Break Out 8- Claude Ramsey

All right, so I would like to just say first off that I thank

God for the word that we just heard from Tyler, which basically what we're going to be talking about is just a rehashing of what

Tyler said. I mean, he, it could not have been said better than what we heard.

But basically, if I were able to give you a concise statement about what we're talking about is just basically having an optimistic outlook at the sanctification process in our life.

Sanctification, most times, as we heard, and as I have written down here, is a difficult process.

It's almost always painful, and yet, the benefits of sanctification to the believer are inestimable, meaning they are invaluable, meaning they are of numerous benefit to us.

So we're taught that the trying of our faith in the scriptures, we're taught this, that the trying of our faith works patience, right, in the book of James, let patience have her perfect work.

It's intended to produce patience within us, and I understand Jeremy had a breakout on patience earlier as well.

So along with many other benefits that demonstrate that we as believers in Christ have been set apart by God.

We hear the term sanctification a lot of times, and sure, that's a big word, but it just simply means to be set apart.

And why are we set apart? Again, we've heard it throughout the day. Jonathan had us quote it in his sermon, right?

Why are we set apart? For God's glory alone, above all. So in the book of Romans, chapter 2, verse 6 through 11, the scripture says this concerning God.

He will render to each one according to his works, to those who by patience and well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, to them he will give eternal life.

But for those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, Jew first and also the

Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good,

Jew first and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality.

Again that was Romans chapter 2, verse 6 through 11. And I forgot to grab my

Bible, because I would like to ask you all to turn as well to Romans chapter 8, just briefly here.

So again, in Romans chapter 8, what we're going to see here, and just basically before I read this, to give a little bit of context of what's going on,

Paul is writing to the church at Rome, to Christians, men and women, families who are suffering for the sake of the gospel and who are certainly facing death.

So death is in view. Again, not a pleasant reality, but it is the reality.

But as we, as believers, suffer in this life, death is imminent, death is certain.

Again, you've heard it, all of us have heard it said before, the young people, hear the old people talk about death.

And a lot of times as young people, you all will sneer or mock at it, right?

Be honest, right? Yes, you think it's never going to catch me. But the reality is we don't know.

The reality is that we must live every single moment of our lives in an expectation and the reality that we will one day face death.

When we face death, I'm talking outside of salvation, because salvation is the only way a person can be certainly face death with a full hope and expectation.

But we should want to live our lives in such a way that between life and death, that we please

God. Everything we do should be for the honor and for the glory of God. And so as we consider sanctification through suffering and the positive outlook on sanctification and suffering,

I'd like for us to look at Romans chapter 8 very quickly here. Again, we've heard

Romans chapter 8 today, right? And here in Romans 8 verse 12, which would be picking up where one of the preachers left off this morning.

So then brothers, maybe it was last night. I've lost track of time. But in any case,

Romans 8 was read. Check the recordings. I can prove it.

But Romans chapter 8 verse 12 says this. So then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

It was Tyler that read it in his breakout earlier today. For all who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God.

So you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption.

Again, who's being written to here? A group of Christians that are suffering and facing an imminent death for the gospel sake.

But Paul is saying that you have received the spirit of adoptions as sons, whereby we cry,

Abba, Father. So we see a confident looking toward the

Lord. The spirit himself, Paul says, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

And if children, then we're heirs. And we're heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

And then the country comes out in Paul here in verse 18, where Paul says, I reckon.

That's what he says. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, that's the

King James, the ESV says, I consider, but I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with what?

With the glory that is to be revealed to us.

An expectant longing and looking for the hope of eternal life.

Because our hope as believers is not on whether the sun's going to come out tomorrow, whether or not it's going to rain, whether or not mom's going to let me drive her car and not make me put gas in it.

Right. But it is our hope is in the fact that one day when death comes.

We'll be all right. Because to be absent from the body is to be present with the

Lord. And that means dying with peace. We see that rest in peace all the time.

But I wonder how many folks have died in the opposite of peace in chaos.

How many Christians have died in chaos? So let everything we do, let everything we say, let the decisions that we make at this very moment be settled and founded and rooted in the glory of God.

Are you pleasing God as a Christian with your life? Are you, if you are suffering, is power preached?

Are you suffering well? Are you demonstrating the power? Is the power and the glory of God being demonstrated in and through that suffering?

But again, Paul says this, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

And then he says this. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

That's an important term there. In hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

But we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, Paul says, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit, those who have been born again, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

One of the preachers made the statement and it was so true.

And it was it really just it was like it just struck a chord in my heart and ring so true that it's not our body that the world is concerned about.

It's the soul of man. It's your soul, man. It's your soul, woman.

It's your soul, boys and girls. It is your soul for the soul is precious to the

Lord. Paul goes on here and he says this. Likewise, or I'm sorry, for who hopes for what he sees, right?

For who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Again, context is everything. Who's he speaking to? A group of people who are suffering, a group of people who likely are facing death, a group of people who are suffering persecution for the gospel sake.

I mean, it's one thing to suffer. It's to suffer sanctification.

As a form of punishment, like Tyler talked about, but it's a whole other thing when sanctification is just part of the natural process of our life.

It's part of the devolution that we're in because of sin. Another reason why proof evolution is a foolishness because man's not going up, up, up.

Man has done nothing since the fall, but go down, down, down. But God has redeemed us.

God has redeemed us. In closing, I'll close with this and then open for questions for one and a half minutes.

Okay, so the scripture says this, because it's so important, you need the scripture more than you need my words.

But likewise, Paul says this, to those who are suffering sanctification with a hopeful expectation, they're saying this, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness.

He's talking about the Holy Spirit. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

And we know that for those who love God, again, we've heard it, all things work together for the good to those that God has called, right?

To the called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

So what shall we say then, Paul says, what shall we say if God is for us?

Who can be against us? Any questions on,

I know I can't necessarily, I never would be able to answer for Tyler, but Tyler covered so much.

So any questions anybody has about what I've just said here or what you've heard today about suffering and sanctification?

Praise the Lord. Okay. That was, that was, that was, that was egregious.

Evil. So the evolution of man in the world, but then we have the concept that you are going to be considered young for you to die at a hundred.

So what is that? Okay. So are you, that's not, is it, you're talking about the, is that in Isaiah, the

Isaiah passage, right? When we get to God, die at a hundred.

From the, from the, in the post -millennial perspective, what you're going at. Well, well,

I would say this, I'd have to see the verse, Rob. I don't want to comment and not know what

I'm, fully what I'm talking about, right? But the verse

Rob was talking about is, I don't personally see that as,

I think that passage of scripture, when contextually placed like you're talking about, makes heaven and earth here and now, rather than the new heavens and the new earth, void of sin and death.

My other question was, what does it mean when we talk about authority over all?

What does it mean and what does it look like to have authority over? What does it mean for us as Christians?

It means we live, we naturally, as a natural course of our lives, we live different because our decisions are not rooted in, and grounded in the fear of death itself now, because the uncertainty of what takes place.

But we live with a, again, optimistic looking forward to the fact that whether we live, we're the

Lord's, or whether we die, we're the Lord's. Whether we live, whether we die, we're the

Lord's and the apostle Paul covered that middle ground. That's the verse we quoted there when he said,

I reckon that the sufferings of this present time. What if we just have to suffer? That's all right.

We've got an optimistic outlook on death, on sufferings, on pain, on sorrow, on sickness, on sadness, when we look at it through the lens of the scripture and understand the sovereignty of God.

That acceptable? Good. Yes. Yes.

What I meant when I made that statement was this, that the body itself is going to go back to the earth, right?

Right. So it's not for like, again,

I think it was Tyler that talked about this in his breakout. So there was practices throughout the years in the church world, in Christianity, where even

Martin Luther was big on punishing his body, right? And we think, well,

I'll just whip myself or I'll just do this or I'll go without this. And by doing those things, what comes on the outward part of the body affects the soul, but it doesn't.

The soul is what God redeems. It's not the body, right?

He didn't save us so that we can look forever young like wrong, right?

He saved us because our soul, the image of God in us was marred.

And the only way for us to be reconciled to God was for his death, burial and resurrection.

But the body is a minimal. Maybe I could have said that a lot better.

The body is of minimal importance or of minimal value. Is that acceptable?

Does that make sense? Right. We still bring our body under subjection, right?

Because guess what? Right. Because we're not just souls floating around, but we have a body.

And certainly we do that. But it's not the redemption of the body. Although that will be a reality one day.

And in glorification, that will be a reality. But the primary focus is the soul of man.

Anybody else? Hey, I want to tell you all while you're y 'all are here.

I love you all. And it's been a but we'll see tomorrow too. But just in case

I die before tomorrow, I can say it now. Guess what? If I die tonight and I don't see you tomorrow,

I'll see you when we get home. All right. But I want to tell you all I love you, appreciate you. And I want you all.

Seriously, Jonathan Mann and Rob are some of the best dudes

I know of. I'll be honest with you. And I know y 'all probably already know that. But Kelly, I want you to know how highly

I think of your husband. He's a good man. And how highly

I think of your husband. He's a very good man. And I'm thankful for my friends that came with me.

And we got just remember this. Again, this is all has to do with the hopeful expectation of looking toward death.

Give your flowers to the living. Don't do the dead no good. I love y 'all.