Let's turn to the 8th chapter of Romans
and fasten your seatbelts as we take off.
In the 7th chapter of the book of
Romans, Paul has come to the realization that
the law is spiritual.
While he was a Pharisee, he thought of
the law as physical, intended to control man's
outward actions.
But when he came to the realization that
the law was spiritual, then he realized that
the law actually condemned him to death because
though he had physically kept the law, spiritually
he had violated it.
And so, he said that his problem was
that the law was spiritual and he was
carnal.
And therefore, he found himself in this dilemma.
Whenever he would intend to do good, evil
was present with him.
And oftentimes the good that he would do,
he didn't do.
Many times the evil that he wouldn't do,
he was doing.
And yet he was fighting against his own
spirit, his own mind.
For with his mind in his heart, he
wanted to serve the law of God.
But as Jesus said concerning Peter, the spirit
indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
And I think that all of us have
experienced that very same struggle.
I have not always done for God the
things that I would do for God.
It isn't that I'm not willing.
It isn't that my spirit is not willing.
It's my flesh is weak.
And so, Paul recognized his problem.
And he ends chapter 7 with that cry,
O wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from this controlled or life controlled
by the body.
And then he answers his own question.
Thanks be unto God through Jesus Christ our
Lord is my deliverance.
So he comes now into that life of
victory that one can experience while still living
in the flesh.
If he will submit his life to the
control of the spirit.
Now, Paul had felt the condemnation of the
law.
It had condemned him to death because he
had violated that spiritual aspect of the law.
Though he had never committed adultery, yet he
found that he desired his neighbor's wife.
And he realized that the desire was sin.
Thou shalt not desire thy neighbor's wife or
anything that belongs to your neighbor.
And he realized that he had violated that.
He felt guilty.
But now through the work of Jesus Christ,
he makes this astounding declaration.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit.
I think that this particular verse has meant
more to me than almost any other passage
of scripture.
Because I lived so many years of my
Christian life in constant condemnation.
Because though my spirit indeed was willing, my
flesh was weak.
And week after week I would promise God
that I was going to do better next
week.
Apologizing, repenting for my failure of the past
week.
God, next week I promise I will read
the Bible every day.
I will pray every day.
God, I'm going to do better.
And I was always feeling guilty because I
was always breaking my vow before God.
I was not doing those things that I
promised God I would do.
And I was constantly feeling condemnation.
But there is therefore now no condemnation to
those which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
For the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from
the law of sin and death.
Now, there is a new law that is
working in me.
God said to Jeremiah, and I will make
a new covenant with the people.
No longer written on the tables of stone,
but I will write my law in the
fleshly tablets of their hearts.
That law of the spirit of life that
God has written in my heart.
God accepts that which is in my heart.
My love for him.
My desires to please and serve him.
And God has written his law in my
heart by which God now directs and controls
even my desires.
This new life in the spirit in Christ.
If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation.
The old things have passed away and all
things become new.
And it is interesting how even our desires
change so dramatically when we're in Christ.
For what the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh.
He's talking here of the mosaic law, which
he said was only just and good, but
what it could not do, what could, what
was the limitation of the law of Moses
or what could it not do?
The law of Moses could not make a
man righteous before God.
So what the law could not do because
of my weakness in the flesh, that is
because I violated it.
So because of the weakness of my flesh,
it could not make me righteous before God,
but what it could not do because of
the weakness of my own flesh.
God sending his own son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh.
What I could not do for myself through
the mosaic law that is have a righteous
standing before God.
God did for me through sending his son
in the flesh.
That the righteousness of the law might be
fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit.
So it is not fulfilled by us, but
it is fulfilled in us by Jesus Christ.
For they that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh, but they
that are after the spirit, the things of
the spirit.
Now man is composed of three parts, an
inferior trinity.
He has body, mind and spirit.
The mind being synonymous with the soul, the
consciousness of man.
The consciousness of man is responsive to whatever
controls the man.
So if a man is controlled by his
body appetites, if a man is living predominantly
after the flesh, then he has what is
termed here the mind of the flesh.
Or is mindful of fleshly things or body
needs.
And this is the state of the natural
man apart from Jesus Christ.
It is that body consciousness.
And you talk to the average person apart
from Jesus Christ and they're going to be
talking to you about things that relate to
the body.
They're going to be talking to you about
new recipes, exotic new desserts.
Or they're going to be talking to you
about drinks.
Or they're going to be talking to you
about sex or things that relate to the
body appetites.
Because that's where the mind of natural man
is.
Because the body is in control.
What he is thinking about constantly are those
body needs.
The body drives.
But when a man is born again by
the spirit of God and the spirit then
is in control in his life, that man
then is concerned with spiritual things.
And he's going to be talking about God,
his relationship with God, the work of God
within his heart, the work of God's spirit,
how to please the Lord, how to serve
the Lord.
And his conversation is going to be addressed
to spiritual things.
Now the man who lives dominated by his
body appetite is living like an animal.
Because animals are body controlled beings.
They do have a consciousness that is constantly
absorbed with their body needs.
And any man who lives controlled by his
body needs is living as an animal.
And that is why the humanists today are
so certain that they are related to the
animal kingdom.
Because they look around and they say, well,
look at that baboon over there.
All he thinks about is his body needs.
He's only concerned in feeding himself and of
procreation and so forth.
And he looks a little bit like me,
I guess I'm related to that baboon.
And he feels a close affinity to it
because the baboon is living just like he
lives.
But a man whose spirit has come alive
and who is living after the spirit realizes
that he's not related to the animal kingdom,
he's related to God.
He was made in the image and in
the likeness of God and it was from
that image that he fell.
But he seeks to relate himself again to
God because he is living after the spirit.
And so Paul declares, they that are after
the flesh are constantly mindful of the things
of the flesh.
But they that are after the spirit then
are mindful of the things of the spirit.
But then he went on to declare the
mind of the flesh or the carnal mind
is death.
That is spiritual death, which biblically would be
interpreted as separation of man's consciousness from God.
Man classifies death as the separation of man's
consciousness from his body.
When the EEG reads flat for 24 hours,
they say, well, there's no brain movement or
brain activity at all.
Let's pull the plug and see if anything
happens on the monitor.
And they pull the plug and you begin
to have an oxygen deprivation.
And so the heart no longer is being
pumped artificially.
And they watch that.
Monitor, because if there is any life at
all, then the brain will start searching for
oxygen and you'll see a little bit of
movement and quickly they'll plug it back in
and say, well, we thought he was gone,
but there's a slight movement.
If the thing just stays flat.
They say, well, he's gone.
There's no brain activity.
The consciousness is gone.
He's just dead.
But the Bible says that if you, if
your consciousness is separated from God, that is,
you don't have a real consciousness of God
that you are dead because your consciousness is
separated from God.
And so the mind of the flesh is
death because it is a consciousness that is
separated from God.
It's absorbed with the things of my own
body and those needs.
Whereas the mind of the spirit is life
and peace, spiritual life, which results in that
glorious peace because the carnal mind or the
mind of the flesh is enmity against God.
It's opposed to God because God has declared
that the spirit is superior to the material
and that man ought to be more concerned
with the spiritual realm than the material realm.
Now, man today, humanism and all is saying
just the opposite.
Communism is saying just the opposite.
Man ought to be more concerned with the
material realm than the spiritual realm.
And so the conflict between man and God,
because God tells you that you ought to
be putting the spirit first.
And so they that have the mind of
the flesh find themselves at enmity with God.
For the mind of the flesh is not
subject to the law of God and neither
indeed can it be.
So then they that are in the flesh
cannot please God.
This to me is an interesting statement because
so often men are seeking to offer to
God the works of their flesh and seeking
that God would accept the works of their
flesh.
But God will no more accept the works
of your flesh than he would Cain's who
sought to offer to God the works of
his flesh and was rejected by God.
But it's interesting how that we so often
find ourselves in that place of seeking to
offer to God the works of our flesh.
But they that are in the flesh cannot
please God.
Now, when we get to the book of
Revelation, chapter four, and God is there upon
the throne surrounded by the 24 lesser thrones
of the elders and those cherubim, those angelic
beings are worshiping the eternal God, the creator,
and are saying, Holy, holy, holy Lord God
Almighty, which is, which was, which is to
come.
And the elders fall on their faces, taking
their golden crowns and casting them before the
glassy sea before the throne of God.
And they declare thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honor for you have
created all things, listen carefully, and for your
pleasure they are and were created.
Like it or not, God created you for
his own pleasure.
That's the basic purpose for your existence.
Now, man is twisted that and he somehow
feels that he should live for his own
pleasure.
But the Bible tells us that if a
person is living for their own pleasure, they're
really dead while they're still alive.
Why?
Because you are not answering to the very
basic cause of your existence.
God created you for his pleasure.
Now, careful note of that, because they that
are in the flesh cannot please God.
Thus, if you are living in the flesh
and after the flesh, your life is doomed
to this emptiness and frustration because you are
not answering to God for the very basic
purpose of your existence.
And so if I want to have a
fulfilling life, a meaningful life, I must live
after the spirit.
But then Paul goes on to declare to
the saints of God, ye are not in
the flesh, but in the spirit.
If so be that the spirit of God
dwells in you.
Now, if any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he is none of his.
So those who have been born again, that
born again is actually being born of the
spirit.
When Nicodemus said, how can a man be
born again when he is old?
I can't return again to my mother's womb
and be born.
Jesus said that which is born of the
flesh is flesh, but that which is born
of the spirit is spirit.
Don't marvel when I say to you, ye
must be born again.
Even as you have all had a fleshly
birth, we are here.
It is just as necessary that you have
a spiritual birth for man by nature is
alienated from God.
And it is only through the second birth,
the spiritual birth, when man's spirit comes alive,
that man really understands what God intended when
he created man.
For God did not intend that man should
live after the flesh and be a slave
to his flesh, but God intended that man
should live and walk after the spirit.
And so you are not in the flesh,
but in the spirit of the spirit of
God is dwelling in you.
But if any man doesn't have the spirit
of Christ, then he is none of his.
You really don't belong to him unless you
have had that second birth, the spiritual birth,
which we term born again.
Then you really aren't a part of God
or his kingdom.
And if Christ is in you, then the
body is dead because of sin, but the
spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him that raised
up Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also make alive your mortal bodies by
his spirit dwelling in you.
In other words, even though I am still
living in this body, I can begin to
experience victory over my flesh.
I don't have to live as a subject
to my flesh anymore.
I can begin to live in victory over
the flesh because of that same spirit that
raised Christ from the dead.
It makes me alive in him.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the
flesh to live after the flesh.
For if you live after the flesh, you're
going to die.
But if you through the spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, then ye shall
live.
So it is through the help of the
spirit that we put to death the deeds
of the body or that they become subservient
and the spirit becomes dominant.
I see the Trinity of man in a
storied area, upper story, middle story and lower
story.
And the natural man I see as body
in the upper story ruling the mind in
the middle story always.
But in the case where the body is
uppermost, the mind being controlled and dominated by
the desires and the needs of the body
and the spirit dormant or dead.
Now, through the new birth, there is an
inversion and man becomes then spirit, soul and
body or the spirit and the mind now
being dominated by the spirit, which is in
control and the body down here where God
intended it to be no longer controlling, no
longer ruling, no longer exercising its hold over
me.
But now the body appetites under the control
of the spirit as God intended them to
be.
And so we by the spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body and thus experience
spiritual life.
For as many as are led by the
spirit of God, they are the sons of
God.
Now, this should be to each of us
tonight a very searching verse.
And upon reading this, it is important that
each of us now make a personal inventory
and evaluation and ask ourselves the question, is
my life led by the spirit of God?
As you look at your life, can you
honestly say, yes, my life is led by
the spirit of God?
We are told to be careful lest we
deceive ourselves.
We are told that our heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
And thus, this kind of a verse should
be a very searching verse and one that
we should allow to search out our hearts
today.
Am I led by the spirit of God?
For as many as are led by the
spirit of God, they are the sons of
God.
There are a lot of people today who
are making claims to being sons of God.
How can I really know that I'm a
son of God?
Because I will be led by the spirit
of God.
But if I'm being led by my flesh
and dominated by my flesh, then I'm only
fooling myself if I say I am a
son of God.
For you have not received the spirit of
bondage, that is, that bondage to our flesh
any longer, a slave to my own appetites.
But I have received the spirit of sonship,
adoption, whereby we cry Abba or Father.
They are both words for Father.
And so the spirit itself bears witness with
our spirit that we are the children of
God.
You see, God is a superior trinity, the
Father, Son, and the Spirit.
Man is an inferior trinity, spirit, soul, and
body.
And man meets God in the area of
the Spirit.
When the woman in Samaria said to Jesus,
Our fathers say we're to worship God in
this mountain.
You say we're supposed to worship God in
Jerusalem, as does Stanley Goldfoot.
Her question to Jesus is, Where do we
worship God?
And Jesus said, Woman, the day is coming
and now is when they that worship God
neither worship in this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
For God is a spirit and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and
in truth.
God is a spirit.
So the place I meet God is the
place of the Spirit.
Now, if I am living body, soul, and
spirit, then I have no fellowship with God.
As long as I am being dominated by
my body, appetites, and all, I have no
fellowship with God.
Because God will not deal directly with my
body.
If I am ruled by my body, I
have the mind of the body, which is
death, spiritual death.
But when I become inverted, born again by
the Spirit of God, and I am spirit,
soul, and body, now the superior trinity of
Father, Son, and Spirit is joined with the
inferior trinity of man in the area of
the Spirit, and God's Spirit is bearing witness
with my spirit, then I am a son
of God.
And thus I am united with God and
joined with God, and I have fellowship with
God in the realm of the Spirit only
when the Spirit is uppermost.
And my life is being ruled by the
Spirit, and thus I am being led by
the Spirit, and in that I have then
this joined together with God in the Spirit
as his Spirit is just bearing witness with
my spirit.
Not bearing witness with my intellect, not bearing
witness to my body, bearing witness to my
spirit where I have joined with God that
I am the child of God.
And how glorious it is to walk in
the Spirit, to be in union with the
Spirit of God, to be led by the
Spirit of God, and to have that glorious
assurance of God's Spirit bearing witness to mine,
and, hey, you're a child of God.
Now if I'm a child, then I'm an
heir.
I'm an heir of God and a joint
heir with Christ, if so be that we
suffer with Him that we may also be
glorified together.
Children will dream.
And when I was a child, I spent
one summer in a home in Montecito where
my aunt was a maid.
And the people who owned the home had
gone to Europe for the summer, and so
I went up to spend some time with
my cousin.
And oh, what a fabulous time we had
as we lived like rich boys.
Seven-car garage and all kinds of fancy
cars, and we'd go out and sit in
them, you know, and pretend that we were
driving them.
And the little kid there had a whole
room full of big little books, and you
young people won't understand that at all.
But oh, man, Tailspin Tommy and the whole
bit, it was so exciting reading every night.
He had one of the most fabulous electric
trains, huge one.
They had their own stables, their own pools.
And after that time, I used to think,
wouldn't it be wonderful if someday there would
be a knock on the door and there
would be a lawyer there and say, your
uncle that you happen not to know, who
happened to be one of the wealthiest men
in the world, died and you were left
his fortune, you know.
Oh, boy, I'd go up and get me
a house in Montecito like that one where
I stayed, you know.
What fun it would be to be an
heir of some wealthy person.
How glorious it is to be an heir
of God, a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
The kingdom of God has become mine.
I'm an heir to God's kingdom.
I shall live in that kingdom, that kingdom
of light and love, joy and peace, an
heir of God, joint heir with Jesus Christ.
Then Paul said, I reckon that this present
suffering is not worthy to be compared with
the glory that shall be revealed.
As a Christian, we will experience suffering because
in reality, we become an alien in the
world in which we live.
This world that is dominated by the flesh,
dominated by men who are dominated by the
flesh.
We are a minority group.
The majority of the people in the world
are living after the flesh.
We are aliens because we live an entirely
different lifestyle as we live after the spirit,
one that they cannot understand.
And when a person can't understand you, you
always become a threat to them.
So Jesus said, rejoice when you're persecuted for
righteousness sake.
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you
and persecute you and say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad.
Great is your reward in heaven.
And so Jesus in the hour of suffering
or persecution points us to the glory of
that kingdom that we're going to experience for
eternity.
We are told concerning Jesus who for the
joy that was set before him endured the
cross, despising the shame.
Yes, he suffered, but as he suffered, he
was looking forward to the glory of the
kingdom and the joy of being able to
redeem lost man.
And so in suffering, we should not be
looking at the suffering, but at the glorious
kingdom that shall come when our Lord comes
to claim his own.
For the present sufferings are not worthy to
be compared with the glory that shall be
revealed.
Paul in writing to the Carithanians after telling
them the whole 10 yards that he had
gone through, the many beatings and stonings and
shipwrecks and imprisonments and all.
He said, but this light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh an exceeding eternal
weight of glory.
This light affliction, I was beaten five times
with rods and stoned three times and drug
out of the city.
They thought I was dead.
And I was hanging on to a part
of the ship for a night and a
day out in the middle of the Mediterranean.
And, you know, light affliction is just but
for a moment, but all I'm going to
have an eternal weight of glory.
I reckon that the suffering of this present
time is not worthy to be compared with
the glory that shall be revealed.
For the earnest expectation of the creation is
waiting for the manifestation of the sons of
God.
Now, unfortunately, there are those radical groups that
take a verse like this and a phrase
manifestation of the sons of God, and they
use it to build a whole pernicious doctrine.
And this doctrine has a way of cycling
it.
It becomes popular about every 40 years, 30
years.
Maybe the last time it was popular is
1948 and it's beginning to get popular again.
So 30 years span 35 years.
This doctrine of the manifestation of the sons
of God is sort of a heady kind
of a doctrine.
It surely appeals to a person's flesh, you
know, because basically what what this doctrine declares
is that the whole world is waiting for
you.
To be manifested as the sons of God.
That there's going to come in the last
days, a great power of God's spirit upon
the church, and God is going to manifest
himself through you, his church, and you're going
to have all you're going to be endowed
with all kinds of supernatural powers.
And you're going to go over to Moscow
and you're going to start pointing at the
tanks and they're going to start dissolving.
And you're going to go through the hospitals
and empty them all.
And the whole world is just waiting for
you to be manifested.
And so the idea is to let's all
just sit and just get perfected and get
the church perfected so that God can manifest
himself in the perfected church.
And this is in reality, the second coming
of Jesus Christ.
That he's not coming physically or bodily, but
he's going to be coming in his church
to be manifested through his church to the
world.
And the whole world is just groaning and
travailing as they're waiting for you to be
manifested.
Sounds pretty wonderful, doesn't it?
The powerful finger.
Sad that people even give the time of
the day to such a doctrine.
For Paul tells us in just a little
bit what the manifestation of the sons of
God really is.
And that's the problem.
These people never read the context.
They just grab the phrase that they want
out of a verse and never bother to
look at the context of that particular verse.
And we'll see it in its context in
a moment.
For the creature that is man was made
subject to emptiness, not willingly, but by reason
of him who has objected the same in
hope.
When God created man, he created him incomplete.
More ways than one.
When God created Adam, God said, it is
not good that man should live alone.
He's not complete.
Let's make a woman in order that man
might be complete.
And gals, we're just not complete without you.
We frankly confess it.
God saw that there was no companion for
man.
Man was not complete.
It is not good that man should live
alone.
And so God created the woman that man
might have completeness, companionship, love and beauty.
And God brought her to man and she
became his wife.
But there's another incompleteness of man.
There is another emptiness in man.
And this emptiness only God can fill.
Dr. Henry Drummond, who wrote that classic book,
The Natural and the Supernatural, declares in that
book that there is within the very protoplasm
of man, those little tentacles that are reaching
out for God.
Man was made for God.
Man can never be satisfied until he is
in union with God.
Man is incomplete without God.
There's a basic emptiness of man apart from
God.
And so the creature, God created him subject
to this emptiness by reason of him who
created him, that he might be subjected in
hope.
God created man with this emptiness so that
man would seek after God to find that
fulfillment and meaning for life.
And he has subjected the same in hope
because, or for we know, because the creature
itself shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God.
One day I'm going to be freed from
this old body, from this bondage of corruption,
and I'm going to come into that glorious
liberty and freedom.
For we know that the whole creation is
groaning and travailing in pain together until now.
Not only man, but all of creation is
groaning under the curse of sin.
And not only all of creation, but ourselves
also, which even have the first fruits of
the spirit.
Even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption to it, the redemption of our
body.
That's what he's talking about, the manifestation of
the sons of God when I have a
redeemed body.
In writing to the Corinthians in his second
epistle, chapter five, Paul said, for we know
when this earthly tent, our body is dissolved.
That we then have a building of God
that is not made with hands, that is
eternal in the heavens.
So then we who are still living in
these bodies do often groan for we ourselves
also groan within ourselves.
We groan earnestly desiring to be delivered from
what?
From this old tent in which I'm living.
Not that I would be unclothed or an
unembodied creature, but that I might be clothed
upon with the body, which is from heaven.
For I know as long as I'm living
in this body, I'm absent from the Lord,
but I would rather be absent from this
body and to be present with the Lord.
So the same idea that he is presenting
here is presented there in second Corinthians five
of that groaning, earnestly desiring to be freed
from this body.
That is limited and restricted and often seeks
to bring me into bondage, the bondage of
corruption.
And so we ourselves groan.
We who are in these bodies do often
groan earnestly desiring to be delivered, to move
out of them, not to be an unembodied
creature, but to be clothed upon or to
move into that body, which God has in
heaven.
Now, interesting, Paul is comparing or likening this
body to a tent.
And whenever you think of a tent, you
don't think of a permanent place to live.
We had to live in a tent for
two years, our church here.
And it had its, you know, qualities, I
guess it had its interests.
It had its smells of those old kerosene
heaters.
And of course, the tent blew over and
it had holes in it and it got
awfully cold at night and there were disadvantages.
It was a glorious day when we moved
out of that tent and into this new
sanctuary.
And we were able to sit not on
those hard metal chairs and not walk on
the black asphalt and not have to be
subjected to that loud noise of those blowing
heaters and smell the kerosene.
But we were able to sit here in
the upholstered pews, walk on the carpets and
enjoy the comforts of this more permanent home.
Now there is a likening, but it falls
short because that house that God has for
me in heaven is eternal.
That new model or that new body that
I am going to get is going to
be my eternal house.
Right now I'm living in a tent, this
body.
It's transient.
Hey, it's beginning to have its problems.
The threads are getting a little old.
Beginning to rip a lot easier.
When it rains, it's starting to leak.
It's getting uncomfortable.
And we who are in these bodies do
often groan earnestly desiring to be delivered, not
to be unembodied, but to be clothed upon
with a body which is from heaven.
Jesus said, let not your hearts be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me.
For in my father's house, there are many
mansions and I'm going to prepare one for
you.
And if I go and prepare one for
you, then I'm going to come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am
there, you may be also.
Now, what do you picture when Jesus says
that colonial style surrounded by beautiful gardens?
I really think that Jesus was talking about
what Paul was talking about in second Corinthians
five.
That mansion is that new body that he's
prepared for you.
I'm going to move from this tent into
that new mansion, into that new building of
God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens.
Now that new body doesn't grow tired.
It doesn't require sleep.
Therefore, if I had a new mansion, I
wouldn't need any bedrooms.
We ourselves, which have the first fruits of
the spirit, we groan within ourselves as we
wait for this work of God.
That is the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope, but hope
that is seen is not hope for what
a man sees.
Why does he yet hope for it?
When you finally see it, it becomes then
a rational reality.
It's no longer the realm of hope.
Hope is always in something not yet seen.
And so God has subjected us in hope
as we hope for that day and we
hope for that kingdom.
But we are hoping for that which we
see not.
Then with patience, we're waiting for it.
Now, likewise, the spirit also helps our weaknesses,
for we do not know what we should
pray for as we ought.
But the spirit himself will make intercession for
us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
So creation is groaning.
I'm groaning.
The spirit is groaning, waiting for that perfect
work of God.
But the spirit's groaning has a purpose within
my life as the spirit helps my other
weaknesses.
Now, by the spirit, I'm mortifying the deeds
of the flesh.
By the spirit, I'm receiving that sense of
adoption where I'm crying, Abba, Father.
For it is the spirit that is bearing
witness to me that I am a child
of God.
And now the spirit is helping my weakness
in my prayer life.
Because I don't always know what God's particular
will is in a particular situation.
And not knowing the will of God, then
it is difficult often to pray because it
doesn't really make sense to pray against the
will of God.
And the purpose of prayer is never to
accomplish my will.
The real purpose of prayer is always to
accomplish God's will.
And if I think of prayer as an
instrument by which I can get my will
done, I totally misunderstand prayer, as do so
many evangelists today.
That was never God's intention that prayer should
be the instrument by which man can accomplish
his will upon the earth.
Prayer is the instrument by which we cooperate
with God in the accomplishing of his will
upon the earth.
As Jesus said, not my will, thy will
be done.
And that is always the real thrust of
prayer.
But I always do not know what God's
will is.
And therein is where the spirit steps in
and he helps me and he will make
intercession for me with groanings which cannot be
uttered.
Have you ever groaned in the spirit?
I groan often when I see the conditions
of the world around me.
I groan often when I see the conditions
and needs of people around me.
Because often I don't know how to pray.
But he that searches the hearts knows what
is the mind of the spirit.
Because he makes intercession for the saints according
to the will of God.
You know, to me it is such a
simple, beautiful thing.
God has made prayer such a simple, beautiful
thing.
If I don't know how to pray and
I want to pray according to the will
of God.
And here's my friend John over here and
I really don't know how to pray for
his situation.
I really don't know what God is doing
in his life.
But I know John needs prayer.
God's made it so simple.
I can say, God I bring John before
you.
Oh, oh.
Now God you interpret that.
And you know the amazing thing to me
is that God can interpret it as intercession
according to his will.
That's what we are told here.
The spirit will help our weaknesses through groanings
which really cannot be uttered.
For he knows what is the mind of
the Father and he will make intercession according
to his will.
Glory.
I love it.
Verse 28.
And we know that most things work together
for good to them that love God.
How many times have you interpreted that way?
Well, I know, but not this case.
You know, I don't see how in this
case.
Many times I'm willing to acknowledge, oh yes,
God's going to work out good in this.
You see, I can see how God can
work with you.
Most things do work together for good to
those who love God.
Not of what it says, is it?
And we know that all things.
You know, I have found such rest and
comfort in this verse when I am faced
as I am often faced with situations that
I can't understand.
Disappointments, setbacks, things that I just don't understand.
And I'm prone to be concerned or worried
or get upset.
And then this verse will come to mind.
And we know that all things are working
together for good to those who love God
and are called according to his purpose.
And I've rested in this verse over and
over and over again.
Now, as I have told you, you are
not going to always understand your circumstances.
There are going to be many things that
will happen to you of which, though you
do your best, you're not going to be
able to understand it or figure it out.
And when you come against that which you
can't understand, it is important that you have
certain foundations that you can understand and that
you do understand and you fall back on
the foundations.
What do I understand?
I understand that God loves me.
How do I know?
The Bible tells me so.
I understand that God is wiser than I
am.
I understand that God is in control of
all of the circumstances that surround my life.
Thus, anything that happens to me only happens
to me because God has allowed it to
happen to me.
It could not happen to me unless God
did allow it to happen to me.
And God loves me and is working out
what is best for me.
Thus, I can rest in the most uncomfortable
places.
I rest in faith that God is even
going to use this for my good and
his glory.
Now, if you will just take this and
file it up here to where you'll live
by it, you won't have to come to
Romaine and get his hammer on your head.
You know, things start going wrong.
Oh, I've got to talk to somebody, you
know.
Hey, wait a minute.
God's in control.
God loves you.
And God knows what's going on.
And God is working, even in this situation,
his good purpose in your life for all
things work together for good to those who
love God and are called according to his
purpose.
My father was a salesman.
For years, he was a sales engineer for
the Southern County's gas company.
And then he went into the real estate
business and was a realtor here in Santa
Ana for many years.
And the life of a salesman is a
life of feast or famine.
And potential great feast.
I mean, he had some nice deals that
if he could have just put together, the
commission would have just, oh man, you know.
And a lot of times you've even put
a great deal in escrow.
And when you've got it in escrow, you're
feeling pretty good about it.
You've got a sizable deposit.
It's in escrow.
And boy, my commission on this is going
to be about $35,000.
And all right now.
And it's interesting.
You start spending the commission.
But it's amazing how that sometimes these sure
deals can fall out of escrow.
And oh, what disappointment.
You know, just the bottom is knocked out
here.
You know, I had all my bills paid
and I became current.
And oh, you know, we had the new
living room furniture practically delivered, you know, and
now it's fallen out of escrow.
And oh God, you know, what are we
going to do now?
And so my dad had a little plaque
made with the words, all things.
And he had it there on his desk.
So that when some big deal would fall
out of escrow, he'd just look at that
little plaque, all things are working together for
good.
I think it'd be good for all of
us to make a little plaque and put
it on our mirrors or someplace where we're
reminded every day that all things are working
together for good to those who love God.
Not just some of the things, but because
you've been called according to his purpose, you
can rest in the confidence that God is
in control and all things are working together
for good.
For whom he did foreknow, he did also
predestinate to be conformed to the image of
his son that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren.
So God foreknew me.
That always amazes me, but it shouldn't surprise
me because he knows everything.
But the thing that amazes me is that
foreknowing me, he predestined that I should be
one of his children.
That's the thing that amazes me most.
He foreknew me and then predestined that I
should be conformed to the image of his
son, that Jesus might be the firstborn among
many brethren.
In other words, that we might be made
the sons of God.
But the firstborn is first in prominence, Jesus,
the first in prominence.
But he is the firstborn of many brethren,
and I've been born again by the Spirit
of God.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also
called.
And whom he called, he also justified.
And whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Now here God is speaking of things concerning
me that are not yet fulfilled, for you
do not yet see the glorified Chuck.
I'm not yet in my glorified state.
That is a yet future experience that I
am to have.
But yet God puts it in the past
tense, which to me is quite interesting.
But even as he spoke to Abraham concerning
his seed in the past tense, because he
knew that Abraham was going to have a
son, whom he did foreknow, and because God
has the foreknowledge, he can speak, as Paul
said, of things as existing, even though as
yet they do not exist, because he knows
they're going to exist.
And so God speaks, and this is what
thrills me, he speaks of my being glorified,
because God knows he's going to do it.
He's going to complete that work in me.
He which has begun a good work in
me shall surely continue to perform it.
And so I rest in the fact that
God has already spoken in the past tense
of my future state of glorified together with
Jesus Christ.
I've got it made.
What shall we say then to these things?
If God be for us, who can be
against us?
Now Paul asks a series of questions.
If God be for us, who can be
against us?
Satan is against us.
The world is against us.
But the idea is, what is Satan and
what is the world compared with God?
As David said, the Lord is on my
side.
I will not fear what man can do
unto me.
If God be for me, and the glorious
truth is this, God is for you tonight.
And because God is for you, I don't
care what forces of hell may be against
you.
They are nothing compared to God.
Never think of Satan as the opposite of
God.
He is not.
Not at all the opposite of God.
You can't put them in the same categories.
God is the infinite, eternal creator.
Satan is a finite created being.
In no way is he opposite of God.
He may be opposite to Michael or to
Gabriel, but never to God.
Never think of him as opposite of God.
And thus, though the forces of hell be
gathered against you, they are nothing compared with
that power that is available to you, because
God is for you.
How do I know God is for me?
Because he spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all.
That word delivered is speaking of the cross,
delivered him to die.
And how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?
God delivered his son to die for my
sins.
God delivered his son to suffer, to be
despised and rejected, as was prophesied in Isaiah,
and to be delivered for my sins.
I didn't fully appreciate that until I became
a parent and I watched my own little
babies suffer from some of the childhood maladies.
And whenever my children would get a fever,
would become listless and sick or whatever, it
would so tear me up inside to see
them in that condition, how I hurt to
see my children suffer, how I hurt to
see my grandchildren suffer.
My little granddaughter tonight has got an ear
infection, not feeling well, and it just tears
me up how I wish there were some
way that I could suffer for her, that
I could have that ear infection and I
could somehow take her suffering and bear it
for her so that she wouldn't have to
suffer and that beautiful, sparkling, darling little gal
wouldn't have to lie there listless and crying
and threshing in the bed.
Oh, what I wouldn't give if I couldn't
take her place and suffer for her.
And then I began to realize the pain
the father must have gone through to see
his son suffering, even more so than his
coming himself.
As a parent, you'd gladly take the place
of your child and suffer for them, but
to have to see your child suffer and
God delivered him up for us all, how
much more then shall he not freely give
us all things?
God is not reluctant to help you.
God doesn't have to be begged to come
to your assistance.
God is more willing to give than we
are to receive.
And God has already demonstrated his willingness to
give his only begotten Son, deliver him up.
Then if God is willing to do that
much for you, the rest is easy.
Nothing that you might need could possibly come
close to comparing what God has already demonstrated
his willingness to give and do for you
because he loves you so much.
Our problem is that we just don't understand
the depth of God's love for us.
How rich, how broad, how expansive is God's
love for you tonight?
Oh, if you only knew how much God
loved you, you would never run away from
him again.
You'd never try to hide from him again.
If you only knew that God's love for
you is broader than the universe and God's
desires for you are only for your good,
and it is foolish to run from God.
It's foolish to fight God because you're fighting
against the very best for your own life.
The next question, who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect?
You see, he told me that God foreknew
me and because he foreknew me, he chose
me.
And then he justified me and then he
glorified me.
So God elected me.
That's what Jesus said.
You didn't choose me.
I chose you.
God elected me.
Then who's going to lay anything to my
charge?
Because God elected me.
He's already glorified me as far as he's
concerned.
And who's going to lay anything to my
charge?
Who's going to make charges against me?
Well, Satan does.
He's the accuser of the brethren.
People often do.
But there's one who isn't making any charges
against me and that's God.
Oh, how happy is the man to whom
God does not impute iniquity.
God doesn't have any black book on me.
He doesn't keep a record of my mistakes,
my sins, my failures.
He's justified me.
He has declared me innocent of all charges.
Who is he that condemns?
Well, again, Satan condemns, people condemn, and I
condemn myself.
We are often so hard on ourselves and
are in the position of condemning ourselves.
But I can tell you one who is
not condemning.
Jesus said, I didn't come to condemn the
world, but that the world through me might
be saved.
And he who believes is not condemned.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus.
Then who is the one condemning?
Satan is condemning.
But why should I worry about that?
The world may be condemning me.
Why should I worry about that?
The one who really counts is not condemning
me because he died for me.
Yea, rather is risen again.
In fact, he's at the right hand of
the Father interceding for me.
You say, Oh, but I failed God so
miserably.
Oh, but I've done this.
Hey, wait a minute.
You may condemn yourself, but Jesus isn't.
He's interceding in your behalf.
Oh, if you only understood how much God
loved you, that's all you need.
Now Paul tells you a little bit about
it.
Who shall separate us?
From the love of Christ.
The next question, actually.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Tribulation.
Distress.
Persecution.
Famine.
Nakedness.
Peril.
Sword.
As it is written, for thy sake we
are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
But can the persecution, the peril, the nakedness,
the sword, can these things separate me from
the love of Christ?
No.
For in all of these things, we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us.
It's one thing to be a conqueror.
The Rams conquered the 49ers today.
They weren't quite sure though.
There wasn't much rejoicing until that field goal
attempt was blocked in the last three seconds.
And then they went wild.
Then they conquered.
All right, we've conquered.
And then was a great elation.
Rejoicing.
Pretty tense there for a little bit.
But you know what it is to be
more than a conqueror?
Hey, it's to have the victory in the
midst of the battle.
While things are still raging around me.
While the outcome still seems to be very
uncertain.
It's to have the glorious victory and rejoicing.
Then that's more than a conquer.
And we are more than conquerors through him
who loves us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, which are ranks
of angelic beings, nor powers, other ranks, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other created thing shall
be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our
Lord.
Paul made the case just as airtight as
he possibly could put in everything he could
think of.
And yet some poor, timid soul stand there
and quiver thinking God's going to forsake them
now.
God surely can't love me anymore.
You know, he's through with me.
He's had it with me.
Wait a minute.
Nothing can separate you from that love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus.
No angel, no principality, no power, nothing that
has ever been before or shall ever come.
Things present, things to come, height, depth, any
other created being will be able to separate
you from God's love in Christ because God's
love for you is constant.
It is eternal and it is not predicated
upon you, but upon his own nature of
love.
God's love for me is uncaused by my
part.
Therefore, it is a constant and remains.
God doesn't love me when I'm good and
hate me when I'm bad.
God loves me good or bad, for better,
for worse, for richer, for poor, in sickness
and in health, all the way.
His love is there and constant.
Oh, how grateful we are for that love
of God for us tonight in Christ Jesus.
God, help us to comprehend what is the
length, the breadth, the depth, the height, and
to know that love of Christ in God
has for us in him.
Father, we thank you for your word and
for the glorious blessings and hope and strength
and comfort that is ours tonight because of
your word.
How we appreciate this marvelous position that we
have in Christ Jesus where nothing can separate
us from your love.
Lord, thank you.
What can we say to these things?
Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
May the Lord be with you.
May the Lord bless you.
May the light, the joy, the love, the
peace of Christ just keep your life as
you walk in the Spirit, being led by
the Spirit in close communion with God as
his Spirit just bears witness with your Spirit
of that glorious relationship that you have as
God's child, his heir for all eternity.