Book of Romans, 8:21-23 - The Creation Shall Be Delivered, Pt. 1 (02/23/2020)
Pastor David Mitchell
Transcript
And you'll see why in a minute.
So let's go ahead and turn to Romans 8 verse 21.
And I'll show you why we don't have anything to fear, nothing to worry about.
God is on his timetable.
Charlotte's been listening to Dr. Rocky Freeman in the kitchen every day.
I can hear her in there while she's working.
It's on our website.
If you haven't found him, check out parkmeadowschurch .com and
look under Rocky Freeman and click on there and listen to some of his messages.
They will bless your heart.
He was an amazing Jewish believer and an amazing speaker and preacher.
Powerful.
In fact, you'll listen to it and say, wow, if somebody preached like that today, no one would come, you know, because it's too hard.
It's too true.
It's too true and it's too hard for this modern church.
I mean, back then when I listened to him, I didn't think it was hard at all, but things have changed since the 80s
a lot.
It's amazing.
And today's little wimpy people couldn't handle his preaching.
No way in the world could they handle it.
So it's amazing.
So check it out.
It'll bless your heart.
Bless your lives.
All right.
Let's take a look.
Romans 8, 21 through 23.
Because the create, I'd like you to mark out the word creature, by the way, and put the word creation, that is the Greek word
creation, because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption.
And that's what John 3, 16 is talking about.
We talked about that last Sunday.
John 3, 16 is talking about the cosmos, Jesus dying for the cosmos.
That means God's orderly creation to put it back in order after the curse, to put it back
in order.
And we're part of that.
Of course, the elect are part of that.
Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
So as the children of God, who he knows everyone by name, as they are
brought into liberty, all of creation shall be.
Isn't that something?
So what you're going to find as we look at this little passage in the middle of the book of Romans is we're talking about the end
times.
We're talking about the rapture and the change that we go through at that point if we're
still alive and on the planet when it happens.
So look at verse 22.
For we know that the whole creation, that's the same exact Greek word as creature in verse 21.
So same word, it's creation.
The whole creation groaneth and travaileth
in pain together until now.
And not only they, but we ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit.
That's the elect.
We have the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Even we ourselves groan within ourselves.
Why?
Because you still got the old man and you don't like that.
You don't like the fact that he takes over and causes you to sin and be less than perfect.
You don't like it?
Every time it happens, you don't like it.
You get down on yourselves.
I heard Rocky say this in the kitchen yesterday.
Rocky Freeman said this.
It won't hurt you to hear this.
It still goes on today.
You hear it all the time.
In fact, I heard a song on the, Nana, Nana mentioned it.
It's funny because she didn't hear Rocky Freeman yesterday in the kitchen.
But in the car on the way, I had a song playing and it was a
praise song.
Probably sung in a church that's less than careful about their doctrine, you know.
And they were saying something like, I want to be like Jesus.
And Nana said, you're not going to be, honey, or something like that.
You're not him.
You're not going to be like Jesus.
I couldn't believe she said that because yesterday I heard Dr. Rocky Freeman say, you're not going to be like Jesus.
You're not Jesus.
You're you.
Jesus is Jesus.
You will never be like Jesus.
And don't get discouraged when you can't be like Jesus.
But what you can do is let Jesus live his life in you.
But you see, back in those days, they were very careful with their language.
It's one thing to say, Jesus will live his life in and through me.
It's a different thing to say, I'm going to be like Jesus.
No, you're not.
Because you have the old man and he didn't.
You see the difference?
You had the old, you have the old man.
You're going to disappoint your neighbor.
You're going to disappoint your spouse.
You're going to disappoint your family and your church from time to time.
But listen, Jesus wouldn't have.
So you're not like him, but he can live his life through you at the moments when you allow it.
And that's when you choose to be spirit filled.
And he doesn't live through you at any other time.
Because you're carnal when you're not spirit filled.
And when you're carnal, you're as bad as the world.
So that's why we groan.
Don't tell me we don't groan.
Listen, the older we get, the more burdensome living in this place gets to be.
The older we get, the more burdensome it gets to be.
And we still see the beautiful sunsets and we still see the beautiful ocean and the mountains
and our children and our grandbabies and all the beautiful things in the world.
But we also see how corrupt the world is more and more.
We see, those of us who are older, our own bodies beginning to pay the price of living in this cursed world
and having sin in our own lives, right?
It takes its toll.
And we see that.
And that's good that we see it.
But look what it says.
It says, and we ourselves also groan within ourselves.
This is what this is about.
Why?
Because of the old man.
But look what we're waiting for.
We're waiting for the adoption.
That is, so to speak, about the redemption of our body.
I think it's interesting where it says we're waiting for the adoption and waiting for redemption when those are things that have already, like
past, happened to us already.
We've already been adopted.
We've already been redeemed.
But there is a past, present, future sense of salvation all the way through Scripture.
And that's from our viewpoint.
From the Father's viewpoint, it's just done.
You're already glorified in His eyes.
You're like, it's already done.
But from our viewpoint, it's past, present, future.
So there is a point where our bodies catch up with our soul.
Our soul is already redeemed.
Our soul is already adopted.
But our body is as lost as a goose, our old man.
And there's a day when it catches up, and that's called the rapture.
So what's interesting is we look at this talking about the adoption and the
redemption of our body.
This is talking about the rapture.
Now how do we know that it is God who subjected us
to this type of life, though?
And like Rocky said, we can really get down on ourselves if we take the false proposition from all the songs
and different preachers and different people who say, oh, well, you know, we're supposed to be like Jesus.
Well, you get really down if you're honest, because if you're honest, you know you're not like him, right?
You're not like him, because he never sinned, and you have, and so have I, and so we're not like him.
And we can really get down on ourselves if we look at that, because we bought into a false
proposition.
We bought into something that's not true.
What we're supposed to do is let him live his life in and through us, and we can only do that by being
spirit -filled, and that's something we choose moment by moment.
Let me tell you something, when you choose it, you have the very power of the resurrection in your life at those moments.
So we should hang on to that, because we have that, and there's no telling what God will do with your life when
you're in that mode.
And I know one thing he'll do, he'll do exactly what he's ordained he's going to do with you and with me.
It will come to pass that that great thing he put us here to do individually will get done, and it'll get done
by us, you and me individually, and together, isn't that beautiful?
So yeah, we've grown about it, but we know what's coming.
Now let me remind you, 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, all this is on purpose.
It did not surprise God when we fell.
It does not surprise God that we're not like Jesus.
God put us here in this condition on purpose for God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, has shined in our hearts.
That's our salvation.
It's just as much a miracle as the creation of the world in Genesis 1, 1.
He did that to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God to us in the face of Jesus Christ,
but we have this treasure, this new man, this new woman that we are, that we're made to be, that was created within
us when God shined that light on us and caused us to be born again.
We have that treasure in earthen vessels, that means we're not perfect.
We're in this old body.
This old body pulls against everything God wants to do.
When God wants us to be energetic, we feel lazy or we're sick.
When God wants us to pray, we don't want to pray.
We want to watch golf or something on TV.
I picked that because if I picked something you do, you'd think I was picking on you, so I'll pick on me.
When we want to do something grand, we just don't quite get there.
All of this is by design.
Why did God do it this way?
We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency of the power may be
of God, not of us.
There's the reason.
We don't need to get down on ourselves when we're not perfect.
We don't need to get down on ourselves when we're not like Christ, because more often than not, we are not like
Christ, but in those moments when we are, it is the most powerful thing on the earth today.
More powerful than President Trump.
More powerful than Nancy Pelosi.
Who knows what God may use any one of us or any one of the children in our school or church to do
that would shake this world like Martin Luther did.
One man, or like the apostle Paul did, or like Rocky Freeman did.
We don't know.
All we need to do is just keep walking and don't give up.
Don't ever quit.
You just don't quit.
Make sure the devil knows you don't quit, too, because then he'll bother someone he thinks might quit.
So look at Luke chapter 14.
Now I'm going to get you to turn through some scripture.
I'd like you to see it, so either use your Bible or your phone or whatever, and let's take a look at
what in the world this is talking about in the scripture where it says
that we groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption
of our body.
What is that talking about?
What does it look like in scripture?
Well, we know there is this concept of the resurrection.
There's a lot of confusion about it in the church, and there's a lot of false teaching done about it in the church in order to make a false
theory happen or seem like it works.
That makes it even more muddled up, but I find the scripture to be extremely clear on it.
The scripture is just extremely clear and precise on the resurrection, so let's
take a look.
Let's first see what Jesus had something to say about it here in Luke chapter 14.
Jesus Christ himself speaking, starting with about verse 13, chapter 14 of Luke.
But when thou makest a feast, call the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.
In other words, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, rather than the politicians and
the wealthy people and all these kinds of important people that you would prefer to invite.
Why do you need to do that?
Well, Jesus said, here's your reason, and you'll be blessed, for they cannot
recompense thee.
So like if you invite people that have no money, they can't pay you back for inviting them to your party, which means
you get your blessing in heaven rather than on the earth.
That's his point.
You see the point that he's making?
So he's pointing towards a future resurrection.
He said, if you're good to the people who can't be good back to you, if you
help the people who can't help you back, if you share money when you think the Holy Spirit wants you to and people who you
know can't pay you back, then you will be blessed, for they cannot recompense you, that means but God
will, for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the
just.
Now, I didn't put this in here to talk about how you invite the poor to your party.
That's not what I'm talking about today, but that's the context Jesus put this in, but I put it here for this last phrase,
of the just.
Do you see that?
That grammatically proves that there are more than one resurrection.
There is one called the resurrection of the just, which is implied in this statement by Jesus,
but just the fact that he stated it and put an adjective there proves there must be at least one other
one, because he's telling us which one he's talking about.
I'm talking about the resurrection of the just, not the resurrection of the unjust.
I'm talking about the resurrection of the just, so it implies there's at least two.
Now, let's go now to John chapter 5, and
let's look at parts, I'm going to start kind of with verse 23, and I'm not going to read the whole verse, I'm going
to read this B part of it.
John 5, 23, I just want, I'm going to read a little bit of verse 23 and 24 just to get into the context.
I really want to start with verse 25 here.
But this story in John chapter 5 is where Jesus, where you had this crippled man who was sitting at this
pool of Bethesda where the rumor was that the first person who could
get in this pool when the water stirred would be healed.
So the poor and the lame and the crippled would hang out around it trying to be the first one in the water when the water
stirred so that they would be healed.
And this man had been there for years, and he could never be the first one because he can't get up and walk, and no
one would help him because they were selfish and they wanted to get in the water first, you see?
This is the story that's in chapter 5 of John here.
And so Jesus went and spoke to this man, and eventually he said, he heard the man's story and he said, look, tell you what, just
get out of your bed, pick your bed up and walk, you're healed, right?
Isn't that interesting?
So he didn't need to get in the water and be all superstitious and all that.
He just let God heal him, and God chose to heal him right there.
Well that's the story that we're in.
Now verse 23, Jesus said, he that hears not the Son
hears not the Father.
He that will not hear the words of Jesus Christ doesn't even know God the Father.
And he's talking to Jews here.
He's talking to the Jews of the Jews, the Bible scholars of the Jews, and he said, look, I'm
speaking to you, I'm the Son of God, if you won't hear me, you won't ever hear the Father who you think you worship,
who you say that you worship.
But he that heareth not the Son heareth not the Father which sent the Son.
Now verse 24 says, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me
has everlasting life already.
Now I want you to listen to the grammar because it's really important because it's not what's preached today.
What's preached today is if you will believe, you can determine your eternal
future by choosing to believe.
The choice is yours, and if you just reach out and take Jesus as your own, you'll be saved and go to heaven.
That is not what this says.
Look what it says.
It says, he that heareth my word and believeth in him
that sent me already has everlasting life.
You do see the difference, right?
The person who can hear me and believe has got to have already been regenerated.
If you look at the Greek, you might as well add the English word already has because it's past
tense.
This person who hears and believes already has eternal life.
It doesn't say he believes in order to get it like the modern gospel says.
We're so far off.
Spurgeon never preached it that way.
Arthur Pink never preached it that way.
I doubt that any of the old time preachers preached it like it's preached today.
They preached the word of God, which here's what it says.
So he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has
everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is already passed.
Look at that.
He's already passed from death unto life.
He can't hear and believe if he hasn't.
So he didn't do the hearing and the believing to save himself.
God did that to him because he was the elect.
Now that's not hyper -Calvinism.
That's Bible.
And it's not Calvinism because
Augustine preached it 1400 years before Calvin was born and 400
years before Augustine preached it, Paul preached it, and before Paul preached it, Jesus had
taught it.
So it's Christianity is what it is.
You can call it Calvinism all you want, but that's not what it is.
Calvin was just a great teacher.
That's all he was.
He didn't invent anything new.
Nothing new under the sun.
It hadn't already been preached by our brothers and sisters for 1400 years before Calvin was ever
born.
And so it's the same thing we preach because it's right here in the scripture.
He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me already has everlasting life and shall not
come into condemnation, but is already passed from death unto life.
Now look at verse 25.
That's the context that we're in.
Okay.
Truly, truly, Jesus says, I say this to you, the hour is
coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God and they
that hear shall live.
All right.
So there's going to come a day when Jesus is going to come back to this earth and he's going to
say, come forth.
And all those who are his will come forth.
Now what's interesting about this, as Jesus speaks at this point in his ministry,
he's still telling people when you heal them, don't, don't go tell anybody.
Just go tell the priest, go tell the priest what happened.
Let him cleanse you according to the old Testament system and tell him what happened.
Why?
Because they were still under the old Testament system, right?
When Jesus was on the earth until he came back, you know, until after the resurrection and even
50 days after that at Pentecost is when the church age started.
So Jesus lived in the old Testament scenario and in the old Testament scenario,
if you think about it, they didn't see two comings of Christ, did they?
What did they see?
They just saw the Messiah coming, setting up a kingdom as a leader and destroying Rome, perhaps,
which is what they wanted.
And ruling the world for a thousand years.
They saw that, didn't they?
So there was a gulf, or if you picture two mountain peaks and the first mountain peak is
Jesus coming the first time and the second mountain peak over here is the second coming when he comes as a
king, which is all they saw.
They just saw it this way and they didn't see the valley in between.
They just saw it as one thing.
When if you turn it this way, you'd see it was two things.
They saw it as one thing, the coming of the Messiah, and they talked about it that way.
Jesus knew it and until after Pentecost, Jesus spoke in the Jewish
vernacular.
So Jesus here is just speaking of a resurrection.
He's not pointing out how specific it is that there's actually two of them, but we're going to see later
that we already have seen in Luke 14 that Jesus himself, the same person speaking in John 5, implied there
are two of them because he gave the adjective phrase and told which
resurrection he was talking about in Luke.
He was talking about the resurrection of the just as opposed to the resurrection of the unjust, which you may not
know about yet, but you're going to see it in a minute.
And what we're going to find out from scripture, there are two resurrections and Jesus
in Luke was speaking of the first one, but in John, he's just talking about resurrection as a whole.
He's not even trying to be specific.
It's a general statement about the fact there is a resurrection because they were probably sad to see he's present.
They didn't believe in a resurrection.
So he says, truly I say to you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the son
of God and they shall hear and shall live.
Now do you think he was talking about a literal resurrection right there?
Or was he talking about a spiritual resurrect coming to life?
Or was he talking about both and using the physical resurrection as a way to
teach the spiritual fact?
What do you think?
Well, he said the hour is coming when the son of man is going to speak and
they that hear will live.
But then he said the hour now is.
Well we know the resurrection hasn't happened yet, but he said what he's talking about here is,
he said there is something coming, but there's also something that now is.
So he's kind of talking about both.
He's kind of using the resurrection of the dead, the physical resurrection as an allusion to the fact
that before you're saved, you're a walking dead person.
You're dead on the inside already and you need to be resurrected.
And I'm here now and speaking to you and those who hear my voice and believe in him who sent
me are already alive because I'm going to heal your soul right now.
I'm going to heal your soul right now.
And the Holy Spirit has already regenerated you.
Your eyes are open.
Your ears are open.
That's why you have ears to hear and the others standing right around you are going to try to kill me here in a minute.
In fact, if you look at the context, John chapter five, they tried to kill Jesus for saying these things
and he just passed through miraculously and they couldn't, they couldn't kill him.
It wasn't time yet.
So he alludes to a physical resurrection, but he also speaks of a giving of life or a
quickening of the spirit and the soul that happens at the born again moment, which can be
caused right then while he was standing with them.
For those who the Holy Spirit was moving around them as he spoke to him, which is amazing to think about anytime God's
word is being presented, the Holy Spirit is moving around every single individual and he is turning the
lights on on the elect and he's leaving them off on the others.
He's not messing with the others.
They're already blind.
They're already blinded.
They want to be blinded.
They don't want to hear the truth.
They love their sin.
They hate the light.
They will not come to the light.
John chapter three, verse 17 and 18 and 19 and 20 talk about that.
They won't come to light because they like their sin and the Holy Spirit, there are still some others that are the same way, but they're God's
children.
So he flips the light on so they can see and hear the word.
And even though they, um, two seconds ago were like that, they're not like that now because now they can hear
their shepherd and they're listening and they now have been given life because they hear
the voice of the son and day that here shall live.
Verse 26 says, for as the father has life in himself, so has he given to the son
to have life in himself and has given Jesus the authority to execute
judgment also because he is the son of man.
Marvel not at this.
He's talking to Pharisees now that don't want to believe this marvel, not at this for the hour is coming in
the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice.
Now he speaks of the generality of the resurrection, not being specific
because these don't happen at the same time, but he says for shall come forth.
They will hear his voice and those who are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth in
day that have done good unto resurrection of life in day that have done evil unto resurrection of
damnation.
I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear I judge
and my judgment is just because I seek not my own will, but the will of the father which sent
me.
Now in the same passage in John chapter five is where Jesus said, I don't ever do anything or say anything
that I haven't seen the father done.
And I like to put in parentheses there.
That's the first idea of the family business.
The father and the son are in the same business together and it's a precursor and that's why family businesses are great for families to
start to have generational wealth creation.
It's a pattern God set up, but here we see Jesus and Luke talking about two resurrections,
at least two, and in John talking about the fact there is a resurrection and that both the just and the
unjust will be resurrected.
And I think it's interesting that he says those that have done good will be resurrected unto life.
And you see people who don't understand doctrine will say, well, see, you got to do good to get saved.
And that's not what it says.
Because if you read the whole passage, which they never do, they just want to pull out that verse down here, verse
29, but they don't want to read verse 23, 24.
They sure don't want to read verse 24 that says, he that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life
already and shall not come into condemnation, but is already passed from death into life.
In the Greek, that's what it says.
They don't want to read that part because that shows it has nothing to do with being good is not what caused it.
Being good is the result of it.
Being good is not the cause, it's the effect.
But what Jesus is saying, look, when you get out there to the end of time and you look back at the life of people, the people that
you saw were able to have any good in their life at all, those are the ones that I had saved.
And they're going to be resurrected at a certain point.
And all the others are going to be resurrected at a different point, which he didn't mention in John, but he did mention it in Luke, and we're going to see it in scripture
in a minute.
So there's going to be two resurrections.
Now, do you see this is a great study, verse 29, a great study of false preachers and teachers
taking things out of context.
If all I took was verse 29, and Jesus, I said, now this is red letter, Jesus is speaking,
and they shall come forth.
They that have done good unto resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto resurrection of damnation.
Sounds like you do good, then you get to go to heaven.
If you do bad, you don't, right?
Sounds like that.
And if you wanted to prove that, you would use that verse, but the problem is you would leave out
verse 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, and 30.
But if you put all those with it, you see it's not teaching that, it's teaching the opposite.
It's teaching the same thing the book of James teaches, and that is that if there is really a cause, there will always have to be
an effect, and the effect is living a good life.
And you can look at your own lives, ladies and gentlemen, and tell me it's not better than it was before.
Before you got saved, listen, we don't even need to take a show of hands.
You know how much better your life is than before you got saved, because if you got saved later in life, like I did, you know the difference.
Now if you got saved real young, sometimes you won't, but they're in children's church.
But you got saved, I got saved at 24, I flat know I'm different.
Now I don't think I'm perfect, and I liked what Rocky said yesterday in the kitchen, I'm not going to be like Jesus, so
don't get down when I'm not, and I don't want you to be disappointed when I'm not, because I'm not like Jesus, I'm me,
but Jesus lives in me from time to time when he does, it's pretty dang powerful.
Stuff happens, and the same is true of you.
Stuff happens, and it's always good stuff for other people.
It's all about people, when it's Jesus.
So that's how you can tell, and Jesus is all the way forward, at the end of the age, looking back, saying, you
know these people that are over here on my right hand, they're the ones that lived a good life, because on their own they could never have done it.
And that's the very thing that God said in 1 Corinthians, when he said, look I put this treasure and earth and vessels on purpose,
so that I would get the glory when they do do something right.
And Jesus is pointing at it from the future, looking back, saying, see there they are.
Now you can see who they are, they're the ones that lived a good life, predominantly, not perfectly, but predominantly,
and they got stuff done for the kingdom, because they had the power to do it.
They're the ones that'll be in the resurrection of the just, that he spoke of in Luke chapter
14.
Look at John chapter 11 now, and turn forward there to about verse 24.
Every time I've ever gone through this material, I've done it many times in my life, since I was saved at the age
of 24, which is becoming a long, long time ago.
I don't feel much older than 18 until I start thinking about how long it's been since I was 24.
But every time I've ever looked at these passages, I learn more things.
I never knew about the second coming, the rapture, and the resurrection, and it's because
I used to teach this in the 80s, and we just hadn't been shown as much from the Lord.
And the angel told Daniel to seal up the book until the end.
So a lot of the information that's in the Bible will be sealed from people's minds until you get into the
end times where you can see some stuff happening, and then you go, oh, so that's what that meant, and you'll understand it better than you did in the 80s.
I understand it way better than in the 1980s.
And I see things all the time and go, wow, how come I just now saw that?
And you're going to see the same thing, too.
It'll happen to you, too, as you study through these passages.
These things are extremely exciting to look at now, because man, we're getting close.
We're starting to see the plagues.
They're talking about it.
They can't stop talking about it.
It's not that much worse than the flu, but they're scared to death.
They're wearing masks.
When did you ever see that?
Nana, when did you ever see people wearing masks when you were 24 years old, or 36, or 40, or 52,
or 69?
When did you ever see people going around wearing masks everywhere?
This is new.
This has never happened before.
And before long, they're going to be crying out, Lord, let the rocks fall on us, because they're going to be so fearful.
But anyway, John 11, 24, Martha said unto Jesus, I know that he
shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
She was a little upset, because Jesus, in her viewpoint, was late, and her brother died.
And she's worried about it, and Jesus says, no, you know, whosoever believes in me shall live.
She said, Lord, I know he'll live.
I know he'll come forth in the resurrection.
And Jesus wasn't talking about that, was he?
But she thought he was, because she didn't think the Lord was going to literally raise him from the dead like he did a few
minutes later from this.
But anyway, so that brings this discussion of the resurrection up, and she says, I know that he will rise
again in the resurrection at the last day.
So she, see, she only knew of one resurrection, because she's a Jew, right?
They only talked about one resurrection, even though Daniel
may have had some inkling about more than one, and David sometimes had seemingly New Testament knowledge, it
seemed like.
But look at verse 25, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life, and he
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
So once again, he uses the physical resurrection as an allegory of the spiritual truth that on the
inside, you have a resurrection the moment you get born again.
The dead comes alive, the dead comes alive, whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die, he said.
He said, whosoever beholds me and believes on him that sent me
has everlasting life.
So he relates the two.
Now turn to Romans chapter six, verse four, and we're just looking at
different clues throughout scripture about the resurrection.
Romans chapter six, verse four, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so also should we
walk in newness of life.
So there again, the allegory of the physical resurrection and the resurrection of the soul that happens at the born again experience
point.
It's like you were dead, now you're quick, and now you're alive.
The physical resurrection is going to look the same way, but you have the spiritual happening on the inside, and
you have the physical resurrection that will happen out in the future, and that one is used to teach what the other one
is and how it works.
Verse five says, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we
shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
So just as Jesus physically came out of the grave, so shall we.
It's not, that part is not an allegory.
That will really happen.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed
that henceforth we should not serve sin.
So it's mainly talking about that, but it does allude to the physical resurrection and say just like
Jesus was resurrected, so will we be.
Now look at 2 Timothy chapter two.
This is an interesting passage here where Paul is instructing the new preacher.
This is sometimes called one of the pastoral epistles because he's teaching men how to be preachers, especially Timothy, how
to be a young preacher.
And I love this part, but shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase the more ungodliness.
Don't allow talk in the church that's nonsensical, that's extra biblical, that is not from the
holy inspired scriptures like we have so much of in the modern church.
Just junk, junk, junk coming from the apocryphal books, coming from modern books being written.
It can almost come from any story and they'll teach it with the same authority as if it came from the word of God.
And that is just vain babbling and it will increase to more ungodliness in that local group of
believers and we won't allow it here as long as we're alive.
Verse 17 says, and their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is Hymenaeus
and Philetus.
So he names a couple of false preachers right there.
I can name a few, but I won't that are existing today.
Who concerning the truth have erred, now look at this, saying that the resurrection is
already passed and overthrown the faith of some people.
Now look at the importance of getting the resurrection right.
These people were teaching a false doctrine of how the resurrection works and it was overthrowing the faith of some people.
It was causing baby Christians to stumble.
They were teaching the resurrection had already happened and their loved ones missed it.
They're still in the grave and it bothered, it caused people to not believe.
So you say, how can that happen?
Well, you know, we can discuss the theology of how that can happen and it's not that difficult,
but if you just visually look at it, it looks like some people fall away, doesn't it?
That's why church Christ believes that because they go by their visual, their eyes.
I mean, people show up, give a glowing testimony, come to church six months and then they're right back in the gutter, right?
Oh, they must've lost their salvation.
Well, we know better than that, but it does appear that way, doesn't it?
And so here are these false preachers that come in and start teaching something false about how the resurrection happens
and it caused weaker people to stumble.
At least we can say that.
It overthrew the faith of some, it says, nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure having this seal
that the Lord knows them that are his, isn't it interesting that's in the next verse.
So those that are his are not going to fall away.
That's interesting, isn't it?
And let everyone that name at the name of Jesus Christ depart from sin.
In other words, in the context of that, stop teaching stuff that's not accurate.
Stop being a false teacher.
Make sure you check it out in the whole Bible before you say it's true.
Make sure it didn't come from some book that's not part of the inspired Holy writ when you give it authority.
Wow.
There's a lot of that going around.
Now my point is second Timothy shows the importance of getting it right about the resurrection.
Now let's go to revelation 20 and see if we can get it right.
Revelation chapter 20 verse one.
And I saw an angel come down from heaven.
This is revelation chapter 20 verse one, having the key of the bottomless pit and a
great chain in his hand.
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan and
bound him for a thousand years.
So there is a thousand year period where Satan will be bound in Hades, not hell, but Hades, which is in the
center of this earth.
And he will cast him into the bottomless pit, which is Hades, and shut him up and set
a seal upon him that he should not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years should be
fulfilled.
So what is Satan's job right now that he's not bound yet to deceive the nations?
That's why America is not who we're citizens of.
We're citizens of heaven.
America shall fall.
I know we love it.
We love her because so much of her history was based on holy writ, even our laws.
And we should love America, but we cannot save America.
We certainly want to try though.
We are the salt and we're the light and we can die trying, but we won't do it.
But we're put here.
I'll tell you why we are here.
And when God showed me this, it made me feel so much better.
He didn't put me here to save America.
He put me here to slow the rot down so that she doesn't go away before she's supposed to.
Now, that I can do.
Slow the rot down so she's not destroyed before the day she's supposed to be destroyed.
That we can do.
And that's our job.
Now, as we look at this, he goes on, he talks about this, that then at
the end of that thousand years, he'll be loose for a little season.
And there's another rebellion against Jesus Christ.
After he reigned on this earth for a thousand years in perfection, that shows the wicked heart of human beings.
Verse four, and I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given to them.
And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus.
What group is alive on the earth today that loves to cut people's heads off?
Islam.
And now they've risen up only in the last 20 years and revealed themselves that they're the ones that are going to be doing this.
Okay.
So this is who's going to cut your head off if you don't find a good cave as we get closer to the end.
And I don't know where the cave should be yet, but I know the Lord can show me.
Mom says she's not going with me.
She's going to stay on the ranch and fist fight him until she dies.
But I'm stronger than my mom and I can lift her up and throw her in the wagon and she will be going with us.
Some of you probably will be too, but anyway, all right.
So here they're going to cut your head off.
They're going to cut your head off because you witnessed about Jesus Christ
and because of the word of God.
So the Bible you choose, if you don't use the Catholic Bible, but you use the true
Bible, the Protestant Bible, you'll have your head cut off for the version of the scripture you use.
That's what it says.
It's going to, you're going to have your head removed because you witnessed about Jesus and
because you witnessed about the word of God and which had not worshiped the beast.
You're not going to accept his mark or his image, neither receive his mark on your forehead or in your
hand.
So it'll either be on your forehead or on your right hand.
And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
So they're going to be a lot of our brothers and sisters, especially the ones that live in the cities.
They're going to be killed because of their faith.
That doesn't mean you have to be, God gives you this information so that you can flee and survive.
It's only seven years.
You can live in a cave for seven years, ladies.
I know you don't want to pluck the chickens and we're not, we men aren't going to pluck it for you, but
we will catch the chickens and we will shoot the squirrels and catch the fish and you can clean them.
We'll be great.
No, I'm kidding.
I'll clean them.
I like cleaning them, Charlotte.
Don't worry about that.
You cook them.
I'll clean them.
How about that?
There's a deal.
So seven years, we can do this.
Nana, you can make it for seven more years.
You made it to 90.
97 is not so bad.
And yet many of our brothers are paying no attention to this.
Most of our brothers across the world have been taught that the rapture happens before this happens and they're not going to be ready anyway, which is a
lie out of hell.
Luciferian doctrine.
The rapture does not happen before the second coming.
It's part of it.
So we are going to be here during this part.
So where you are makes a big difference, but if you don't think you got to worry about it, then don't worry about it and we'll see what happens.
But there will be many, many who are beheaded because of their belief.
Now yet it says they will reign with Christ during the thousand year millennial kingdom
later.
Now, there'll be in a new body with a head, right?
Isn't that comforting to know?
As a matter of fact, by that time, the rapture will have happened.
They'll have their own head.
God will find it.
Take it away from that Islamic fool and give it back to you.
Isn't that something?
Don't you go deleting any of this good message for the day back there, leave it just like it is.
I'm going to give the Islamics listening to the radio, y 'all's address, not mine.
But the rest, now look at this, but the rest of the dead lives not again until the
thousand years were finished.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
This is the first resurrection.
Now we have some information we didn't have previously, at least not clearly, even though Jesus alluded to
it.
Now the apostle John, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is being very specific.
So the born again people, the church, which they say is gone at the front end of the seven years is ridiculous because
here we see they're killed.
They're having their heads cut off.
So apparently they were still here, right?
Did you hear what I said?
Apparently the church was still here.
Our brethren, that's our brothers and sisters in Christ, were still here.
Many of them had their heads cut off and they went to be with the Lord in a temporary body as Corinthians talks about.
And then when the rapture happens at the end of the seven year period, their head and the rest of their body is
going to be put back together and they'll be restored and put in their real body, their
normal body.
It'll be glorious though.
It'll be like the sun compared to the moon and glory compared to the old body they had.
But that's going to happen and they're going to go in there and they're going to serve because they're alive
for a thousand years.
But it says, but there are some people who had died who aren't going to be there yet.
Do you see that?
The rest of the dead, which, who is that?
Well that's where the Bible talks about us and them all the time.
Us and them, us and them, wheat and tares.
Sheep and goats, us and them.
So us, we get resurrected at the first one and then we serve for a thousand years in our new
bodies with Christ.
But the rest of them live not again.
They stayed in their graves.
They live not again until the thousand years was finished.
Now it reverts back to us, ours is called the first resurrection.
So apparently there's a second resurrection where them, those who weren't resurrected, the just, were not resurrected yet.
They come up out of the grave later, a thousand years later.
So there are two resurrections.
There's one at the end of the church age, which is where the church age ends.
And there is one at the end of the thousand year millennial kingdom and that will be where the unjust
people are resurrected and stand for judgment.
And by the way, that's all right here in the same passage too.
So it's interesting that you all know that the Apostle Paul, this is preached at almost every funeral that I've ever seen
preached.
At the graveside service, they're gonna give you the Apostle Paul's words, where it says that those of
us who are alive and remain shall not prevent them who died before we did.
They shall rise first and then those of us who are alive and remain shall go up
with them and be changed in the air, correct?
So what happens first, the resurrection or the rapture?
The resurrection, but what were we taught our whole lives?
We were taught that we were raptured seven years before the resurrection.
Do you see the problem?
Because listen, a lie can't hold up.
There's too many different places you gotta think to change it.
So they've gone in now and tried to say, well, there's way more than two resurrections.
My problem is my Bible only mentions two.
And I say, well, what about the people that came alive and walked around when Jesus was on the cross?
That's not by definition a resurrection because those people died again and were buried later.
A resurrection is when you're given a new body.
You come out of the grave, you're new, and you live forever.
That's never happened.
That's not what's talked about there.
So there's like two, there are two.
The only way you can try to make the pre -tribulation rapture happen is by creating extra
resurrections and inventing them and writing books about it.
And using fragments of scripture out of context to try to make it look like that happens.
It's just so clear.
So here we have one resurrection that happens, the resurrection of the just, the elect are brought out
of the grave, they meet Christ.
We're gonna have the marriage supper.
We're gonna then go into the thousand year millennial kingdom and reign together with him and the unjust are still laying in their
graves.
They're still dead in the grave.
Their bodies are still in the grave.
Their soul is in Hades in holding.
And then let's see what happens.
That's the first resurrection of the just.
Blessed and holy is that person that has part in the first resurrection.
On such, the second death has no power.
What does that tell you?
The only people resurrected at the end of the church age are saved people.
The only people resurrection are people where the adoption comes to fruition.
The redemption comes to fruition.
Yes, you had the earnest money of the Holy Spirit, but your body wasn't saved yet, now it is.
Those are the only ones that come out of the grave on that day, and that happens when Jesus Christ comes back to this earth the second time.
He's gonna raise the saints out of the grave first, your loved ones who already died, and then you
and I will go up after them, with them, but a blink of an eye after they come up, we will go up with them and be chained in the air.
This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy are you if you're in that one, because the second death will have no power over you.
You will never be cast into hell, because you're born again, you're God's child.
But they shall be priests of God and Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
So when we come out of that grave, or if we get raptured, after our loved ones come up first, we're raptured, all of
us together are alive again with a new glorious body.
In fact, our original body is just made glorious, and we're put back in it from the temporary body we had.
I don't know what happens to that one when we're done with it.
But then we go back into this body that's been glorified, and for a thousand years, we serve with Christ
to rule this world.
Who wants Corsicana?
I don't.
You can have it.
Who wants Corsicana?
Probably Sharon should get it.
She's the judge, the judge, election judge.
We'll tell her next Sunday that we voted, we voted for her.
All right?
In verse seven says, and when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, out of Hades,
and he'll go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, them
together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Can you believe that that many people that will rebel against God after a perfect reign of a thousand years of Jesus Christ?
It's cuz they're non -elect, they're goats.
Listen, the gospel doesn't affect goats in a positive way.
It affects them in a negative way.
Makes them hate God more every time you tell it to them.
Makes them hate you more and hate God more.
They resent you and hate God more every time.
It does not affect a goat in a positive way.
And as the sand of the sea, these lost goats that had been acting like they were saved because
Jesus rules with a rod of iron, and so they acted nice and good the whole time, soon as Satan was let loose
for a season, they followed him.
Cuz that's their nature, right?
And the devil that deceived them was cast into, wait, let's go back up one.
And they went, and these people, number it is, the sand of the sea, verse nine.
And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about Jerusalem again.
It's all about the Middle East again after a thousand years.
The beloved city, that's Jerusalem.
And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them all.
We win, game over.
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false
prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.
And you may not have done it that way, but God did.
If you'd have done it, you'd have just snuffed them out of existence.
But God said, nothing that I gave life ever goes out of existence.
They're gonna be tormented forever in hell.
They will never die, they can never die, and they will be in pain every day of their life.
Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and touch my tongue,
cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame is real.
And we don't understand it, and we don't like it.
But it's how God's chosen to do it.
Praise God, we're not in that number, right?
And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it.
Now we're gonna talk about the second resurrection.
This happens after the thousand year millennial kingdom.
It's called the great white throne judgment.
And him that sat on it, for before whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.
And you see, Brother Bill, that's why the father can't come into time until it's the right time for him to
come into time.
That four square city has to be built first to put us safely in it.
Because when the father comes into space and time, it can't stay because he's now and
it's not.
I don't know any other way to say it.
So it flees.
The elements flee from the father when he shows up.
That's kind of scary.
This is gonna be a scary day for those who don't know God.
This is gonna be indescribable for those who don't know God.
And I saw the dead small and great.
You're gonna have Clinton there, you're gonna have Obama there.
I don't know what Republicans will be there, probably most of them.
A lot of the church members will be there.
I won't be there cuz the Holy Ghost witnesses with my spirit that I am a child of God.
And if he's doing that with you, you won't be here.
You will be here, maybe like in the stands watching.
But you'll just be observing from a safe distance, all right?
Safe distance is a key thing here.
And so the dead, small and great, doesn't matter how powerful you were, stand before God, and the
books are open.
And another book was open, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged out of those things which are written in the books according to their works.
Now listen, I will promise you this first resurrection, the one where we're resurrected, we
are not gonna be judged by our works.
Cuz if we were, we're gonna have the same end these people do.
But God says we won't, because we're gonna be judged by our faith and who it was in.
And because the Holy Spirit, when he quickened us, gave us Jesus' faith, we know whose it's in.
It's in Jesus Christ.
But these people know, they never did like that idea.
They never did like that new wine holder, the new wine bottle.
They like the old wine bottle.
They like the rules.
They like following rules, living by the law.
They like all that stuff.
So they're gonna be judged according to their life against God's perfect law.
And this is describing it in detail.
And so the dead were judged out of the books that are written.
Why are there more than one book?
Because one of them lists the elect.
The elect's names are listed in there.
And the other one just lists every human that's ever born and the works that they did.
These people are judged out of both books.
You don't see that in the first resurrection.
They're only judged by one book.
Is your name in there?
Yes, boom.
You're good to go, let's go.
Let's go, we got work to do for 1 ,000 years.
This group, you check the first book and their name's not in it.
You check the second book and you look at how they lived their life and you hold it up against God's perfect law and
God's perfect son, Jesus.
And they fall miserably short.
And let's see what happens.
They had the books.
They were judged according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.
And death and hell, that's Hades, delivered up the dead which were in them, in holding, some of these people were in
holding there for a while.
And they were judged every man according to their works.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And what did Jesus say about, or what did John say under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, about those who come
up in the first resurrection?
They shall not see what?
The second death, but every one of these people see it and take part in the second death because they're judged
by their works.
Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire and it's 100 of them,
except I think we'll be in the grandstand so we're there too, but we're already safe at that
point because we're in the other book.
Isn't that amazing?
Very graphic, very specific, and very real.
Going into the very next chapter, it says, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
Why do you think you have to have that?
Because when the Father showed up, the elements fled.
Table talk proven, right?
When the Father showed up, the elements fled.
Time and space could not exist in his presence.
That's why we've only dealt with the Holy Spirit of Jesus throughout the entire history of the world, since it was created.
But on this day, that changes.
And so then, as a result, we have a new heaven and a new earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God.
That's where he had us safe while this happened.
We were watching from there.
Isn't this cool?
I mean, did you ever see it in this detail before?
Before this morning?
Probably not, but you're gonna understand it better and better as we get closer.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven was gone.
There was no more sea.
And John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband.
Why?
Because the only people in it are saved people.
Only people in it are the church, and the church is the bride of Christ.
And he has her perfectly prepared now.
She is adorned for her husband.
She has been made perfect and holy.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men.
The tabernacle, that means the body that God lives in, and who is that?
That's Jesus.
And he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
And God himself shall be with them and be their God.
So there's the father, but you couldn't have that while things were as they are now.
And God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying.
Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
Now, note that none of that happened before 1 ,000 years.
So when people talk about, well, we won't have pain and sorrow anymore, they're a little bit off.
We won't remember our loved ones that we forgot to witness to.
Yeah, we'll remember them.
For 1 ,000 years, we still have all those things we can think about and be sorrowful about, but there will come a
day he'll wipe the tears away at the end of that 1 ,000 year millennial kingdom.
A little bit different than what we hear sometimes.
We're out of time, so I'm way over time, but I just had way too much fun.
So we'll stop there.
Next time, we're gonna pick up right there where we left off in Daniel chapter 12 and take an Old Testament look at
the resurrection.
And we're gonna find it naturally agrees perfectly.
There are two resurrections, one of the just, one of the unjust.
The Jew didn't always see it that way because they had the two peaks and they looked at it this way.
They didn't see two comings, two advents of Christ.
They didn't necessarily, because of that, they couldn't discern the different resurrections.
But we can, God's given us more knowledge.
All right, the food is now burned, and I'm sorry about that.
But let's stand and have prayer together.
Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for the beauty of it.
Thank you for how it encourages our hearts, even as we get more into these end times and there's more troublous days.
We can have more and more peace as we study and see these things better than we ever have before, and we thank you for that.
Help us be salt and light and have the courage to be just that in this day and time, and go with us into our time of fellowship.
We pray in Jesus' name, we thank you for the food.
Amen.