It may be true. They say repeating
yourself is a sign of old age, too. They say repeating yourself
is a sign of old age, too. I'm thankful for Joe Parks. My mind has been engrossed in
the subject this morning. Couldn't get away from the morning
Bible study. Had my mind on that, and now
this, after having read that. And I want so badly to make this
clear. I want so badly for some to understand
it. But the Lord will have to make
it clear. And this will be as basic a gospel
message as you will ever hear. Basic truth, I hope. The fundamentals of saving I've
entitled this message, The Three R's of Salvation. You know
what the three R's are, don't you? Did they teach you the three
R's in school? Some of you real old folks remember
the three R's, don't you? Reading, writing, arithmetic. That's basic education that you'll
need all your life. That's about all you do need,
really, that foundation. And that's something you'll use
all of your life. Well, there are three R's in
saving knowledge, too, that God teaches all his children. The
three R's. He teaches all his children the
three R's. And I've told you this illustration
before, but maybe someone hadn't heard it But there was a daughter
of one of our brethren who, in the first grade, the teacher
asked her, or asked the class, if they knew what the three R's
were. And this little girl raised her hand, this daughter of a
brother, a believer, and she raised her hand. The teacher
called on her, and the little girl said, I know what they are.
They're ruined, redeemed, and regenerated. The teacher, you know, probably
had a master's degree, Jerry, and she said, what's that? What
in the world are you talking about? But that's the three R's
I want to talk about this morning. Three R's. This is the basics. These are the basics of saving
knowledge, and this is where it starts. And you use this,
you're going to use this all your life in your and the knowledge
that you have. I'm pleased that my daughter,
that today they're finally understanding the value of these basics in
education. You know that, Deborah? They're
teaching kids now. They're given that fundamental
education that's writing skills and arithmetic or math. I'm pleased that my daughter's
getting that. Most people's children aren't getting these basics in
church today, the three R's that are vital for our children to
understand who God is and what man is and how man's saved. So-called
Sunday schools today, they're not dealing with these three
R's, are they? The reason I don't like to call
our classes downstairs Sunday school Because it's not in any
way like what goes on today. We call them Bible classes because
that's what we're teaching our children, scripture. It's able
to make them wise unto salvation. All right, the three basics. Three basics that are at the
root of Bible truth. All right, Romans 5 here, we
deal with the first one. First R in these three R's is
ruined, ruined by the fall. Ruined by the fall. I'm talking about the fall of
man in the garden. The fall of Adam. Charles Spurgeon,
a much greater preacher than I am, or maybe than any other
man for that matter, with the exception of our Lord. He said, Charles Spurgeon said,
if you are wrong in the fall, you'll be wrong on it all. If
you go wrong at the fall, you'll be wrong on it all. All your
knowledge will be wrong if you miss it here. Ruined by the fall. Romans 5, look at verse 12 again. By one man, wherefore, as by
one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Death by sin. Death passed upon
all men. For that, and the margin says,
a little number there, for that, or in whom, or in Adam, all have
sin. See that? Verse 17. Look at that. And you're going to use your
Bible this morning, OK? Verse 17. By one man's offense, death
reigned by one. Verse 18. By the offense of one,
judgment came upon all men to condemnation." Judgment. Verse
19. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Verse 21. As sin reigned unto
death. Now turn back to Genesis chapter
1. All right? Ruined mankind. What happened? And the fall of man? Man died,
that's what happened. He was ruined by the fall. It
left him in ruins. Ever seen an old house in ruins?
I mean really in ruins, not one that you can renovate, you know,
put a little paint on it and change a few switches, light
switches and so forth. I'm talking about one in ruin.
I'm talking about one that's fallen to the ground, a heap
of rubbish. You don't rebuild those. You
burn them. You'd be able to move them in
its place. All right? Genesis 1. And I'll give you
a question with each of these hours, too. Good question. What happened in the garden?
Just what happened in the garden? Genesis 1 describes it. Genesis 1. Let's look at it.
Genesis 1, beginning with verse 26. And this is one. God said, let us make man in
our image, after our likeness. That's the triune God. That's
the Trinity. That, well, there must be more than one in
the Godhead, isn't there? Let us? Many deny that, don't
they? God said, let us. And that's God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. Let us make man in our own image. So, verse 27, God created man
in his own image. And the image of God created
him male and female. Created he them. God's image. Man had the image of God in the
garden. All right. Chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Look at verse
15. The Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it. Now here's God's warning. The Lord God commanded the man,
saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of this one tree. Hasn't this same root of all sin passed on. You can have abundance of things,
but one thing you can't have. What do we want? You tell a child,
you can have anywhere, go anywhere, just don't open that door. If
I told our kids this morning, now y'all can go anywhere in
this building, but don't go in that door. They'll be clamoring
to get in it, won't they? We all inherited these. All right,
read on. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat of it. For, here it is now, in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And in your margin, if you have
a marginal reference there, it says, to that line, thou shalt
surely die. It says, dying thou shalt die. All right, that's God's warning.
What will happen, what would happen in the garden for disobedience
to God, rebelling against God? You're going to die. Adam, the
day you eat of that fruit, you're going to die. All right, what
happened in the garden? Look at chapter three. Verse
one, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman,
Hath God said? There's a question mark. Did
God say, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? The
woman said, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall
you touch it. He didn't say that. You added
your commentary to it. You see how this thing's taking
shape here? Satan, and he continues to do
it, question God's Word. Does God's Word say that? She
said, Oh, yes, yes. And then she added to it. He
said, Don't even touch it. He didn't say that. He said, lest you die. In verse
4, the serpent said to him, you won't die. You won't die. You shall not
surely die. Oh no, you won't die. And the same lie is being spread
by his ministers whom the Scripture says in 1 Corinthians, have transformed
themselves into angels of light, preachers of righteousness. Satan's
minister. Know what it said? Deceiving
and being deceived, what they're saying, man didn't die in the
garden. He didn't die. Here's what it
is, verse 5, God knows that day you eat your eyes will be opened,
you'll be as gods, knowing good and evil. Well, you've got a
free will, Adam. God can't violate your free will. You're a free moral agent. Some
of them use that. You're a free moral agent. Brother
Fortner says man's not free, he's not moral, and he's not
his own agent. You won't die. You have a free
will. Who does God think he is to deny
you the freedom of your own free will? And Adam and Eve. Oh, he's
got a point. That's logical. That's logical. I do have a free
will. I'll name my church that. Well,
here's man's rebellion. Look at verse 6. And when the
woman saw the tree was good for food, and these things are what
James dealt with. The lust of the eye, the lust
of the flesh, and the pride of life. Read on. She saw the tree
was good for food, pleasant to the eyes. The tree desired to
make one wise. She took of the fruit thereof,
did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did
eat." What happened? What happened? Verse 7 says,
"...the eyes of them both were opened." Oh, they were enlightened. Their eyes really were darkened. Says there, they knew that they
were naked. Naked. Man died right there. As soon
as they ate that fruit, he died. You say, no, he didn't. He lived,
man, Adam lived 930 years. Don't know how long he lived,
but a long time. 900, no, that day. That day. As soon as he ate that fruit
and she ate that fruit, they died. He became dead. What are you talking about, Preacher?
He died right there. What do you mean? Physically?
Well, he started dying. Dying, thou shalt die. He started
dying. Immediately, I believe, his body
started to decay. Immediately, I believe, Adam's
beard started to grow. He died right there. Not physically,
he started to, but spiritually, that day. And what I'm talking
about here, he died, what the Scripture says. He died to God. He lost the life of God, which
is what? What's the life of God? Who is
God? What's God like? What's God likeness?
What's the likeness of God? Who is God? What is God like?
His chief attribute, what is it? Holy. As soon as man rebelled
or sinned, he became a sinner. Not holy. Actually, it started John, it
started before they touched it, it started when they thought
about it. So you see, it's not just
in the doing, it's in the motive. And look at verse, there in chapter
3, look at verse 7. Eyes of them both were open,
they knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together.
and made themselves aprons. That's man's first religious
attempt at covering himself before God. Fig leaves. And it represents man making
himself a little covering where God can't see his sin. That's
what it represents. Fig leaves of his own righteousness. And men have been sewing them
together ever since. God can't see through leaves. You see darkness came, his eyes
weren't open, Sam. He became ignorant, didn't he?
He was brilliant. He became ignorant. His eyes
weren't open, they were darkened. You mean God can't see through
fig leaves? He was darkened, but his understanding
became darkened. His eyes were opened to his nakedness,
his outward nakedness. But fig leaves don't cover that. And man tried to cover his nakedness
before God, and he's been trying to do it ever since. Cover his
sin with his own little, making his own little life, you know,
sowing his own little righteousness together. I've done this and
I've done that, and God sees right through it. Yeah, but I was baptized. He
sees right through it. It wasn't a pure motive. I go to church. He sees right
through that. You go to church, go to people, So people know
you've got a journey. He sees right through that. Do
you know what the only tree that the Lord ever cursed when he
was on this earth was? When the Lord Christ walked on
this planet, he cursed one tree. It wasn't a maple. It wasn't
an oak. What was it? A fig tree. Is that significant? He said,
don't bring fruit. You never have brought fruit.
You never will. Fruit. And our righteousness
never will cover up. See, man was filled, verse 7,
with shame. What happened? He died. He wasn't
ashamed before God, before them. He was naked and they didn't
know it. Didn't care. who became ashamed of his nakedness. Verse 8, And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden the cool of the day, Adam
and his wife, and hid themselves, hid themselves. They ran from
God, didn't want to see God, weren't interested in God, had
no desire to be with God, weren't looking for God, and were running
from God. I bet you, Steve, I bet you when
before this happened, when they heard the voice of God, they
ran to Him. Here's our God! He! God's here! Good morning, Lord! We've been waiting on you. Now,
this, now, now, John, now! They hear God coming, they hide.
Does a natural man want God? Try it. Go to work tomorrow.
Try it. Just say the name. God! Ooh. Unless you curse with it. You
know, everybody knows how to curse with it, and that's just
good old, good old boy language, you know. Jesus Christ's name is used to
just curse with now. That's just a good byword. If
you're a good cusser, you can use that name now. But say it
in a reverent term, a respectful term. Hey, let's talk about God. Oh, running from God. Get away from
him. He's religious. Man is running from God. didn't
want to have any desire for God. Look at verse 8 again, there
in chapter 3. Look at verse 8. It says that
they hid themselves among the trees, and then verse, among
the trees of the garden, among these big trees they were trying
to hide in. Verse 9, the Lord God called Adam, where art thou? It's not that he didn't know
where he was. He's saying to Adam, where are
you now? Look where you Put yourself now,
verse 10, here's Adam's reply. I heard your voice in the garden.
I was afraid, fear. I was naked, shame. Guilt came
on him. Verse 12, God said, verse 11,
God said, who told you you were naked? Hast thou eaten of the
tree? I commanded you not to eat. God knew. And he's He's
demanding of this man a confession. Are people quick to confess their
sins now? Are you? Am I? Are we quick? Or justify ourselves? Or blame
somebody else? Huh? No, it's not the nature
of man. I'm not—there's not a prisoner
in jail right now. There's not one prisoner in jail
who's guilty. There's not one. Ask them. Oh, that's framed. That should have been caught.
Write it on. Well, if you were guilty and
they'd ratted, you were guilty. But I don't deserve this. And there's not a man on earth
by nature who is guilty before God, who's willing to say, have
you sinned and come short of the glory of God? God would say,
there's not a man by nature who'd say, yes, I'm totally guilty
before God. I have nothing to say for myself
except guilty. Not a man. Adam said, verse 12, the woman, blame, accusations, self-justification,
shame, guilt, fear, lies, accusation, malice, hatred. It sounds like it's a good political
saying, Sherry, with malice toward none. But the fact is, we all
have malice toward all. Being filled, the Scripture says,
with malice, bitterness, Where did it happen? Right here. Right
here in the garden. This is where it happened. Man
died. That's what I'm saying. Man died. Sin reigned. Scripture says man is dead and
trespasses in sin. Dead and trespasses in sin. Every
one of man's posterity, every one of Adam and Eve's children
came, came out of their He was filled with hatred and
bitterness and envy and jealousy of his brother, and he rose up
to kill him. He did that. He died in trespass, and he's
dead to God. Man, by nature, is not looking
for God, can't see God, can't hear him, doesn't want him, hates
his authority, comes forth from the womb speaking lies, the Scripture
says, and all manner of evil. Man is now totally depraved.
Every one of Adam's sins, every son of Adam, every daughter of
Adam is totally depraved. Scripture says no soundness in
him, no good. There's none that doeth good,
right into the core. Unable to not keep from sinning,
he said, can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?
Neither can you do good with your accustomed that are brought
up and are born doing evil. Can't stop sinning. He's unable.
He's unwilling. He doesn't want to do anything
but sin. He was ruined by the fall. He's
dead, all right? He's dead. Man is dead. That brought some of you back
to life. He's dead. As Barney used to say, graveyard
dead. Ask Ezekiel. In chapter 37, God
took him down to a graveyard and said, Ezekiel, look at here. What are you, Ezekiel? Dry bones. Can they live? They're dead. What is man by nature? This is the first R. What happened
in the garden? Did he get morally sick? Did
he lose some of his strength? Did his will become somewhat
twisted, or did it become bound by sin? Did man, does man still
retain a little bit of a will for God? That's what they say,
his will was not changed. He didn't die, his will didn't
die toward God. Remember, now he had a will for
God. God said, you'll die, Adam. Then when God came, what, did
he will for God? Did he want God? Was he looking for God?
No, he's hiding from God. He died. You hear that, Rebecca? I said it wrong. Die! If a man would understand that,
a woman, if God would reveal that, that first hour, they would
know for a fact, hey, from here on, this thing is by grace. Salvation is by grace. By grace, we say, because you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein
in times past you walked according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit of disobedience that worketh now in these children,
but God, who is rich in mercy, and so on. By grace, you say. By grace, you say. You see, deadness,
spiritual deadness, necessitates sovereign grace, doesn't it?
If you learn this, it's the first hour in it. It's the basic. What
happened in the garden? Man died, died to God. All right,
the second one. The second one. What's the next
one? Look at Romans 7. Turn over to
Romans 7 with me. All right? Romans 7. Romans 7. Turn over there. Here's
the next one. Do you remember what it was? The first R is ruined by the
fall, and the second R is redeemed by his grace. Redeemed. What does the word redeem mean? Well, it's to buy back something
that is lost, or buy back something that belongs to you. Have you
ever redeemed, you ladies, have you ever redeemed a coupon? Have
you ever had any redeemable coupons? You take that coupon down the
store and you turn it in for, and they give you back what you
redeemed, what you gave the coupons for. All right? Man was lost
in Adam. Mankind. Lost in Adam. He sold his soul like Esau. He sold his soul or his birthright. This sonhood of God. He sold it for a mess of pottage
or an apple or whatever that fruit was. He sold his soul. Men like to joke about that,
don't they? A man selling his soul to the
devil. Selling his soul to the devil. That's exactly what man
did. It's exactly. Romans 7, look at verse 5 and
6. He sold unto sin. Now Romans
7, verse 5 and 6. When we are in the flesh, the
motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members
to bring forth death." Look at verse 14, death. We know the law is spiritual,
I am carnal, sold under sin. Verse 18, he says, I know that
in me and my flesh now dwelleth no good thing. The will is present
with me, but how to do it, I find not. I can't do it. The good
I would, I do not. The evil I would not, that I
do. What's wrong? He's dead. He can't
do it. He's depraved. Verse 24, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? The man is
dead. Who shall deliver me? Who? He
says, who? What's the answer to salvation?
What's the answer to life, spiritual life? It's a who. Is there someone,
talking about redeemed, is there a Redeemer? Is there such a woman? Job, the oldest book in the Bible,
he knew how can man be just with God? How can he be clean this
morn of a woman? How can he be brought to life
who's dead? Job said, I know the answer.
The rule of the matter is in me. I know my Redeemer lives. He'll redeem me. He'll turn in
something It will redeem me. Redeem me. Ah, Ephesians 1, turn
over there, just a few pages to Ephesians 1. You see, the
price of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. The
wages of sin. Isaiah, he said, our Lord said,
you've sold yourselves for naught. Listen to me. I don't know why
I don't have everybody's ears. It was too cold this morning.
Now it's too hot or something. Maybe I ought to do like John
Paul does and sprinkle holy water. All right, come on. We're now supposed to be alive
under God, all right? This is the basics, fundamentals.
of salvation. Ephesians 1, these are passages
of Scripture that join the rejoicing of our heart. God said in Isaiah
52, you sold yourself for nothing, corruptible things, such as silver
and gold. He said you will not be redeemed
by a corruptible thing such as silver and gold, or your vain
life or conversation. When man sold to sin and Satan
himself and the world, he said, you sold yourself for nothing,
you're not going to be redeemed by it either. You shall be redeemed
or bought back without money. Without money. But there's a
price to be paid. What is it? What's redemption's
price? It's not my little two bits. What's it going to cost? It's
not my 2-bit, not my 2-bit religion or 2-bit righteousness. Not my
2-bit baptism. 2-bit, bits a quarter, and Charlie
Ross, you remember back when it was a bit? 2-bits or bits
a quarter, and that'd be 50 cents. Not my 2-bit righteousness. It
ain't worth that. 50 cents. Scripture says it's
filthy. Not my two-bit religion, not
my two-bit baptism. I go in the parks. You've sold
yourself to sin. Somebody's about to redeem you.
You're on the auction block. By nature, man is of his father
the devil. Somebody is going to have to come redeem him, somebody.
And the high price, the Scripture says, the high price is death.
Without the shame of blood, there is no remission for sin. Look
at Ephesians 1, verse 3. Blessed be God, the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy." That's the end of it all. That's the purpose of salvation,
that we might be holy without blame before him in love. Not
guilty, but blameless, having predestinated, predetermined
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ. They're all
going to be like him. To himself, his children, according
to the good pleasure of his will, he determined it, he decided
it, he decided who gets it. Why did he do this? Not for our
sakes, but to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he
hath made us accepted. In what? In our works? In our
religion? No, in the Beloved, in what Christ
did, in whom we have redemption. through his blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Well, Christ in the last day
hath appeared now before the Father with blood. And how would
that blood? And not with the blood of bulls
and goats. That's impossible to put away sin. Jews might as
well forget it. But with his own precious blood,
he entered into the Holy of Holes. And what did he do? He obtained
eternal redemption, for he offered up the price that was necessary.
Death, the soul that sins, must die. And when Christ came down
to pay that price, he wasn't doing it for himself. He's doing
it for all of God's chosen people. And he went to Calvary's tree
with that great price, great price, the blood of God's Son. That's the only thing that could
do it. death of God's Son. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made righteous. He lived that holy
life and gave that to us, imparted that. He covered us with that
robe. Now that robe will cover. Fig leafs won't. But the righteousness
of Christ will cover so that the all-seeing eye of God can't
even see our sin. That's a robe that will cover.
His righteousness. And that blood to put away our
sin, to wash us. That's the only thing that will
wash us from our sin. In his own precious blood. Now
back to Romans 5 now. That's our text, Romans 5. His
righteousness, his shed blood. Romans 5, look at it again. Let's
read the rest of the verse. We just read part of it. All
right, Romans 5, look at verse 17. Got it? Romans 5, 17. This would make such a good text
and title to a message. By one man's offense, death reigned
by one. Much more, they which receive
the abundance of grace." How much grace have you received? Abundance of grace and the gift
of righteousness. That would be a good message
title, wouldn't it? Abundant grace and the gift of righteousness. Righteousness is not earned,
it's a gift. And it's imputed It's imputed. Abundance of grace
and the gifts of righteousness shall reign in life by one. Who? Jesus Christ. Just one. He's
the only one that can purchase our pardon. Look at the next
verse. By the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. That means that all that were
in Adam died. Judged under condemnation. You
know, people like to quote John 3.16. Note that. Those who overwhelm, they like
that. Nobody quotes John 3.17. God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but the world might through him be
saved. And in John 3.18, he that believeth on him is not condemned,
but he that believeth not is condemned already under the condemnation
of God, not the love of God. condemnation of God. Judgment and Adam all were under
the condemnation of God. Even so, verse 18, by the righteousness
of one Christ, the free gifts, salvation gifts not earned, came
upon all men under justification of life. He's saying the same
thing that our Lord said to Nicodemus. The world, not just Jews. Not just Jews. Even so, verse 19, by one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. By the obedience of
one, shall many be made righteous. Not all, but many. His chosen,
his people. Redeemed by Christ. That's another
R. It ought to be four R's, really.
Righteousness. Ruined, redeemed, but that righteousness
is in that redeemed, in that redemption. Righteousness shed
blood. redeems us. All right, the third
and last R. Regeneration. Romans 8. Regeneration. You know what generate means,
don't you? Generate. All of you have a generator.
Well, I have one in my old 74. Y'all got alternators. That's
a picture of modern religion, too, isn't it? Man's not dead, he's just altered. But a generator, see, generates
life. Any of you have a generator,
a power generator, in your home? What does it do? It creates life. OK? Regenerate. That's life returned, isn't it?
Life returned. Dead. If your car is dead, you'll
have to jumpstart it or regenerate it. And it will ultimately regenerate. That's what you have to do. Life
returned. The life of God. The life lost
in the garden. Spiritual life. Desire for God. God's going to have to give it.
Man doesn't have it. He's dead. Where's he going to
get it? God's going to have to give it.
God's going to have to, if you will, jump start him. There's
no spark of life there. Has your battery ever been dead?
And your car? My back, the back tailgate of
my old Jeep is hard to close. And sometimes you think it's
closed, and it's not. And the light will stay on, and
my battery will go dead. That's happened so many times.
I carry my jumper cables around in my car. But when it's dead,
it's dead. There's no spark there. It won't
even go whoosh. I turn the key. And boy, I listen
for a spark. Oh, please. Sometimes I get in
the place of, please. Nothing. And that's the way man is by
nature. Won't you please accept God? He's dead. But God is a consuming fire who
thunders out the gospel. Let's send this preacher with
a spark of this gospel fire on his lips and regenerate through
the Holy Spirit, regenerate life, create life where there is none.
He's dead. The man preaches, God, God, God,
God, Christ, blood, Christ, blood, and he manages to sit there sleeping
or whatever he does. He's dead, he's dead, he's not
interested. All of a sudden, mercy. All of a sudden, sovereign grace. He wasn't interested before. Righteousness imputed. You told me when you first came
here, there's one message there that really meant something to
you. And we were talking about an active and a passive righteousness.
You remember mentioning that to me? John, with a big smile
on his face, I was listening to a message, he said, and you
were talking about this active and passive righteousness. Christ acting out and working
out a righteousness for us and how we're passive in it, and
he just clothed us with it, and he just had such a big smile
on his face and was laughing, thinking about it. Those terms wouldn't mean anything
to him before that, before God awakened him. Regeneration, awakening,
desires for God. In Romans 8, verse 5, it says
that they that are at the flesh mind the things of the flesh.
They that are at the spirit, the things of the spirit. Well,
what made Rebecca shy? One time, you know, going after
living at the lake, working at the lake. That's a goal in life
for people. You know that, don't you? You've
arrived when you work or live down at the lake. You're somebody. What turned her from going after
that, and going after unsearchable riches, unspeakable riches, unseen
riches? She hadn't even seen them yet. Big houses to be had down at
the lake, but there's a house, a dwelling
place. in Christ we have now, and someday
shall dwell with him there." What turns a person? Oh, the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God. Verse 11, "...if the Spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you." Verse
10, "...that Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin."
Sin is still there, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Spirit. This whole chapter talks about
the Holy Spirit. We are regenerated by the Holy
Spirit, sent by God to redeem us, to awaken us, to create life
where there was none, and restore. Verse 23, and I'll quit with
it. And it says, he talks about the whole creation groaning,
travailing in pain together until now. This whole thing is It's
a sinking ship. It's dead. It's gone. It's dying. It's just, this world is just
gone. It's gone. It's gone. And not only the world and everything
grown, verse 23, but we also have the first fruits of the
Spirit. It's regeneration. We ourselves grown within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption to wit, redemption of the body. You know,
we're in Christ. Do you like this illustration,
Nancy? I've used it before. The believer's
in Christ, and he's a worm. He knows he's a worm. He's the
son of Jacob. He's a sinner. A worm. You've seen a caterpillar, haven't
you? How it spins that cocoon, that worm. There's a worm crawling
around. Now, he may be thinking while
he's crawling around, however long he crawls around, I wish
I could fly. Oh, I wish I could fly. He's
so helpless. I mean, anything walking along
can crush a worm. Yeah, anything. He lives all
his life in fear. He's a worm. But then that cocoon is spun. He's hidden in there. The believer is a worm, son of
Jacob. Fear not, thou worm. Why? Your
life is hid with Christ in God. You're in Christ. You need not
fear. How about I'm a worm? You're
safe. You're in the rock. You're in
the cocoon of his son, if you will. You're safe. You're safe. And one day, in the fullness
of time, in God's own time, That cocoon breaks open. It's
like he's dead. That worm is like he's in there,
but he's alive. He's eating. That's what he's
doing. That's all he does. He's eating. Rest. Like Noah and the folks. Dead
to the world, but they're alive. But they're just eating and resting
and eating and resting. And the believers in Christ,
and he's feeding and he's resting, and one day in the fullness of
time, The body, that body of death, that worm, is unbustable. We'll put it in that grave, and
all the grave clothes will be taken off and redeemed, to wit,
the redemption of the body. And this corruptible shall put
on incorruption, and God shall fasten this vile body. Paul said, our vile bodies into
his glorious body. You want a flyworm? Fly on into
the face of God. He shall bear us up on wings
of eagles. When the Son of Righteousness
arrives, in a moment of twinkling of eye, we shall be changed.
No more worm. But predestinated, we shall become
like Him. And we'll see Him as He is. and
be as he is, and live happily ever after. All right, and we've
grown until then. We've grown. We've got the grave
clothes, don't we? Got the grave clothes. Man still
retains it, though he regenerates us like Lazarus. Though he regenerates
us, yet we still retain those grave clothes, until he puts
his body in the grave. Who shall redeem us? Who shall
redeem me? I thank God through Jesus Christ. That's how. Ruin, redeem, regenerate. All right, let's sing number
52. Hymn number 52. Hymn number 52. Let's sing verse 1 and verse 3. In number fifty-two, stand with
me, verses one and three. All right? His lips with grace are full. His lips with grace are full. Here it is, verse three. He saw
me plunged in deep distress, and took to my relief. And carried all my grief. And carried all my grief.