Book of Romans, 8:19 - The Glory of the Christian (02/02/2020)

Last time we we covered verses 16 through 18 and then what actually went on into a couple of other verses but basically 16 through 18 is where we were.

Let me review just a hair and then we'll move on. Let's pray. Lord we just thank you for this day another time to come together and study your word.

We thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who regenerates us opens our eyes and introduces us to Jesus in a personal way and applies his blood to our bodies and our minds and hearts individually and equips us with over 33 different things in a moment at the time he saves us and father we thank you for having the loving heart that that made all of this happen and what a wonderful God you are what a wonderful father you are and thank you for giving us life sharing your life with us we could not have it in and of ourselves

Lord bless us in this time of study to learn more about you in Jesus name Amen so let's start with Romans 8 16 and just read through it in case you weren't here last time it'll kind of get you the context of where we're gonna be the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God isn't that a wonderful verse if you're saved you know you're saved the only thing that can be an exception there

I think is that if you're in a church with really bad doctrine just terrible doctrine they may cause you to doubt your salvation but deep down inside you'll know you humans could cause you to doubt it with bad doctrine

I think temporarily but I think this scripture is so strong in verse 16 that the

Holy Spirit lets a child of God know that he's God's child and so that's wonderful 17 says and if we're children then we're heirs and remember the little word if in the

Greek often should be translated since or because of doesn't always mean conditional like it does in English I believe here it should say since we're children we are heirs heirs of God in joint heirs with Christ and that means everything he owns we own that's what joint heir means if so be that we suffer with him will also be glorified together with him well now that word if I believe means since it's not a kid it's not like if you suffer you're gonna suffer if you're a

Christian you will suffer in this life even if you're not a Christian you'll suffer in this world because we live in a cursed world and so since or because we suffer with him we may also be glorified together with him and that's a wonderful promise especially when we're going through the suffering is to remember that the the glory that will have with him is infinitely larger than the negative side of the suffering that we go through it seems bad when we're going through it but it's so much smaller than the glory that we'll have once we get on the other side and that's what that verse is promising new verse 8 for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed to us in that day so that's kind of sets up where we are now those three verses had two major points the first point being that a saved person knows he's saved because the

Holy Spirit lets him know that but he also has symptoms of salvation and if you remember last

Sunday what I did was I went all the way back to verse 1 and all the way through verse 17 right up to this passage where we are and I showed 10 symptoms of salvation now there's over 33 but 10 of them are listed right here in this chapter so we covered those last time won't do it again so that was first point the second point that we see in those three verses we just read is that we will be glorified together with Christ after and I got that in all caps in my notes after we suffer after we suffer with Christ now that is important because it leads into the why behind verse 18 why did the

Holy Spirit choose to tell us verse 18 because he knew we'd sit there and worry about we would focus on the suffering part now the scripture focuses on the glory part in our future doesn't it but the

Holy Spirit knows us and he knows the Father he knows the God's mind and he knows your mind and he knows we will focus on the negative does he not we always do first doesn't mean that we end up focusing on it but our first thought is often negative and then the

Holy Spirit will come and give us these assurances from scripture that we have in our mind he'll pull them out and bring them to our forefront of our mind and and ease ourselves so when we get into a midst of suffering and it to a season of suffering we need to really remember this verse verse 18 for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not even worthy to be compared to the glory that we're gonna have now where it says which shall be revealed in us it's interesting because the word revealed is the same word as apocalypto which means like the revelation so it's really a reference to the rapture and we'll see that more as we go through this so now as we move into verse 19 is where I really want to start out today the following description of the glory that shall be revealed in us is greatly misunderstood in Christendom and I really believe it comes into play as the true meaning of John chapter 3 verse 16 and you've heard me say before it's one of the most misunderstood verses in the

Bible John 3 16 and it really is because no one wants to read 17 through 18 and 19 in 21 if people would read verse 16 in the context of 16 through 21 they get a whole different picture of what

God is saying but they don't do it they want to just pull that verse out and read it and say oh this means God loves everybody and blah blah blah well if that were all we had we might think that but it's not all we had in fact

God wrote the entire book of Genesis long before he wrote John 3 16 so salvation you got to start

Genesis which is where the depravity of man was shown and you have to know that to understand what

Jesus did for us you never understand it that's what's so sad the gospel is really not the true gospel anymore that's being preached in this country mostly because it's a

John 3 16 by itself gospel rather than a whole Bible gospel and that leads to trouble but I think as we study these next verses in Romans chapter 8 listen

I guess I finally decided maybe but I know I'll change my mind is like if I got stuck on a desert island only had one little part of scripture what would

I want maybe John chapter I mean Romans chapter 8 maybe Romans chapter 8

I don't today I feel that way anyway so but look at this stuff Romans chapter 8 starting first 19 let's talk about it a little bit for the earnest expectation of the creation remember that word is not creature it is creation it is

TTS it's hard to say for me in Texan but the Greek is

TTS all right and it means original formation it's talking about Genesis 1 1 where God breathed or spoke everything into existence out of nothingness think about that that's the creation that's talking about remember plea

I would I would fix that in your King James I would put a line through it put creation there because that is what the word is there's no doubt in my mind about it it's not creature it's creation now in the old

English when they said creature they meant anything that was created so to them that meant creation to us the word doesn't mean that so Satan changes vocabulary and so you have to make those adjustments it doesn't mean the

Bible's not accurate it's just we need to make those adjustments because the devil has changed English since 1611 all right so it means creation both in English and in Greek for the earnest expectation of the creation all that God created waits for the manifestation of the sons of God now this word manifestation is apocalypso or apocalypses is the root word and it means the appearing or the coming this is a reference to the second coming so that's going to come into play in this passage so now it talked about suffering and then it reished the

Holy Spirit reassured us and said look we're gonna be talking about suffering here and you are gonna suffer in this life but it has it's it's not even worthy to be compared with the glory that's going to be in in our future with the

Lord so know that when you go through the suffering that's a part of this but now broadens the topic and starts to talk about what

John 3 16 actually means for God so loved the cosmos that he gave his only begotten

Son cosmos means the orderly creation of God it does not mean people it includes people it includes trees it includes waterfalls and oceans and storms and earthquakes and hurricanes and diseases that come from China or wherever all of that is included in it and in John 3 16 and Jesus Christ died on the cross to put it back into order he took a universe that man disordered by sinning and by the curse that God put on man and on the universe because of sin man's choice and man's sin and Jesus when he died on the cross he he did what it took to put it back in order now that won't happen de facto until the second coming when he comes again he will do it in fact it's already been done in principle and as far as the heavenlies from that viewpoint it's already fixed but from our viewpoint down here

Satan still usurps authority that he does not have because Jesus took it away from him when he rose from that grave he no longer has that authority but he usurps it just like King Saul did for many many days he stayed on the throne even when

God had kicked him off the throne didn't he and he chased David around trying to kill him and David was actually the new king but Saul didn't accept that and that's how

Satan is it's a perfect picture of Satan and God allows it for his purposes he allows him to usurp authority that doesn't even have and that's a good thing to know as a

Christian because you can always ask Jesus to remind Satan he doesn't have any authority over you when you're going through trouble and that's what the

Bible means when it says resist him and he'll flee from you right remind him he has no authority over your house okay anyway side track there so the earnest expectation of the entire creation of God waits for the second coming in the rapture because at that point when

Jesus comes back very shortly thereafter he's going to usher in the thousand -year millennial kingdom and the earth itself will be restored partially or in a major way towards what it was like in the

Garden of Eden it won't be totally without sin yet that won't happen till after the thousand years when it's purged by fire the earth that is but it will be restored with Jesus as king it's going to be restored to a lot of the glory that the earth had in the

Garden of Eden and that's then the whole creation is waiting and groaning for that to happen as we'll see here in a minute so look at well so let's see sons of God there by the way where it says the manifestation of sons of God it is literally the

Greek word for a boy or girl child so it just means a son or a child the children of God is what it means so now look at verse 20 for the creation was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who had subjected the same to hope in hope now

I covered that last week so I'm just gonna briefly say this the creation was sub made subject to vanity vanity means in utility which means in God to God it's useless doesn't help

God at all the fallen the fallen cursed world is not impressed God doesn't help God secondly it's transient this which means it comes into being quickly and then goes out of being quickly and then thirdly it means depravity which means useless unusable ineffectual and depraved means corrupt evil and perverted and so that is the state the world is in because of the curse and that man come is born into this world in that state because of the curse on Adam and Eve their parent their physical parents and so the create all of creation was made subject to this type of vanity this depravity this transientness this this this in utility it's sort of useless it's chaos ladies and gentlemen and that's the state that we're in but humans think it's just wonderful humanists think it's wonderful and man can fix everything and boy are they ever going to find out that's wrong so we find that the universe is in that state but it's interesting that it was made subject to that state unwillingly and what that means is the universe and even humans even

Adam and Eve even though they wanted to eat the fruit and disobey God they did not want the result they weren't desiring to be cursed so that was unwilling on their part in fact

Eve didn't willingly eat the fruit she was deceived and thought she was doing God a favor Adam did it on purpose knowing what he was doing though and that's why you'll notice in Scripture wasn't till Adam ate it when the fall happened and the curse happened so because he knew what he was doing and he sinned anyway but willingly that part means he didn't want to be thrust into the curse he just wanted knowledge and Satan promised it and it was pride and so forth and he fell but the universe certainly didn't willingly want to be placed under a curse right but look what it says it was by reason of him who subjected the same in hope who is that that's

God so it was God who subjected the world into this fall it was

God's will that it happened and some few people understand that they think it surprised God when

Adam and Eve sinned it was designed there's only one plan it's perfect and it was part of God's perfect plan and last time

I answered it with this case you're visiting this time or weren't here last time I should say listen there's no way that God could have demonstrated his love if the fall hadn't happened because he demonstrated it on the cross and you wouldn't need a cross if we didn't fall so all of it was planned and as someone pointed out

John might have been you I don't remember you said well you know Jesus was slain before the beginning of the world so obviously this was all planned now verse 21 let's look at that because the creature itself also shall be delivered now that's creation again the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God you might want to place in your margin in your

Bible by verse 21 the little words John 3 16 because this passage sheds so much light on what

John 3 16 means God so loved the cosmos the orderly creation that he had created because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God so the whole creation is going to be set free from the bondage that the people we who are now

God's children we actually brought the world into this because of our forefathers the curse happened because of us because of humans and because of our sin and yet the whole creation fell into that curse unwillingly and yet the whole creation is going to be delivered together with us so when we come back with Christ in the rapture or we're raptured first that we come back with him at the second coming and he sets everything back in order he not only sets it in order for us his children but for the whole creation the whole universe so Jesus died for the whole everything in creation to put everything back in order from the curse so the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of the corruption that came because of the fall into the glorious liberty of the children of God look at verse 22 for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and they will up until the time

Jesus comes back there will be groaning I mean you're going to have earthquakes the whole earth itself is groaning under the curse the the stars the universe the the all of these

I just went blank what are the things that hit the earth yeah all these asteroids and things that the book totally went blank the book of Revelation talks about will happen during the tribulation period all it's all out of whack it's all out of order and it's just chaos and it's going to rain in on the earth during the tribulation period and we're going to see the worst of it at that time period but Jesus when he comes back and put it all in order all that will be over for a thousand years and so the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and not only they not only the universe but ourselves also so even we as born -again

Christians saved as saved can be we still groan why because our body is not saved yet our body is still part of the created universe that's fallen and cursed and under the curse and it creates problems for us doesn't it in so many ways either health problems or sin problems or whatever you're not getting along with each other problems you can never name all the problems that we have because of this body that we live in and our new man doesn't even like it doesn't even agree with it and really should learn to control it better and better as we get stronger as Christians so we ourselves also which have the first fruits of the spirit now look at we don't go too fast through this of course

I never do but look here now we find ourselves as part of the created universe that was thrust into sin and curse and chaos by Adam and Eve our parents right we're born into the same sin nature they had into the same cursed world that they created because they chose to and they will answer for it and have answered for it fortunately

God saved them by shedding blood and clothed them in the coats and so forth and picture

Jesus coming to die for them too right but they're thrust into this and we also find ourselves thrust into it but look what it says right little nugget right in the middle of this chaos is it says we have the first fruits of the spirit now ladies and gentlemen let's let's think about that a minute that is a promise of God that one of the 33 things

God did for you the second the Holy Spirit regenerated you before you did anything before you believed before you repented before you got baptized before you did anything he saved you and regenerated you so it's all of God it's not of man humanism can't have any part in it it's all of God it's not a man and you wake up and now you find yourself saved just like a baby finds himself born and had nothing to do with his own birth it's like being born again and there you find yourself oh wow

I'm different now I'm saved there's a new me but the old me is still there and that's the groaning part that's the part that's never ever gonna be right until Jesus comes back you can't fix it all you can do is put it down you put it down you kill you recrucify it in your mind all the time and you put it down like Paul said

I put my body down I don't let it have a victory I don't let it get what it wants all the time you see what

I'm saying I mean think how that helps us he said all things are lawful for me but not all things are expedient they don't know they're not all good for me and he said this

I won't be controlled by any of it that's a great Christian Paul was a strong Christian wasn't he

I won't be controlled by any of it my old man is still under this curse I'm not gonna let him tell me what

I'm gonna eat drink or go where I go or what I do or what I think if he pops the thought my mind

I'm gonna put it down I'm gonna put it under subjection of the mind of Jesus Christ he said that's what we've got to learn from Paul how to live this life because we are still in a curse but we have the firstfruits of our salvation the firstfruits means the indwelling

Holy Spirit one of the things he did to us when he regenerated would he put himself in us and sealed him in us till Jesus comes back till the day of redemption now don't you find it interesting that there's teaching in the

Bible that says we're already redeemed but there's also teaching in the Bible that says until the day we are redeemed so there's a past present and future tense of redemption for us and another interesting thing is sometimes that word redemption if you look carefully at the

Greek it is a different word and it could more properly be translated ransomed so Jesus paid the price to buy us out of the slavery that our body was in and our mind was in and so we're not really slaves anymore but the body loves to go back and put the chains back on if we let it but it's not rightly so and no one has authority to put us under those chains so only we can decide to do it which is foolish it would be like a slave crawling back to his master and say put the chains back on me

I don't like this freedom that Abraham Lincoln gave me I want to I want to just serve you that would make no sense once you've been set free but that's what we do when we let our bodies take control so that part of us is still groaning the old man and and since we're one now isn't it true we're three but we're one just like God like we are three we're a body soul spirit the spirit should run everything from the top down and when it does we're in good control everything works great we're happy with each other we're friendly we're kind we're everything like that we're like Christ but when when it comes from the bottom up from the ground up we get in trouble and so we it always helps to remember that that's how it's working the curse still has a hold on part of us but just as true as it is that we're a body a soul and a spirit it's also true we're one we are one person so we're three but we're one just like God is so think about this because it's true that we're one it is difficult for us to separate between the flesh and the spiritual walk that we have okay so it's funny

Charlotte I coming back from the wedding or maybe it was when we were going I don't know but I mean I just I'm bad when it comes to like I don't like traffic

I don't like waiting in lines I'm an only child okay so that doesn't go away when you get born again

I don't like to wait in line I don't like I don't like traffic we you know we'll walk into a restaurant it's one of these kind where you line up and get your food and I said no get back in the car we're gonna go one where we get served by a waiter because I don't want to wait in line for my food that and I'm bad and Charlotte thinks he doesn't even want to be at the wedding well that is not true

I'm joyed I wanted to go to the wedding with you but but my attitude can get me in trouble because like I'm just one person and at one point

I said look honey I'm a spiritual man she said most the time what did you just say woman if I had an inject button to hit in that car

I'd hit it there she went but but it's true it's true and she hates it

I'm using this example but it's perfect because I'm one man it's all mixed together and so are you except some of your women which is a scary thing cuz

I don't know how they act I observed but I don't know how it works on the inside but y 'all are different creatures but you have you have this oneness and this threeness and we we just have that walk so you see we grown because we're still part of this but Jesus is what's the what's the first thing that happens when he comes back your loved ones that have already gone before us will rise first then those of us who are right array who remain shall be what changed changed in the air and you'll stop groaning immediately you will feel who knows what for one thing will be floating or flying and you like you will the weight will just come off I think the first thing you'll feel is a weightlessness of the weight of sin the weight of this old man this old woman this thing that got you in trouble when you didn't want to be in trouble it'll be gone in a flash of a second now imagine that that's what this passage is talking about it you wouldn't think this is a rapture package would passage would you don't study it as a rapture passage but it is and we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now all the way up to this time and not only they the creation but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the spirit if we didn't have that we would be totally lost we would just be totally frightened all the time and in fear and drudgery and burden but we know we're saved the whole passage started with verse 16 this section where it said the

Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the sons of God we got the firstfruits now in a legal case when you put down earnest money for a real estate property you've bought an option you paid for an option to buy the property and when you get when you buy the house you now have arrived at the place you started out but the earnest money ensured that you would get the house if you want it right now in this case that's used as an example to show us that the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit is not the whole deal it's the firstfruits it's the earnest money so listen we're one person with an old nature and a new nature living in this body as one person and we say

I'm saved all the time but we ain't saved yet not in the true sense of the word because there is a sense in which salvation itself in fact there's a usage of the phrase born -again if you look it up in Scripture it's a reference to the rapture and it says at that moment you're you're you're born again look that up you if you hadn't thought about it why does it say that we already say we're born again well in fact we are in position we are spiritually we are already

God's children and our new man certainly has been re has been created out of nothing it's like Genesis 1 1 to a person when when the

Holy Spirit regenerated you he created something new and you that did not exist before he did not take your old self and make it better if he could have done that well you wouldn't need the cross but he regenerated you gave you a new you that was never there before that's the real you now the other one has been crucified right but listen this is nothing like what it's going to be like when we're truly the sons of God are born again when the rapture happens it's just going to be so magnificent it's going to be so amazing and so much of this references this future event but it does mention the first fruits that we already have we are saved we are born again we have the

Holy Spirit living in us and without that we would be totally lost so we have the first fruits of the

Spirit even we ourselves even though we have the filling of the Spirit and the indwelling of the Spirit we still groan within ourselves why because there's a battle going on all the time and it gets burdensome and tiring don't you think

I have to think as we get older I love talking with my 90 year old mom she doesn't love the world anymore she never did much she never was into that stuff much my dad was my how many of you knew

Fred Mitchell yeah he like when you first met him is kind of how he had been his whole life like a baby baby

Christian who really was impressed with the world Rolls Royces and pipe organs and all kinds of stuff and as he met brother

Otis which Charlotte and I and my mom had prayed for years that God would bring a man he would respect and listen to it was Otis for 10 years he started growing and by the time he died he didn't care about any of that stuff and as we get older we're more that way

I think we care about the things of the world less and less and less and less and less and that's a good thing and yet there is the groaning still there because that old man is still there until the

Lord comes back for us so we've grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption now don't you think that's interesting because isn't there a sense in which we're already adopted weren't you adopted at the moment when were you adopted there's a good question there you go don't you think all right he didn't even hesitate all right

Adam I'm gonna go with you there so why does this say when we will get adopted isn't it interesting waiting for the adoption because this is the this is a reference to the whole fulfillment of the first fruit in the earnest money it's like the house you're living in it now you now own the house which means your your flesh in the bad sense has fallen off nothing about you pulls against God at all or against what you want to do for him or what you can do for him it's all gone and so now you have the full adoption you have the full born againness you have everything that the earnest money bought for you it's now possessed at the rapture isn't that wonderful to wit the redemption of your body now

I have no later on in this study but I'll go ahead and tell you that word redemption there the exact translation is the ransom

I love that because Jesus bought us out of slavery when he died and that was the ransom payment that that set us free and it will come to full fruition at the rapture so long before John 3 16 was written

God taught us the prerequisite of understanding salvation as it was as it is described in John 3 16 he had long before taught us the prerequisite and and that is that we understand the depravity of man look with me for a moment at Genesis chapter 2 verse 16 in your phone or your

Bible whichever you prefer let's take a look at that together

I'll give you a second to find it in Genesis chapter 2 verse 16 it says in the

Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden now mayest freely freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die then jumping to Genesis chapter 3 verse 3 for of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden

God hath said you shall not eat of it neither shall you touch it lest you die Satan kind of changed it he didn't say don't touch it but Satan added that and the serpent said unto the woman you shall not surely die actually the woman said that to the serpent

Eve is the one that changed it but the serpent comes back says you won't really die now there is your devil like you don't have to obey

God there's no consequences don't worry about it God's really a God of love he loves everybody and he wants you to know everything he has and everything by the way he made you that way so don't worry about feels good do it right when that from the 60s yeah still today isn't it look at verse 5 for God doth know that in the day that you eat thereof then your eyes will be open and you shall be as and I want you to pencil this in for sure it is not

God's it is God that's a bad English translation it is

Elohim which is plural and can be translated gods but everywhere else in the context of this passage

Elohim is translated God Almighty it's the one true God so now you need to know that because it makes a big difference in the meaning so think about it when you read it this way please pencil in and put

God with a capital G right there for God see how it has a capital G the second word in verse 5 it's the same

Hebrew word is the one God so why did it why change it you see what I'm saying it's it's it's not a good translation into the

English the Hebrew it's the same word it's God Almighty so for God does know that in the day that you eat the fruit thereof

Satan is talking here to Adam and Eve he says then your eyes shall be open and you shall be

God tell me that doesn't change the meaning isn't that what we are before we get saved we're

God of our life I remember when I got saved I didn't know how to say it right

I was in my car driving along the road and and the Holy Spirit quickened me and the first response

I had was Lord I want you to be my boss instead of me being my boss because I'm not a very good one

I knew that it meant that I was giving up Godship of my life and letting

God be God in my life I knew that somehow I'd heard the gospel enough I guess to know and and I yielded that but I was already saved when

I prayed that prayer I used to think that prayers would save me but now I know better you know I'm saying that prayer was a response the

Holy Spirit had already quickened me I didn't know what hit me I went home that day and told

Charlotte when I got back from Mahab we still lived in Waco and I said man something happened to me in the car today going or what

I think I got saved so he says

Satan says if you'll just eat that fruit you'll be God and you'll know good and evil like God knows so what does that imply that Adam and Eve knew before this happened only good all they knew was good so in essence what

Satan talked them into was a really bad deal he talked them into getting good and all the beauty and wonderful things

God did put in this world for us in our lives but you get bad with it and that's what we have see we're born people well how can a good

God let bad things happen to good people number one there's no good people until you get saved and then God makes you good number two don't imply that God's not good because you don't know all the information and number three it was man that made it happen

I know God is sovereign but it was man that made that choice and man is still paying for it it is man that made the choice to be

God when God had told him you're not God don't eat the fruit of that tree that's mine and then he ate it being becoming

God I mean it's God's tree it's God's fruit they ate it they think they're God they're eating God's fruit right have you ever thought about it that way probably not because it was mistranslated gods but I mean it's

God and when the woman saw that the tree was good for food so now you have the lust of the eyes and I mean the lust of the flesh and then with her eyes it was pleasant there's the lust of the eyes and the tree to be desired to make one wise there's the pride of life so you had all three forms of sin come into play in a moment of time in her life and the tree was desired to make one wise there's your pride and she took of the fruit thereof and she did eat and she gave it also to her husband with her and he did eat so he's standing right by her the whole time this happened

I never viewed it that way till you taught it in Sunday school every day I always so Adam had been there she wouldn't have done it

Adam was there so he was a big part of it too wasn't he so you shall be

God Elohim supreme God is the Hebrew word the same word used in the second word of verse 5

God doth know so Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God same word

Elohim you will be God that's what Satan told him and they bought into it every human wants that every human wants to be

God of everything that's why humanly you can't get saved on your own because you won't give that up not willfully as a human not a fallen human you're not gonna give up that power only the

Holy Spirit can come in and overwhelm you and open your eyes to the truth that you're not

God and that God exists and you're not him I like that I heard some preachers say that some what is it what is the joke some cool old preacher said

I figured out two things there is God and I'm not him okay so the Holy Spirit is the only one that can make us see that Genesis 1 1 in the beginning

God created the heaven and the earth the same word is in Genesis 1 3 and God said let there be light same word you shall be

God Satan said you're gonna be the same as the one who created light same one who created everything out of nothing now can you believe that someone could convince us that will be that but he did and isn't it what all humans want to be why do you think we have so many

Superman movies and super character movies and all this where humans can do these things because that's what man wants in Hollywood knows it so it's easy to sell

Genesis 1 27 so God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he then same word it's

Elohim Genesis 2 2 and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made

Elohim same word and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made and Satan said in 3 5 for God doth know that in the day that you eat the fruit thereof your eyes will be open and you shall be

God knowing good and evil knowing the word no there is to be aware of something so they were not even aware of evil they were like little children little innocent children not even aware of evil yet and Satan promised them well you can be like you can be

God and know everything wouldn't that be better and wouldn't God want you to be in that state and they ate it now

I want you to think about this what did that entail when they got what they wanted it's found in these two

Hebrew words Hebrew words are interesting because they can have many meaning meanings and you have to know by the context which meaning is dealing with in the passage but this word knowing good and evil look what we got when we got the good and this is this word for good in Hebrew is

Tob and it means good in the widest sense and it has 21 meanings that's 3 times 7 by the way

God's perfect number and I didn't cheat and leave one out or something brother bill to make it like I do sometimes to make it this is exactly the meanings 3 times 7 21 meanings for good here it is beautiful this is what we this is what we were promised that we would get good and evil and here's the good part and they already had the good everything

I'm gonna list here they already had it beautiful best bountifulness think what these words mean this is all in the

Hebrew word for good that God had already given them cheerfulness we're not always cheerful are we because we're got a fallen side see but if you didn't have that you'd be cheerful all the time all the time there'd be no reason listen you're a joint heir with Christ why would you not be cheerful all the time well

I'm preaching to me right you know I love Dave Huber he leaned his head up in the front seat between me and Katie one time when we had gotten lost in the car and we were really mad and he said are we grumpy yet because he's

Dave has this cheerfulness somehow more than most people Charlotte has that too but Dave's more irritating with it

Charlotte's not not irritating except when she says most of the time stuff like that but anyway so you think about it beautiful best bountiful cheerfulness ease of life

Wow like the garden what did they really have to do to make a living they had everything just pluck it off the tree you know no toil no sweat of the brow yet fairness wouldn't that be nice to have all the time in this world fairness but we don't have it all the time but sometimes we get it

I think we're about to get it on the President Trump trial is probably about to be fair and they're gonna find him innocent we hope we don't know that right favor that's the same word as grace we have

God's favor all of this is stuff we had before we fell and we still have all of this stuff fine things gladness see so fine things is not sinful to have if you have a nice car if you have nice land or house it's not bad it's part of the good okay fine things gladness good deeds graciousness joy kindness loving kindness pleasantness pleasure precious things prosperity and wealth sweet things welfare in being well favored by the men of the world and by God those 21 things are the good that they already had but what did they ask for we want to know we will have good and evil so here's the

Hebrew word evil raw sounds evil doesn't it it's the word raw and it there are 24 synonyms of the word raw that's four times six which is

Satan's number and so along with all the good you get bad you get adversity you get affliction you get calamity you get displeasure you get distress you get harm you get heaviness of heart you get hurtfulness to be ill -favored people don't like you or how people don't like you marked they mark you and avoid you because they don't like you mischief happens misery happens naughtiness happens noisomeness that Hebrew word means a bad odor but it just means bad stuff disagreeableness happens unpleasantness happens sadness sorrow trouble being vexed wickedness wretchedness and being wrong sometimes you get all that with all the other beautiful waterfalls and beautiful ocean and beautiful clouds and love and children and grandchildren all that good stuff you get all this stuff with it isn't that something and we asked for it why

I mean no wonder we're groaning that list is longer than the list for good there's more of it so man wanted to have the good and the evil not just the good as they already had prior to the fall now we got exactly what our forefathers desired so with all of the beauty and the bounty and the cheer and the ease of life comes along with it adversity and affliction calamity and distress and harm and heaviness of heart and that's just the way it is because we asked for it in John 3 16 and 17 let me read them to you now and see if they make more sense because Jesus died to put all that back in order and to minimize the bad stuff that we asked for and to make the good shine through that's what's going to happen in the

Millennial Kingdom the bad will be constrained for a thousand years it'll be constrained and ruled with a rod of iron where it can't break out for a thousand years so it's gonna be all of this good stuff is what we will we will have for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his son into the world cosmos to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved the cosmos might be saved world cosmos orderly arrangement of God it can be translated the decoration when

God decorated the without form and void as the earth was and the Holy Spirit hovered over it put it into order and decorated it it's all of the creation of the universe in the order of it verse 19 says and this now look we have

John 3 16 God so loved the cosmos that he gave his son you say well does that prove he loves everybody and died for everybody well in a sense he did because we all humans are part of the creation right so in that sense yes he died for the human race but how did he save the human race he saved it by saving a remnant of it that will go into the

Millennial Kingdom or else you'd had no humans the listen the tribulation would have destroyed every human without God's grace so a few will be saved and go in there and populate the world or you wouldn't have any human so in that sense he died for the human race but he didn't die for every individual and I say that because he didn't ransom every individual he ransomed the elect that he knew before the foundation of the world and is with regard to this modern gospel of its like God presents the gospel out there and you choose your own destiny by deciding whether you'll do it or not let's just see if that's true because they use

John 3 16 to prove it but they don't read what comes with it God's allow the world he gave his own begotten son yes but look at verse 17 for God sent not his son of the world to condemn the world yeah look at verse 19 and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world that's

Jesus right the gospel light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil listen to verse 20 and everyone that does evil hates the light let me ask you this how many humans do you know that have done evil before sin is evil so how many humans do you know that have sinned how many do you know that haven't not one so if it's true that everyone that does evil hates the light it's not too far of a logical leap to say that every human hates the light when they're in their natural state they hate the light why it tells us neither do they come to the light so the modern gospel is based on a preacher getting up here and say look if you decide you want to go to heaven you don't want to come down here and choose

Jesus it's based on that that's not the gospel of the Bible the gospel of the

Bible is the Holy Spirit moves among people and regenerate some of them and that's what does it and you can't make that happen you cannot control it's not of man nor the will of man but of the will of God the

Bible says so the modern gospel is man's will trying to make this happen and that's why you got so many tears in the church because they just give them a prayer formula to pray now they're part of the church right and they sit there and argue about everything and they tear it to pieces and run the preacher off if they can

I say that because I've got a good friend it's a top gun that is living in a situation now where they're trying to run the pastor off and it's just it's just so destructive some preachers need to be run off but anyway only the

Holy Spirit can let you know which is right right but look at this this is the condemnation that light has come into the world men love the darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil that's all men they're sinners everyone that does evil that's all men hate the light neither do they come to the light so can a man or woman in their natural state come to Jesus because they want to know do they do it no they only do it if the

Holy Spirit drags them against their will as the Bible in Greek language says and points their head up and says open your eyes and your ears now and that is just as miraculous as when he spoke the universe into existence out of nothing just as miraculous the same work had to take place it is a new creation old things are passed away behold all things were coming a new creation happens and you can't do that and you play no part in it other than receiving it joyfully and being thankful it's a gift it's free someone bigger than you gave it to you and you receive it and you're thankful that's how salvation works for everyone that doeth evil hates the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved who is that every human the entire cosmos was cast out of order by man's sin in the garden and was placed back into order by Jesus's death and resurrection and that's what

John 3 16 means it is not designed to teach that God loves everybody and Jesus died for everybody doesn't teach that if it does it contradicts hundreds of other scriptures so it's clear when we take the whole passage now let's go back into our

Romans passage and go a little over time but I'm having fun so forgive me Romans 819 we're back there let's see if we can come to a conclusion because I know you got to get home for the

Super Bowl I knew a pastor once at Southern Baptist Church had a little TV up in his pulpit watching it while he was preaching that's why

I left that church because he wouldn't let me watch it with him no I'm just kidding sort of anyway all right

Romans 819 for the earnest expectation of the whole creation waits for the apocalypses apocalypses

I said it wrong apocalypses the revelation of the sons of God all of the creation is waiting for the rapture and the second coming for the creation was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him

God who has subjected the same in hope and what does that word hope mean God subjected the universe into this curse against its will in hope which is the joyful expectation of a certain future event which is the rapture when it gets fixed it's so clear when you read it and understand the context verse 21 because the creation itself also shall be delivered now that word is a

Greek word it means exempted and made free from the curse exempted from the curse and made free because the creation itself also shall be exempted and made free from the bondage which is the word doulos and if you ever knew brother

Otis you knew that word really well it means a bond servant but we were we became bond servants to sin because of our nature right we're set free from that we are made free and exempted from that and so is the whole of creation so the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty that word is doxa which means glory from we will be glorious and the word liberty means freedom but listen to what this means it means unrestrained

I like that even better it means you're set free from the bondage you were restrained you were chained to Satan in the world system and you were the chains were removed you were set free that's the visual picture what this word means and true of the whole universe not just us the whole universe because the creation itself shall also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious the doxa the glory of the freedom and unrestrainedness of the children of God for we know that 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 praise God what if we didn't even we ourselves grown within ourselves even having the indwelling

Holy Spirit why because we're one person and that bad part of us is there too and we know it and we hate it when we mess up right we hate it that's a good sign you're saved if you hate it waiting for the adoption the future kind we've already been adopted this is the reality of the adoption that takes place at the rapture to wit the redemption that is the word pollute trocease which means the ransom in full of our body so look at all the terms we've looked at theological terms that we teach among Baptists that they've already all happened and yet all of these are in the future also they have happened but that's the father's viewpoint he's not bound by time in time the adoption and the ransom take the effect at the second coming in other words

Jesus has already paid the ransom when he died 2 ,000 years ago did he not in full paid in full is what the what the

Greek word means paid in full but as far as the enemy letting us go paid in full and in an enemy letting us go is still in the future isn't it like you know how they do it in the movies where you come out on the bridge and they walk the captive out to the to the good guys get him waiting and run before they shoot you you know and all that stuff and they're finally free that's us in the future and that's why it's in the future tense for some of these things so the ransom the actual de facto ransom of us is still yet future in that sense of it so how do we know in verse 20 this is

God who subjected them to vanity well because the Bible teaches it in so many places and I don't have time to go yeah

I might as well let me just read it don't turn to it second Corinthians 4 6 for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness now don't you love it's relating this to the same creative power that created the universe the same

God who commanded light to shine out of nothing in darkness in the creation in Genesis 1 1 has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that's why we grow that so that the excellency of the power may be of God you get anything right

God gets the glory because otherwise we would have messed it up right he gets the glory because he put that new nature in there too and that thing can do some things right and it should do things right and when it does we don't get the glory though God does and God set it up this way for that reason so God gets the glory but we have this treasure in earthen vessels this born -againness this earnest of our salvation all of this is in an earthen body that's still prone to sin why so that the excellency of the power of God may be of God and not of us it shows you that none of it was an accident it's all

God's will it's all God's sovereignty and the fall was part of it and the cross was part of it and this walk listen to me that we live now that's hard to live right it's part of it too he wanted it this way you're not supposed to be perfect yet and don't don't read between the lines

I'm not saying you shouldn't try to be holy try as you may you won't be so don't give up when you fail get up again and go again yes ma 'am

I want you on the front row next time yes ma 'am get up and go wasn't that what my mom said to tell us what she said that day just got just don't try to fix past just keep moving forward get up and go so we have this treasure verse 8 says in 2nd

Corinthians 4 we are troubled listen to me this is what Romans 8 is talking about in this little passage we're troubled in on every side you can't tell me we're not going to suffer but the glory that shall be is so much infinitely greater than this trouble it should not even be compared to it that's the reminder that we have when we go through trouble because it says so clearly here that we are troubled on every side yet not distressed only a mature

Christian can say that because you still feel it you can't tell me your emotions don't feel the trouble you know the truth but you still why'd

God let this happen to me you still have that thought then you get rid of it don't you you say Holy Spirit you know let me have the mind of Christ take that away

I'm not blaming God for this but you felt it didn't you just be honest that's us because what we're one person we're a mix of bad and evil good and evil just like we asked for and so here here we have this treasure and earthen vessels we're trouble on every side and yet we're not distressed because once we think it through we know that we're joint heirs of Christ we own everything we are perplexed but we're not in despair there's stuff we don't understand when a young person dies or something we don't understand why

God does that and yet Spurgeon understood it perfectly said just got prayer being answered because one of the prayers he prayed was where I am may they be also it took the

Spurgeon it was simple the child died because the Lord Jesus got his prayer answered he wanted that child with him he's in control it's his child right so what's wrong with that nothing from God's viewpoint but from ours from ours listen brothers and sisters we are perplexed at that but we're not in despair why because we of all people know

God's in control it still hurts that's the groaning listen the rapture hadn't happened yet it's still gonna hurt but we're not in despair we are persecuted but we're never forsaken by God he is with us no matter what we go through in this life we are not forsaken listen we are cast down we are never destroyed nothing can destroy us as Rocky Freeman said you're immortal until your mission is finished on this earth nothing can kill you always bearing about in this body the dying of the

Lord Jesus why is that because we man that needs to be killed listen that is a continual practice of crucifying the old man isn't it clear always bearing about in the body the dying we have to think about it all the time and realize we need to die to the flesh in positionally it's already dead from God's viewpoint from our viewpoint we're one person and we still have it so we need to make it die we need to put it down always bearing about in the body to dying of the

Lord Jesus so that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest while we're still in this mixed body think about it that's all the world sees the only light they have is us if we don't put the old man down then they're confused because we do bad stuff we hurt them we lie to him we lie to each other we hurt each other they don't understand that so we put it down so that the new man can show to the world and they have some light it's all right here is the whole plan is here this

Romans 8 probably would be the one I'd want to keep if I had lost all the Bible always bearing about in the body that dying of the

Lord Jesus so that the life of Jesus Christ might be made manifest in our body in this time even before the rapture this is for now this is how we live now for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake suffering so that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh we shall suffer in this life it is

God's sovereign will but Romans 8 18 for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us at the rapture and next time

I preach I'm going to talk about the rapture so let's stand and have prayer together by the way

I won't be preaching next Sunday I don't think because our company has a seminar on a ship and I'm teaching it so Charlotte I'll be out of town next

Sunday we'll be back the following Sunday hate to miss it someone's got to do that hard work on that ship let's pray

Lord we thank you so much for your word thank you for your Holy Spirit who enlightens us and teaches us old and new stuff every time we look at it things to be reminded of things we hadn't thought of and Lord you make the

Word of God exciting and thank you for helping us grow Lord we pray you'd bring others into our congregation no tears but some wheat that needs to hear your truth and grow you might bring them from around into worship with us if it's your will if not then we're happy like we are and Lord we just ask you to protect those who are still traveling today and bring everyone back safely thank you for bringing