God would want you to be where you know good and evil, not just good. And Eve said,

I want that, and she took it. And because she was deceived, she really thought

God wanted her to know, because Satan said, well, God would want you to know that. So she was deceived. Adam took it and ate, knowing full well he wasn't supposed to do it, and that God didn't want him to do it.

And that's where the race fell was when Adam ate it, not when Eve ate it. Ladies, it should make you feel better, because the men want to blame that on you.

It was when Adam ate it that the human race fell. At that moment, all of creation was cursed, and all of creation has problems.

The earth is tilted on its axis. The sun is burning out. We're getting closer and closer to the sun.

The downhole pressure in all of our gas wells is going away. Everything is following what they call the first, second laws of thermodynamics.

Everything leads towards greater entropy, which means it's blowing to pieces. It's falling apart. If you don't believe it, look at your garage or look at your closet, because if you don't put energy in it, it will go to you know where, right?

I'm thinking of mine right now, my study. But I know where everything is in there. Now, look at verse 20.

See, y 'all are almost done, but I'm just getting started. I'm having fun now. Look at verse 20. For the creature, remember what that word means, creation, it does not mean creature.

It means everything that was created. So when you think of a creature, you think of a human or an animal, right?

This is not just that. This is the trees, the rocks, the streams. This is the stars, the galaxies. This is everything, all right?

For the creation, the original creation was made subject to vanity.

Wait a minute, you mean it didn't do it to itself? Someone greater and bigger did it to it?

So look what it says. The creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the creation in hope.

Or because of hope. Now, I think that's a bit of a difficult verse, but not if you understand the

Bible. Not if you understand God's plan. Before you get to this, it's not difficult at all. The word vanity there means, now, this is a word we don't use a lot.

It means inutility. But we can figure out what it means because we know what utility means. But inutility means not having any.

You don't have any utility. I like the word. So where it says that someone bigger and greater than us subjected us and the whole creation to vanity, not willingly, not because we wanted it.

Did you hear that? You know, yeah, Adam and Eve wanted what Satan promised, but Satan promised

God wanted her to have it, right? She did not want the fall, though, did she? Adam did not want the curse, did he?

He didn't want to see Abel die and be killed by his own son Cain, did he? He didn't even know what death was.

They were made to live forever. It was totally bizarre. Can you imagine your creator to live forever and you see a son, only two sons, one of them kills the other one and you have to see that?

You don't even know what to do with the body. I'm sure God had to give him special instruction to know what to do with a dead body.

Never seen that. Oh, but that's what they got because they got good and evil now because that's what they asked for, but they didn't know about what it meant.

So it wasn't willingly. It's not like they said, oh yeah, give us the bads because we really enjoy terrible things happening, right?

It was not willingly, but it was God's will. That's what this verse is saying. He said, now, how can that be?

Well, because you don't know God like you think you do. He's different than you think he is. He's not like the world preaches that he is out there, especially in the modern church.

Oh, he loves everybody. He's actually gonna save everybody. God is just love. Well, yeah, God is love, but I'm gonna tell you what.

If a burglar or somebody comes in my house in the middle of the night to kill my wife and my kids,

I will kill that burglar in five different ways, depending on which one of them I grab first, in love.

I'm killing him because I love my wife, right? And so God can do amazingly things that we think are bad, we think are horrible because he loves us so much because he's protecting us.

Now you think about that. That's like, there's so many examples I could give where God is different than we think he is, but here's one in verse 20.

The creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly. So whose will was it? God's.

It was God's will. It even says so by reason of him who has subjected the same in hope.

God's the one who subjected the entire creation to be fallen. It was God's plan, not

Adam and Eve's. And the world, the modern church gets that wrong. They think that Adam and Eve messed up and it surprised

God, God had to figure out a plan to get around it. That's how the world looks at it now. It was never that way. God is omniscient.

He knows all things before it happens. God is omnipotent. God is infinite.

He's not bound by time. He'd already seen the end before the beginning. It was no accident that they fell.

It was designed. It was the only plan God had because when you're perfect, you don't need five plans. So we're living the best plan.

But listen, if the plan includes good and evil, is it always going to look like the best plan?

Not when you're going through the evil, right? Are you with me? I know you're tired, but I'm not. I want you to get this because listen, the world doesn't get this.

And when I say the world, I'm including the modern church in it. It's worldly. It's worldly today. Preachers should be ashamed today because of what they preach.

And you walked all over my sermon in Sunday school because you talked about how preach, where Jesus said, well, you said like,

Jesus couldn't just tell them what they wanted to hear when he was talking to them, could he? He had to tell them what the father told him to preach that day.

And they almost tried, they did try to kill him after a sermon in Sunday school today. He only spoke of love and grace and they wanted to kill him that day.

They tried to throw him off a cliff. Man, that was rougher preaching back then, wasn't it?

But people still feel the same when you tell them God's sovereign. They still feel that, they still hate it just as much.

For all the creation was made subject to vanity. What does vanity mean again? Inutility, which means it is useless, unusable and ineffectual, all right?

It also carries the concept of transient, which means it is passing especially quickly into and then out of existence.

You want me to read that again? Yeah, because you're slow right now. Come on, wake up just a little bit. We're gonna quit here eventually.

Passing especially quickly into and then out of existence. That's what this

Greek word means when it says that God submitted his creation to vanity. It is going to pass away quickly.

All of everything you see, everything physical that you count so dear in this world is gonna pass away quickly, but not the real you because you're already a joint heir.

Everything Christ has, which is eternal life, you have, isn't that awesome?

You know what else this word subject to vanity means? Depraved. All of these are part of the

Greek definition for this word. Depraved, mataiotes is the

Greek word. What does depraved mean? The quality or state of being corrupt, evil and perverted.

That's the state humans are born in, a state of depravity because of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, which was designed by God.

In hope, he said, he designed it in hope. What does that mean? What is hope? Hope is the joyful expectation of a certain future event and that hope of glory is infinitely more important than the suffering that we may go through here.

Now, I'm not anywhere near through, but that's a good stopping point, don't you think? Grab hold of that, you'll have to come back next week to get into verse 21 and what it says, but it just continues.

And eventually time we get down through about verse 23, we're gonna be talking about the resurrections.

There are only two of them. We're gonna be talking about the rapture because you remember when it says that it groans until the apocalypto of the saints?

We're gonna see where and why the whole world stops groaning and how John 3 .16 relates to that.

God so loved the world, the key is in the word world is cosmos, which means God's order creation.

Go check it out, John 3 .16. God so loved the world, it doesn't mean the world, it doesn't mean the people, it means the entire order creation of God.

God loved his orderly creation so much that when Adam and Eve and Satan spun it out of kilt and the curse came, he's gonna send his son to die on the cross for his elect and to be resurrected and to reign again in our near future to put it all back in order.

And until then the entire creation groans, but it all stops groaning at this event called the rapture.

We're gonna talk about it next time, so you gotta be here, let's stand and have prayer together. Is that a good advertisement or what?

Lord, thank you so much for your word and we just wish we had more time because we can barely get through two verses in the whole day and it's just sad, but there's so much there.

And Lord, we know we need to read it more slowly, so that's what we're doing. And Lord, we ask you to continue to teach us, bring forth old things we need to be reminded of and new things we've never thought of before because of your living word.

And Lord, we ask you to bless each person here with a special blessing. And Lord, next time we're able to get together where we get into the book of Revelation, it is even said that it's a special blessing to anyone who reads it.

So thank you for this. Prepare us now for our time of fellowship. Bless the meal we're about to have in Jesus' name, amen.