Like all of you, I get a lot
of mail. Most of it I just soon not have.
A lot of mail through the mailbox and through email. And mail that
comes into the mailbox that's addressed occupant, I never open. It just goes in the file box
sitting on the floor. And then I get mail sometimes
that's addressed dear friend. Excuse me. When I do, I look
at the bottom of the letter to see if it's someone I know. If
not, that usually goes in the trash bin as well. But I get
a good many notes and letters that begin Don or Dear Don. That catches my attention. That
means that somebody has taken the time to personally address
me. to personally write something
to me, either to say something to me or to ask me something
or just to communicate with me their affection and care for
me. I always delight to receive a
personal note or a personal letter or personal card from friends,
friends that I see often and friends that I rarely see. I
always like a personal letter. personal touch. I expect you
the same. If you'll turn to the 8th chapter
of the book of Romans I have a message to deliver to you addressed
to you personally to you who believe God. If you're not a believer listen
carefully this may be just the message by which God will work
faith in you But everything written in this 8th chapter of the book
of Romans is addressed to you men and women who know and believe
and worship and walk with our God. The 8th chapter of Romans
is all about God's goodness and grace to us in Christ. The title
of my message is No Condemnation, No Accidents, No Separation. The passage begins with the assurance
that there is no condemnation and no possibility of condemnation
to those who are in Christ. And then this chapter is full
of comforting instruction to God's people. telling us that
there are no accidents in God's world, no accidents in God's
universe, no accidents in our lives. Everything is done by
the purpose of God, established from eternity by his sovereign
decree and brought to pass in time by his good providence. And then the chapter ends with
a declaration that nothing in heaven, nothing in earth, nothing
in hell, nothing in time, nothing in eternity, no power, no being,
no man, no angel, no devil, nothing shall ever separate you. from
the love of God that's in Christ Jesus the Lord. The passage begins
declaring that we have no condemnation and no possibility of it because
Christ died for us and rose again because we're one with him. The
chapter ends declaring the absolute security of God's elect unto
everlasting glory. And everything in between is
grace, grace, grace, grace. That's what Romans chapter eight
is all about. Basically, there are three sections
in this chapter. Paul begins, as I've stated already,
by telling us of the believers freedom from condemnation because
we are utterly, completely, absolutely free from the law. Then he tells
us about our privileges as God's children in this world. Our privileges
being one with Christ, being in union with Christ. And then
he tells us about our blessed everlasting security. All right,
if you'll keep your Bibles open to Romans chapter 8, I will call
your attention to a few other passages. But we're going to
look today just at these 39 verses together. First, verses 1 through
4, the chapter here begins by declaring the believers complete
freedom from the curse, the bondage, and the condemnation of the law.
There is, therefore, Whenever you see the word therefore in
scripture, you ought to ask yourself, what's it there for? There is
therefore, because we are in Christ, because we are redeemed
by the blood of Christ, because we are justified from all things,
from all sin, justified before God. Because we have been crucified
with Christ. Because we are born of God, given
new life in Christ. Because we are risen with Christ. Because we're made righteous
by the doing and dying of the Son of God. Because we are not
under the law, but under grace. Because we are dead to the law
and married to Christ. There is therefore now, right
now, Not something you have to wait on. Oh, if God would give
you life and faith in Christ. If right now, for the first time
ever, you begin to believe on the Son of God, there is therefore,
right now, right now, no condemnation. No condemnation. No curse from
God. No terror from the Lord. no punishment,
no sin, no guilt, no possibility of sin being imputed to us, no
possibility of God cursing us, no possibility of us being brought
into judgment by God. There is now nothing to fear,
nothing to dread, to them which are in Christ Jesus, in Him. That's what salvation is. That's
what grace is. That's what life is. It is to
be in Christ. Of him, the apostle says, are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. That's the whole package of salvation. He is the revelation of God. He is our wisdom from God and
our wisdom with God. He is our righteousness. All
the righteousness we have is Christ. Christ, our Redeemer,
obeyed God for us and made us righteous before God, made us
perfectly righteous. He is also our sanctification.
We're sanctified by his grace. The word sanctification means
holiness. Christ is that holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. Christ is our holiness before
God. And Christ in you is that holiness
which we have before God. He is made of God unto us, sanctification. Sanctification, like righteousness,
is not something you do. Sanctification, like righteousness,
is not something depending on you. Sanctification, holiness,
like righteousness, is perfect. Either you are perfectly righteous,
or you're utterly unrighteous. Either you are perfectly holy,
or you're altogether without holiness. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our holiness. And of
Him are ye in Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Redemption. I know that brilliant
academic fellows, theologians, religious leaders, I get mocked
a lot. They think Brother Fortner is just a poor, uneducated, illiterate
sort of fellow. He's got things confused. He
confuses justification and sanctification and redemption. No. No, no, no. They got it confused. You see,
you can't separate justification and sanctification and redemption.
You can't separate them. Those who have one have them
all. It's in Christ. And those words
are used in scripture to cover the whole scope of salvation. Particularly this word redemption. We sometimes talk about salvation
and we tend to think that salvation is talking about that time when
first God revealed himself to you. No, no. Salvation includes
everything involved in God's purpose of grace. brought to
pass in time that lands us safe on the other side in heavenly
glory. So it is with redemption. Redemption
means deliverance. Deliverance by blood and by power. It is the whole deliverance of
our souls from sin and from death by Jesus Christ the Lord. Deliverance
by the power of God in the new birth. Deliverance by the blood
of Christ in sacrificing Himself for our sins at Calvary. And
deliverance at last in resurrection glory. Christ is made of God
and to us wisdom. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. That means He is our salvation. There's no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus by election, by regeneration, and
by faith who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Now what does that mean? I'll
tell you what religious people say it means. There's no condemnation
to those who believe on the Lord Jesus and they really live close
to God. They read the Bibles a lot and
they pray all the time and they go to church regular and they
give and they make sacrifices and they're good witnesses and
they feel so close to God. No. That's called religious self-righteousness. Those who walk in the Spirit
are those who live by faith in the Son of God. That's what it
is to walk in the Spirit. Sometimes I am privileged to
enjoy sweet, intimate communion with God my Savior. Sometimes. That's not the common day-by-day
experience of life. That's just not the way it is. We live in this world struggling
with sin, with what we are by nature, with the corruption and
the depravity of our hearts. God has left us here in this
condition, struggling with sin, the depravity of our hearts,
the corruption of our natures. so that we might ever look to
Christ alone for the whole of our salvation, trusting his grace
alone for the whole of our salvation, and that we may be sympathetic,
tender, thoughtful, caring, and forgiving of one another. But
we live by faith in Christ. When I feel his presence, and
when I don't, when I sense dear, sweet communion with him, And
when I feel as dead and empty as a tomb, I believe on the Son
of God. I trust the Lord Jesus. When
I think maybe I have done something right and good, maybe I've been
helpful. Somebody said to me just a little
bit ago, said you're so very helpful to me. Oh, I thank God
for that. I'm honored for that. And sometimes
I think maybe I've been a little bit of help. Most of the time
I know I haven't. And sometimes I know I've injured. Sometimes I know I've done hurt.
I still live by faith in the Son of God. I trust Jesus Christ
alone. Understand that? That's what
it is to walk in the Spirit. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in
me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. I live on the basis of his faithful
obedience, trusting him who loved me and gave himself for me. Verse
2. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus. What's that? That's not the Ten
Commandments, that's not the Law of Moses, that's the Law
of Condemnation. It only ministers death. The
Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ is the Gospel of Christ.
The Gospel hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death. The Gospel, this new Law of Life,
has made me free from the Law of Moses, the Law of Sin and
Death. For what the Law, that is the
Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments, could not do What the law could
not do. The law could never make you
free. The law could never give you life. What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. There's nothing wrong
with the law, it's wholly just and good. But we are flesh. And because of our weakness in
the flesh, because we are nothing but sin and death, the law could
do us no good. Therefore, God sending his own
son, in the likeness of sinful flesh. Christ came here as one
of us. The Son of God took on Himself
our nature. He took into union with Himself
our nature. He did this, and He did it for
sin. That is, by the sacrifice of
Himself for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. Our Lord Jesus
was made sin for us, and when He was made sin, He put sin to
death. in his flesh suffering and dying
for us and he did it look at verse 4 that the righteousness
of the law that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us he did this so that you and I now being born again could
keep the Sabbath day and keep the commandments and do good
what stupidity what utter stupidity that's totally contrary to everything
in scripture He did it that the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Do we then make void the law,
Paul asks in Romans 3, through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. I come to God right now. I come to God with confidence.
I come to God with confidence, feel that He will hear me, accept
me, and receive me. I'm confident that He will. How
come? Because I trust His Son. I bring
Him everything God requires. I bring Him perfect righteousness. Perfect obedience. I bring him
complete satisfaction. I bring him Jesus Christ the
Lord. Mike, I'm gonna have one of my
bulletins from home here with me. You got one in your Bible?
Let me see it a minute. Back a long, long time ago before
some of you were ever born, we used to put out bulletins the
hard way. I would write the articles and
then my wife would type them. And when she would type them,
after typing them, she'd go back and she'd count how many spaces
there were for each line so that we could space out the words
and make them come out even on the right-hand side. It's called
justifying the right-hand margin. And then she would type them
just that way onto a stencil. And then we'd mimeograph the
things and hope the stencil didn't get messed up. Now we have an
easy way to do it. You type out a sentence and all
you got to do if you didn't have it on justify before is just
hit control J and it's done. It's called justifying the right
hand margin. You see this? This is the way
it used to look. This side over here would be
fine, everything else would be jagged. Not anymore. When it's justified, right here
is the left hand margin. Everything in a row. Every measurement
exact. Now, here is a justified right-hand
margin. This side exactly matches that
side. Oh, God help you to hear me now.
Simple as that picture is. Here is God's holy law. Here
is God's holiness. Here is God's righteousness. Here is everything God demands.
Here is God's justice. Here is God's truth. Here is
God's perfection. And here I am in Christ Jesus
the Lord. God's holy law, God's righteousness,
God's justice, God's holiness, God's perfection, God's satisfaction. Everything God requires or can
require is mine in Christ Jesus the Lord and yours in him if
you believe. All right, look at verses five
through 14. Here, Paul describes the believer's life in the spirit.
We live in this day of charismatic tomfoolery and idiocy, charismatic
blasphemy and ungodliness. And I chose my words deliberately.
This modern day charismatic movement is further away from the gospel
of God and the glory of God and the righteousness of God and
the truth of God. It's as far away as hell itself. There's
nothing about it that's of God. Well, Brother Don, you shouldn't
say that. Shall I repeat it? There's nothing about it that's
of God. Paul tells us there is no condemnation to them that
walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. What is it
to walk after the spirit and not after the flesh? Let's see. Oh, I think, I feel. Well, it
doesn't matter what you think. And it doesn't matter what you
feel. God tells us plainly what it is. To walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. Verse 5. For they that are in
the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are
after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Those who are
natural, ungodly, ignorant of God in the flesh, they mind the
things of the flesh. They think they can make themselves
righteous. They think they can make themselves closer to God.
They think they can make themselves holy. They think they can do
good works and win God's favor. Well, that's not what that means.
Is it not? Is it not? Ask anybody. You go to New Guinea or go to
the heart of Africa. You go in the dark jungles of
Brazil or you go to the streets of San Diego. Every human being
by nature presumes he can do something to make himself acceptable
with God. That's what it is to walk after
the flesh. He's not talking here about whether
you decide to eat pork or beef. He's not talking here about whether
you decide to have a glass of wine with your meal or you want
to drink almond milk with your meal. That's not what he's talking
about. He's talking about evil, wicked, ungodliness, presuming
that you can make yourself holy. I can think of nothing on this
earth more fleshly than religion that tells you to do good to
please God. There's nothing on this earth
more fleshly. They that are after the flesh
think like that. They that are after the Spirit think otherwise.
They mind the things of the Spirit. Verse 6, For to be carnally minded,
as long as you think you can do something to please God, is
death. But to be spiritually minded,
to trust Christ is life and peace. Just before we came out here,
Brother Mark and I were talking just briefly and talking about
doctrine. All false doctrine causes disturbance. All false doctrine makes you
uneasy. All false doctrine makes you
uncomfortable. All false doctrine teaches you
to look to yourself and your works. All gospel doctrine. All true doctrine. All right
doctrine gives you peace. Gives you rest. Gives you rest. Read on. They that after the
flesh do mind the things of the flesh They that have the spirit,
the things of the spirit. To be carnally minded is to be
dead. To be spiritually minded is to live and have peace. Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. Not at enmity, enmity. The carnal mind hates God. The carnal mind hates God. For it is not subject to the
law of God. Neither indeed can be. What does that mean? The carnal
mind is not subject to the law of God. Can't be subject to the
law of God. That means that the carnal fellow
is the fellow that says, no, I will not love God and I will
not love my neighbor. I will not keep the commandments.
I will not keep the Sabbath. That's the carnal mind. No, no,
no, thousand times no. To submit to the law of God is
to bow to the revelation of God in his law. Acknowledging that
you must have a Savior. You must have a substitute. You
must have someone else to fulfill righteousness for you. Someone
else to satisfy justice for you. So then, they that are in the
flesh, everybody who still thinks he can make himself righteous
or holy or close to God, cannot please God. But they, but ye,
you, you who believe God, you are born of God, you are taught
of God, you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. What a strange
statement. Strange only if you understand
being in the flesh, just talking about living a natural life.
No, no, you're not in the flesh, you no longer trust the flesh. You no longer trust your own
righteousness. If so, be that the spirit of
God dwell in you. Now, if any man had not the spirit of Christ,
he's none of his. And if Christ be in you, if you're
in Christ and Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin. That is the natural man. But
the spirit is life because of righteousness. That's the new
man in you created in righteousness and true holiness. You've been
made partakers of the divine nature. But if the spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you. So that the believer,
when he drops his body of flesh, he's buried in the tomb, and
his body goes back to the earth from which it came, In the end,
we'll be raised up, quickened by Jesus Christ in resurrection
glory. That's the hope of the resurrection. Verse 21, or verse 12, brethren.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after
the flesh. For if you live after the flesh,
you shall die as long as you think you can save yourself.
As long as you think you can make yourself holy, as long as
you think you can contribute to God's work, you'll die. But
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall
live. Back years ago, there was a movie
with Sean Connery in it called The Color of the Rose. I don't
know if any of you saw it or not. I don't necessarily recommend
movies, but it's a pretty good picture, a true picture of what
papacy is and what all carnal religion is. They were going
to, these monks from all over Europe were going to a certain
Abbey to have a great debate. A great debate. And they all
came together at the end of the show and this is what they're
going to debate. The deep stuff. Theologians,
they were going to make a decision. Did Jesus or did he not own the
clothes that he wore? That was their question. Folks
like to talk about religious stuff that means nothing. But
along the way they would stop at various, what do they call
those papal places, not a convent, that's a nunnery, what's it called?
Abbey, where they have priests get together and live in clusters
and they would mortify the flesh. They'd go to their cells and
take a whip and... And sometimes they get a little
serious and they would really wham and beat themselves, mortify
the flesh. Now we wouldn't do anything stupid
like that. What we do instead is we... do without this, or
do without that, and think we mortify the flesh. Or we try
to not go to the shows, and not go to watch TV, and not talk
to folks outside the church, and mortify the flesh. Or we subdue ourselves from doing
wicked things. That's not it. To mortify the
flesh is to absolutely nail the coffin shut. Salvation is by
grace alone, in Christ alone, by faith alone, not by what you
do. For if ye live after the flesh,
ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit,
by the grace of God in you, mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Look at verse 9 again. Ye are not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. Ye are not in the flesh, but
in the Spirit. We live by grace in the Spirit. God in His grace when He gives
a sinner life and faith in Christ transforms him from the kingdom
of darkness and brings him into the kingdom of His dear Son.
He turns him from darkness to light, from death to life. That's what it is to live in
the Spirit. And to live in the Spirit is
to live trusting Christ having a testimony from God let me tell you what will give
you rest this will give you rest all this will give you rest I
have a testimony from God do you? Enoch was a man who walked with
God you remember Hebrews 11 Enoch walked with God and he was not
but he was translated But before he was translated, he had this
testimony. What was it? You remember? That
he pleased God. Who gave him the testimony? Oh,
Enoch was a good man. He didn't go to the picture show.
He didn't drink, smoke, cuss, or chew. That's not what he's
talking about. It wasn't Enoch's neighbors who said, there's Enoch.
Boy, he's a godly man. Boy, he's an example of Christianity.
Enoch, that's the kind of man going to heaven. He's just like
the Pharisees. If anybody goes to heaven, Enoch's
going to heaven. That's not the testimony he had. He had the
testimony of the Spirit of God in his own heart and conscience.
The very testimony that dear lady sitting right there has
if she believes God. The very testimony you have if
you believe God. Don Fortner, you please me. How can that be? Only by the
doing and dying of the Son of God. I have a testimony that
gives rest. Look at verse 15. The Apostle
Paul here describes this blessed witness of the Spirit. This is
the source of our assurance that we please God. For ye have not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Let me tell you what all legal
religion is. It's bondage. All legal religion
is bondage. As most of you know, I go to
England at least twice a year, and I've been doing so now for,
oh, pushing 20 years, 17, 18 years. And there are churches
all over the nation, call themselves reformed churches, or reformed
Baptist churches, or reformed Presbyterian churches. And I
know men who preach in the churches all over the nation, just as
there are all over this nation. reformed folks. And their creed
is pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good.
Wouldn't be too bad if they just preached like they say they believe.
But when you go listen to the preacher, Sunday morning, Sunday
night, midweek service, go listen to a Bible conference, I'll tell
you how you come away. You come away like this. Boy, I wish I could measure up.
I'm just not what I ought to be. I just always beat down. I had a fellow come visit me
fairly often back in the early 90s when I was on radio with
Family Radio for a couple of years. He'd listen to me a lot
and he'd come down from New York and he'd said, he's sitting on
stoop one day, we're sitting up there, I was smoking my pipe
and we were chatting, drinking coffee or something about what
we were doing. He said, when I go to church, the pastor is
such a good pastor. I forgot his name just as well
I did. He said, such a good preacher. He said, every time I go, I just
feel like I have been beat to death. I said, do what? He said, every time I go to church,
I just feel like I've been beat to death. I said, why do you
keep going? I've been beat a few times. I
never volunteered. I never volunteered. My mother
knew how to exert punishment. I never offered to go get her
a belt. Never one time. She got it off the shelf on her
own. Why do you keep going? The religion leaves you looking
at yourself. It's false religion. When you
come out, they may talk grace, grace, grace, but it sounds like
works, works, works all the time. Not occasionally, all the time.
But you haven't received the spirit of bondage again to fear.
But you've received the Spirit of Adoption. What's that Spirit
of Adoption? When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that are under the law, that you may receive
the gift of the Spirit, the adoption of the Spirit. And God sent forth
the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. What did He do? Crying,
Abba, Father. Do you remember, Mark, what it
was like to be terrified of God? Terrified. When I was a young
man before God saved me, I was terrified of God. Every thought
I had of God terrified me. I'm not talking about I was a
little bit afraid of God. I was terrified of God. And then
God revealed Christ in me. and I was granted life and faith
in his son and I looked away from myself to God's darling
son and I said my father and now I come boldly that is I come
with complete freedom with complete freedom to the throne of grace
and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need the spirit
of adoption cries my father The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. How? By convincing
us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. One day, Brother
Bob talked about tomorrow morning you're going to be asking about
Luke chapter 12, didn't you say? Isn't it amazing? I presume you've
been teaching through the book of Luke for a while. Isn't it
amazing when you're studying a chapter and you've read it
hundreds of times, all of a sudden, why didn't I see that? It's always
been there, why didn't I see it? In John 16, our Savior said,
it's expedient for you that I go not away. If I go not away, the
Comforter will not come. And then He describes the coming
of the Comforter. Do you remember how the Spirit begins to comfort?
Do you remember? And when He, the Spirit of Truth
has come, He will reprove He will convince you. He will convict
you of sin. How is that going to give any
comfort? When He convinces you of sin, He'll convince you that
sin has been punished. Righteousness has been brought
in, and justice is satisfied. He'll convince you of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment. He will show you your sin, your
depravity, your corruption, your guilt, and show you perfect righteousness,
brought in by the Son of God, and judgment finished, for the
prince of this world is judged. He, the Spirit of truth, comes
and gives us faith in Jesus Christ, and gives us comfort. Now look
at verse 17. Let's see if I can make good
on that. The believer, the person who is born of God, redeemed
by the blood of Christ, the one who lives in the Spirit, who
lives in hope of eternal life, is described for us in verses
17 through 25. First he tells us in verses 17
and 18, we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. If children, then heirs. Heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we shall also, or we may also, be glorified together. Our Savior in John 17 said, Father,
glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was. Can you picture Him yonder in
glory? All that the triune Jehovah has
given to Jesus Christ, the God-man mediator, our surety, because
of his obedience unto death as our surety. The Father loves
the Son and put all things in his hands. The Father made the
Son glorious. The Father made the Son preeminent. The Father sat the Son in human
flesh on his own right hand. The Savior said, you've given
me now the glory I had with you before the world was as the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And then in verse
22, he says this. He says, the glory that thou
gavest me, I've given them. All the glory that Christ earned
before the triune God as our mediator, I have given to my
people. We're heirs of God and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ. Not co-heirs, joint heirs. I have three sisters, one's dead
now, two living. And we didn't come from a wealthy
family. When our folks died, we got together and buried them.
But they didn't have enough money to bury themselves. But let's
suppose they were filthy rich. And when they died, the last
one died, everything was left equally to me and my three sisters. That means I get a fourth of
it and others get a fourth of it. That's not joint heirs. That's co-heirs. That's not joint
heirs. We're joint heirs with Christ.
Joint heirs. That means everything that's
his is ours. All the glory he possesses as
the God-man mediator is ours, joint heirs with Christ. Now,
remember that and read the next line, verse 18. For I reckon,
I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. In 1 Corinthians 2, the Apostle
put it this way, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. I like to think about dying.
I think about it all the time. I like to think about heaven.
I try to think about it all the time. And we have certain facts
revealed about heaven and glory. God wiped away all tears. No
more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death, no more sin, no
more pain, no more suffering, no more crying, no more weeping,
no more lamentation. We know some facts. But this
past week, I buried two men that I love dearly. I love them dearly. And I can't begin to imagine
the glory they now enjoy fully. Oh, the glory that awaits us.
The glory that awaits us. Whatever it is we suffer here,
don't even put it in scales. It can't be compared with the
glory that shall follow. Verse 19, for the earnest expectation
of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of
God. Now Paul moves beyond just death to the resurrection. He
says, we have the earnest of the Spirit. This down payment,
this pledge of the Spirit, this gift of life and faith in Christ,
the Spirit of God dwelling in us, and it's an earnest expectation. Verse 20, for the creature was
made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has
subjected the same in hope for the creature. And the word here
now is talking about the whole creation, the creation itself,
not willingly made in subjection, but made in subjection because
of sin, but it's made in subjection with the same hope. The whole
creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. The glorious
liberty of the sons of God is talking about resurrection glory.
Resurrection at the last day. Then in verse 22, here Paul says
we groan within ourselves. Moved down from the creation
to you and I who are made new creatures in Christ. For we know
that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and pain together
until now. For nine years, I pastored in
Lookout, West Virginia, and we used to have a lot of snow. And
I used to love to get out early in the morning after we'd have
about 10, 12-inch snow, first one in the fall of the year,
and drive out in the mountains on private lanes. Sometimes I'd
get stuck, but I used to love to do it. I'd drive out on those
narrow, narrow roads and just park. And I would listen. I'd listen to the trees pop and
crack and break. And I thought about this text
of scripture. The whole creation groaning and travailing. The whole creation groaning,
waiting for the glorious liberty of the sons of God in resurrection
glory. That's a little bit of a picture
of what goes on in here. Look at the next slide, verse
23. Not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, faith in Christ. Even we ourselves grow within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption. Remember
when I started, I told you that word redemption includes the
whole thing. This talk about resurrection, the resurrection
of the body. But we live in hope, for we are
saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if
we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience
wait for it. We live in the confident, reasonable
expectation of everlasting glory with Christ in the glorious liberty
of the sons of God. The confident, reasonable expectation
This won't come as a surprise to you, it does to some people.
When the doctors told me that I had lung cancer, of course
usually that's news that you're going to die pretty soon, general
rule. My wife can tell you I never
lost a wink of sleep over it. I stay awake at night studying
to preach. I toss and turn at night when
I'm getting ready to preach, but dying? That's not a problem. That's not a problem. Oh no,
that's not a problem. That's a blessed anticipation.
That's a blessed anticipation. For when this body is laid in
the tomb, I shall live forever with Christ and soon my Redeemer
will come again and take the body out of the tomb and this
mortal shall put on immortality. We can't even imagine what the
scriptures declare. The body will be sown a corruptible
body. It will be raised an incorruptible
body. It will be sown a natural body. It will be raised a spiritual
body. Who ever heard tell of a spiritual
body? Raised a spiritual body. Look at verse 26. Paul assures
us we have reason to hope and confidently hope because of God's
persistent grace, the groanings of the Spirit making intercession
for us. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. Now you ought to write this down
or underline it, put a star by it or something. For we know
not what we should pray for as we ought. We know not what we should pray
for as we ought. We just don't know what's best.
Ever. Ever. Mark, I've been praying
for you for a long time, ever since you found out about your
disease. Praying for you before that,
praying for you specifically for that. And I've never asked
God to heal you. I've never done it. Not because
I don't care. I do care. But I don't know what's
best. You understand that? I don't
know what's best for him, for you, or for myself. We bow to
God and pray. And the Spirit makes intercession
for us. Shelby, years ago, had a lady
she used to go to the nurse home. Went and read scriptures and
prayed with a lot of fellas, men and women in the nursing
home. And there was one day I went to pick her up and she came out.
laughing and crying, and I said, what on earth happened? She said,
I think I finally met somebody in here who knows God. And this
old lady, she read to her one day, Shelby came back out and
said, I got to tell you, I forgot her name now, I'll tell you what
she said. We were reading Romans 8, and it got to verse 26. The
Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And she said, you know what I
think that means? And Shelby said, no, what? And the lady
said to her, I think that means when we pray, the Spirit of God
takes out what we put in there and puts in what ought to have
been in there. That's a pretty good understanding. He makes
intercession for us. Verse 27, here's the description
of Christ's intercession for us. The Spirit of God intercedes
in us. Now, He, the Son of God that
searcheth the hearts, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit.
He hears the Spirit, for He maketh intercession for the saints according
to the will of God. Our constant intercessor, praying
for the people God gave Him. He says, I have loved them. You
gave them to me. And He intercedes for us according
to the will of God. Now, we get to the middle of
this chapter and Paul tells us there are no accidents in this
world. We know. We know. Most people don't. They quote
the verse but they don't know. We know. We know. Nobody got to convince us. We
know. We know that all things work together. We just see little
things. Watch this. That's all you saw. That's all you saw. If I hit it and knock it over,
that's all you saw. If I take a drink of it, that's
all you saw. I don't know where the water
came from. You probably do. I don't know how much it cost.
I'm sure you do. I don't have any idea. I don't live in California.
All I do is drink the water. We just see a little bit. And
we tend to judge God's goodness, His wisdom, His grace, and His
providence by the little bit that we see. How foolish. How foolish. We know that all
things work together like one great piece of machinery. They
work together and they work together for good to them who are thee
called. Called by God They work together
for good to them who are the called according to His purpose. Those who are called are those
who love God, being taught of God. And we know that everything
works together for good according to God's purpose. What is that? For whom He did foreknow, that
is whom He loved from eternity, He also did predestinate. Predestinate,
what a good word. He predestinated those he loved
from eternity to be conformed to the image of his son. He predestinated
that we'd be holy, unblameable, and unapprovable, even as his
son. That he, the Lord Jesus, might
be the firstborn, the head of the family, the preeminent one
among many brethren. Moreover, This work was done
before the world began. Whom He did predestinate, then
He also called before the world began. Whom He called, then He
also justified in Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world before the world began. Whom He justified, then
He also glorified before the world began. What shall we then
say to these things? What are we going to say to all
that? If God be for us, Who can be against us? I'll tell you
what else I'd say. Verse 32. How shall He not with
Him also freely give us all things? In the light of all these things, let me tell you what I expect
from God. I really do. Let me tell you what I expect
from God. Everything I need. all the time, just when I need
it. Tell you what else I'll say to
these things, verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? Nobody. It's Christ, it's God
that justified me. And I'll say this too, verse
34, who is he that condemneth? A lot of folks try, but I ignore
them. It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. And I'll say one more thing to
all these things. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ even for a moment? Who shall separate me from my
Savior's heart even for a moment? no earthly trouble, no spiritual
trouble, nothing in heaven, nothing in earth, nothing in us, nothing
in time, nothing to eternity. Can I claim these promises? Yes,
I can. Yes, I can, and I do. Because
I believe that Jesus is the Christ. I rest my soul on the Son of
God. And the gospel I believe gives
me rest in my soul. Oh, God make you to rest in the
Savior. Amen.