Forgive me if I go into a cough and hack of a fit. I've been sick earlier this week and it's still lingering.

Romans chapter eight. The last time we were together, we looked at verses 15 down through 27. and we spoke upon the creature of Romans 8. We talked about the creature that was subject to vanity and that this creature here I put forth isn't just a creation in general, but in the context of what we've been seeing in Romans 7 and Romans 8, This creature is the spiritual child of God that is placed in this earthen vessel. The creature that is the new creation, which is born from above, and I won't go back and rehash all of last week's sermon.

By the way, for those who are watching and listening on sermon audio and on Facebook, where we're posting things after the fact now on Facebook, since we're live streaming from YouTube. I did post that earlier this morning, finally got that up and posted, so you can find that on Facebook, you can find it on Sermon Audio as well, last week's sermon.

But I did put forth that this is speaking of that spiritual child of God, the one who is battling with the flesh, the one who is at warfare with the flesh, who is justified in the spirit, adopted in the flesh, the one who is inwardly a righteous, holy child of grace, the actual spiritual seed of Jesus Christ, who has been born from above, but in being born from above, he was born into this flesh that was made vanity or subject to vanity.

We've seen that in verse 20, for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who have subjected the same in hope that there was a purpose of God in placing his spiritual children into earthly Adam and subjected earthly Adam to vanity. That was God's purpose.

A lot of people look at the fall into sin, the transgression of sin, Adam's transgression. They look at that and they think that, you know, God had a plan, sin messed it up, and now God is doing a recovery project to get us back to where we were prior to Adam eating the fruit, okay? And that is not the case, okay?

Brethren, I don't see that bared out in scripture anywhere. Now, I find that a lot in commentaries, and I find that in theologians, and I find that in famous preachers who have preached, especially me growing up in my childhood. I've heard that for a lot. That's basically the main theme of Major Ian Thomas, who was a preacher that I loved, and read all of his books, and listened to all of his sermons, and I had seen him preach in person on a few occasions, and everything, but his whole thing is restoring man back to who he was before the fall, the way God intended man to be.

God intended man to be the vessel in which he showed other people what God was like, or to show God, to be the invisible God shown into his creation. But brethren, that was not how God intended it. That is completely and totally false. God did not intend something and it got messed up and now he's trying to rework it back to the way that it was.

God's purpose before the foundation of the world was that man, his people, would be brought into subjection to vanity and that God would redeem his people from that vanity, that he would save them from that vanity that he placed them under, but by grace, would keep them, by grace would give them everything spiritual that they would put their hope and trust and dependence upon the Lord Jesus Christ who he and he alone is the image of the invisible God. Christ is the image of the invisible God. It is Christ who has made God known. It is not us who is making God known to other people. That is the error that many of our friends and loved ones make. That is the error of my great friend and preacher that I used to listen to all the time, Ian Thomas, is to think that God is making us the place of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the one who God sent to be the image of who he is, to express who he is, to relate to us everything that is God and that we as people, he would relate back to God everything on our behalf. Our sin, our guilt, our need for redemption. He would be the one that would mediate everything that man needed to have back to God. Perfection, obedience, righteousness, all those things that God's law required, Jesus now mediates that on our behalf to God. There's only one mediator between God and man, and that's the man, Jesus Christ. And for us to say that we have been put in the place of Jesus Christ to mediate that is blasphemy. Whether or not we are willingly or unwillingly doing it, it's blasphemy.

Christ is the only one who is the image of the invisible God. Now, brethren, we have a hope that there will be a conformity to the image of God. We have a hope that we have a conformity to the image of God, but I will say, I believe that the conformity that the Bible speaks of, especially in the passages we'll read today, speaks of a conformity that is already there. I do believe that there will be an outward conformity to the image of God. And who is the image of God? Jesus Christ. When God made man in his image, in his likeness, who did he fashion him after? The man, Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God. And so we are made in his image in Adam, when Adam was created.

when Adam transgressed. And there's some things here that I'm still studying and that God is still working out in my understanding and I'm confused on and I surely don't claim to know everything. And these things are higher than my thoughts and way more than I can even convey. But there is a likeness that we had, not a spiritual life, Brethren, because the Bible is clear. That was not first that was spiritual, but that which was natural. Adam was created a natural being, not a spiritual. But yet there is something about Adam that whenever he was created, he was created in the image of God. That image was lost whenever he transgressed. It died. And whenever it died, From then on, everybody that was born after Adam was born in the image and likeness of Adam. That's in Genesis chapter, it escapes me what chapter it's in. But whenever he bore Seth, Seth was born in his image and in his likeness, not in the image of God, in the image of Adam. And all of us have been created in the image of Adam. Therefore, all of us, are created in this natural body, but this image is in the image of him.

Now, Adam had an image that died the day that he transgressed. And that, I believe, is what was created and what is going to be restored at the end, whenever we are made to be in conformity to the image of Jesus Christ outwardly. And I hope I'm not being too confusing in what I'm saying here. Let's kind of look at our verses here. And I am gonna read down through the verses we already looked at last week, just to bring us up to speed, just to remind us and kind of maybe clear up the scramble speaking that I've been doing this morning. Look in verse 15, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. Now remember, it's the outward man who has been adopted. The inward man, who we are inwardly, That spiritual child of grace is a true child of grace because it was born of God. It's the life seed of God. It's Christ in us. We are his seed, okay? And so we are adopted in our outward man.

This outward man is adopted until the day of redemption. God has adopted it. It is full of sin. It can do nothing but sin. It cannot please God. It is always wicked. That's why I began this whole series starting in Romans seven, as we work through Romans seven into Romans eight. This is why I said at the outset, I believe that the Bible clearly teaches that there is no such thing as progressive holiness, progressive sanctification in the, in the, in the, in the fact of that we are becoming more holy and less sinful. As our Christian life goes on, we are not becoming more and more holy and less and less sinful. That is not what the Bible teaches anywhere. Okay, and so my point was, there is no such thing as progressive sanctification or progressive holiness in our outer man.

Our inner man is not progressing in holiness because it was created in true righteousness and holiness. It is already holy. It is without sin, it cannot sin because the seed of God remains in us and God cannot sin. So it is a seed that cannot and will not sin. So it does not progress in holiness. Now we do progress in knowledge and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ grows us in grace, not only as we understand grace, but as we ourselves become more gracious to those that we are around.

I remember whenever, I first came in, man, you either had to believe exactly like me or we couldn't have dinner together and everything. But the Lord, as he began to teach me grace, then I began to open up and be more graceful to other people and realize, hey, we are all waiting on the revelation of truth by the spirit of God whenever he does that in his time. And I am just like everybody else. I'm beholden to God. The only truth that I can know is what God reveals to me and everybody.

And I mentioned this to a brother this week who was writing on some things. And I said, there's a lot of people out there that believes because God has given us this and put his spirit in here that automatically we can open this and know exactly what it means in its context, in its spiritual meaning, and that we can appropriate everything that's in here and that everybody has the ability to jump in here if we will just rightly divide the word of truth.

But brethren, listen, all those admonitions of rightly dividing the word of truth and the Word being the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our pathway and the Word of God being good for us and helping us with all these things and knowing these things and That Just because all those admonitions are there doesn't mean that you have the ability within yourself to grab a hold of it and appropriate it at any time that you want to do that because the Bible says that it is the Spirit who teaches us and The spirit is the one who gives us the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

It's the spirit who brings these things to us. And there are certain things that God leaves hidden for us for a certain amount of time, and then later reveals them unto us at a later time.

Look at the apostles. The apostles spent three years with Jesus. Jesus taught them his doctrine, taught them everything as they began to be the foundation of the local church. They were there given all those instructions and then everything was going to be built upon them and their teaching as Jesus leaves. They're going to be the carriers of that doctrine and teachers of that doctrine. And everything, but yet even they as Jesus left and still was. Things were coming along. They still were having to be revealed things. Things were having to be given to them and.

I'm not talking about special revelations, I'm not talking, everything will find its accordance to this. But brethren, we can't know this without the work of the spirit. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

So there again, we talked again about assurance is not based upon anything that we do outwardly. The majority of quote unquote Christianity out there places its assurance on what they see on the fruits that they're seeing on the outward man. In the outward man, the zealous works of the flesh, the religious works of the flesh. I'm becoming more obedient to God and less sinful. I'm doing what God has called me to do. I'm being obedient. I'm following him wherever he wants me to go. I'm doing this. I'm doing that. That's not how we know we are the children of God.

If that's the case, we are gonna be in ebb and flow and ebb and flow and ebb and flow all the days of our life. Matter of fact, because the law says we gotta keep everything perfectly all the time, then we really don't have any assurance because the moment that we sin, which is all the time, we lose that assurance. So the assurance doesn't come. We don't base our assurance on what we do or what we say or what we believe even. Our assurance isn't on how much we know doctrine. Our assurance is a spiritual, divine, supernatural thing that comes to us by the Spirit of God within us. And it within us tells us we are the children of God. and if children and heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ Jesus, it so be that we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together. So that suffering there, remember I mentioned that suffering, if we take the context of what we're talking about in Romans 7 and Romans 8, the suffering here is the suffering of the child of grace inwardly who is battling with the outward man who cannot do righteousness. He cannot accomplish righteousness. The inward man loves righteousness. The outward man cannot perform righteousness. The inner man wants to do righteous. The outward man can't do righteous. And so that warfare is a constant warfare until the day we die. And that is the suffering that we are experiencing, is this suffering. of these things.

And he says, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time, and pay close attention to that phrase, because I believe that bears on what we're gonna look at today, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. So we talked about that. We talked that the creature, that child of grace that is in us, that which is born from above, earnestly with expectation, waits for the manifestation of who we really are. See, you can't see who we really are because we are embodied in this dead man, this dying man, this carnal man. You can't really see it. And we are earnestly waiting to put off this body so it could be clearly seen what we are inwardly.

Listen, I know by the word of God, by God's grace, if I be a child of his, I know that in me, that which is born from above is true and righteous and holy. and cannot sin. That's who I am in my heirship, in my birth, in my union, vital union with God. but I can't show it. I can't show it outwardly. I failed when I show it outwardly. That was the consternation Paul was feeling. I wanna show what I feel inside, but when I want to show that, all I feel is evil is with me always, and I can't do it because I am a wretched man.

That which is born from above is a perfect man, but me, this earthly man, this carnal man that everybody sees, It's a pitiful man. It's a evil man. It's a wretched man. And he says, I long to put off this body. So that what I am. In God in Christ will be seen.

We wait the manifestation of the sons of God for the creature was made subject to vanity. We're put in this earthly tent. Full of sin. with no ability to keep the law, not willingly, but by reason of him who have subjected the same in hope." So God did this for a purpose so that we would have hope. Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

So the outward man will catch up with the inward man. that liberty that the inward man has of no sin, the outward man who is shackled and has sin, guilty of sin, even though Christ has died for our sin, even though that sin will no longer be remembered, even though we have been justified of all things that we have done and will ever do, that there is no sin before God's eyes in his side. We still are enacting. We are still committing. We are still transgressing. The law of God, we still fall short of the glory of God.

But yet God does not hold that against us, because before the foundation of the world, He set us apart to be holy and without blame by putting us in union with Christ Jesus and being in union with Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus stood as our surety and land slain, therefore being justified before God in His sight and it being manifested in time at the cross. of what God had already determined and thought and considered us as all this time. And now we are having to deal with the fact that we know we still sin, but we also know we are justified.

So we long to be in that state where we don't have to sin anymore. And that's what we're waiting for. We're waiting for this outward man to be put off and that we might be out of that bondage of corruption and into the liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travail within pain together until now. For not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, awaiting for the adoption to with the redemption of the body.

See, that's what he's looking for. That's what Paul was looking for in chapter seven, the putting off of the body. Who shall deliver me from this body of death? Who's going to take away this body of death? How is this body of death going to be put away with and what I am inwardly going to come out and shine? 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 it? So if we already had it, If it's already there on the outside, if we're progressively getting holy and less sinful in this life, then we have no hope left to look for. Our hope is on the other side. Our hope is at the end.

But yet, if God's doing this now, if I will just appropriate the means. If I will just be more obedient, if I will pray more, if I will sanctify myself more, if I will discipline this old man more, if I will spend more time in God's word, listening to his sermons, if I will just be more active in my service to him, If I will put away all the filth of this world, get rid of my TV, get rid of my radio, get rid of my internet. If I would just come down to these things, see, this is what the Puritan's mind was. If we just remove ourselves and the Amish, if we just remove ourselves from the things of this world, then we can focus more on being less sinful.

But brethren, listen, you can remove all of this. The problem isn't out here. Even Jesus said that. It's not the outward stuff that defiles the man. It's the inward thing that defiles the man. What is it? It's you. You're defiled. That's who you are to your core. That's who you are in Adam, in your nature. You are to the core evil, wicked and vile enemy of God. You hate God. That's who you are to your core. And you're not getting better. You're not. The Bible says you're not. The Bible says that your outward man continues to perish. It's not getting any better. And so here, if we are progressively getting holy, then our hope is going away because hope lies at the end. Hope is perfection. And if we're reaching perfection now, then we don't need hope anymore. We don't need hope because we're already there.

By the way, there are some people I've actually heard in this life say that they have quit sinning, that they don't sin anymore, actually, but they don't sin anymore, that they have been fully sanctified. It says, but if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth in our affirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. For he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. See, he intercedes for us according to God's will.

Now, I want to pick up this morning in verse 28 and look at 28, 29, and 30, if we can get there. Paul writes, and we know that all things work together for good. Let's just stop right there. For we are and we know that all things work together for good. First of all let's remind ourselves who is the we that is being talked about here. It's going to define the we as it moves forward but let's think about this for a minute. and we know that all things work together. Who are the we? Well, brethren, I believe that the we is the context that began this chapter. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. It's speaking of those who are in Christ Jesus. It speaks of the elect of God. the children of God, those who have an eternal, vital union with Christ himself. That is the we, we know. And we're the only ones who can know this because it is something that is spiritually discerned. If you don't believe me on that, look with me again, if familiar, I talk about it all the time, but look with me if you would.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul writes here almost exactly what he just wrote here in Romans. He says, he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know, how do we know? How do we know anything? as it pertains to the Spirit of God and the things of God, the unseen things above, but God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.

For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God. So if we know anything about this spiritual activity of God in us, if we know anything about this spiritual work of God in us, or anything that God has done before the foundation of the world and hold it to be truth, we have to be born of the spirit. We have to be revealed that truth by the Spirit.

Look at verse 12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God that we might know. See, the Spirit of God has to be given to us that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. We're not talking about fleshly things. We're not talking about carnal things. We're not talking about physical things. We're talking about the spiritual works of God, the spiritual things that happened before the foundation of the world. They were spiritual gifts that was given in spiritual places. heavenly places. It was given in a spiritual way. It's received in a spiritual way.

Which things. Excuse me, verse 14, but the natural man receive, if not the things of the Spirit of God, he rejects them. He doesn't receive them. He rejects them. That's why you see all the churches out here. Why do we have so many churches out here that don't believe like we do? and others like us, you know why there's so many out there? Because they are working their doctrine and their teaching and their understanding through the wisdom of man in the natural man.

The natural man rejects the notion that God has purposed and predestinated all things before the foundation of the world. The natural man rejects that because that then to them makes them a puppet. To them, that makes them without a will. To them, that makes them serving some horrific God. And to them, that is not a beautiful thing. See, the natural man rejects these things. That's why he's an enemy against God. He's an enemy against anybody who would tell him, I don't have a freedom of choice. I can't work my own way to you. I can't do anything pleasing to you.

Let me show you. You know, it's kind of the old adage that we hear. You tell me I can't do that, hold my beer. You know, that's our attitude. That's our attitude in the natural man is here. I'm going to show you. And that's exactly what Adam did. Whenever Satan said, hath God said, not said, he just said that because he knows that you can be like him. And Adam said, God don't think I can be like him. Here, let me hold my beer. I'm going to get out there and show God what I can do. I can keep God's law. I can do what God wants me to do.

The natural man receives not things the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. You mean to tell me that I don't have to do anything? Nothing. I mean, absolutely nothing. That I keep on sinning and God still loves me. I keep on sinning and God doesn't count it against me. I keep on sinning and God doesn't judge me for that. I keep on sinning and I get to go to heaven.

Well, in a sense, yes, but we are not saying go and sin that grace may abound. We're not going and saying live like hell because it doesn't matter to anybody or anything. We do say this, that the Bible also says that be sure your sins will surely find you out, that there are consequences, natural consequences to your sin. If I drive my, truck down the highway at 150 mile an hour there's going to be consequence for that right there might be a cop stop me there might be some run out in front of me and i hit it and i kill myself you know there's all kinds of consequences to my sin i can have premarital sex and get a sexually transmitted disease i can have a baby out of wedlock there are going to be consequences the sin.

But brethren, there ain't anybody that can lay a charge against God's elect. So yes, we sin all the sin that we'll ever sin. And it doesn't affect our relation with God. It doesn't affect who we are in him. It's foolish, you mean even if I do right things, God's not gonna count those? No, because the Bible says that all of our righteousness is a filthy rat. Well, that just seems weird. So you're telling me that all God wants me to do is trust that Jesus did it all for me. That's all I gotta do. Well, that's too simple. There you go. Simplicity of the gospel.

So who are the ones that know? I didn't read it there, did I? Sorry. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually the same. The fact that these are spiritual things means the natural man will never believe them, will never receive them because he has an inability of receiving spiritual things. The spiritual man is separate from the natural man. The natural man is separate from the spiritual man.

So if you're saying you're getting more holy, you must be talking about the outward man. And if you're saying that your outward man is becoming more holy, if you're saying your outward man is sinning less, you are contradicting the word of God. Your issue isn't with me or my kind or our doctrine, which I would say is the doctrine of Christ, but not our doctrine, but the doctrine we believe. Your problem isn't with Sovereign grace, Baptist Church, isn't with predestinarians, isn't with old school Baptists, primitive Baptists. Your problem is with God. The natural man is at enmity towards him and his ways and his way of doing things, his purpose.

But, here's something good. He that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself has judged no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Who are the we? Those who are in Christ Jesus. How do we know? We know because we are in Christ Jesus, we are a spiritual person and that spiritual person has been given spiritual acumen to know the things of the Spirit of God, as they are and when they are revealed by the Spirit.

Therefore, we can know that all things, now, here's the question, what are all things? Now, I know most of everybody that we fellowship with and believes like us, and even a lot of people that maybe necessarily don't, They say, well, all things mean all things. All things mean everything. And I don't think that that's wrong. I think it can mean that. All things work together for good. Meaning that everything that happens to us in this lifetime, in this time period, while we're in this body of death, everything we experience works together for good to us.

Now, it doesn't work together for good to them on the outside, those who are not in Christ Jesus, but it works together for good for us. But let me ask you, in the context of Romans 7 and 8, what are the all things? Look at verse 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, I think the all things in question here are all the things that we suffer in this body of death. And specifically, all the things that we experience in this body of death as it suffers with the outer man who cannot do righteousness. poor Paul in Romans 7, who could not get away from the outward man. That all these things work together.

Is that not also in conjunction with what God said in verse 20? For the creature was made subject to vanity, the sufferings, Not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected them sufferings and those people for those sufferings in hope. He's given them a hope. He has given them something that the natural man cannot produce. He's given them something that the outward man cannot do. He's working within them something that the natural man cannot even put his hand to. so that when the end comes, all the glory only goes to God.

And then can we say, well, God did it with a little help from my friends. Is that Joe Cocker that's on that? God's not going to be singing Joe Cocker. Whenever we get to heaven, All glory will be to Christ. That is why Christ has made this whole salvation by faith, because man can't produce faith. It's a gift of God. Man can't exercise faith because belief is measured out by him and him alone. I can't produce it when I want it. God gives it at his increments. that my vision to see spiritual things, my ability to hear and understand, I can't do that. So the only way I know of them and understand them and can receive them and rest in them is a spiritual act of God in me that creates and causes this outward man to yield to it. I can't yield to it. God has to make me yield. I am beholden on God on everything on the outward and on the inward. I'm beholden to God for every single thing, whether it's the legal act of salvation or whether it is the experiential things of salvation that we in this time experience. It is all dependent on the work of God.

so that at the end of time, at the end of all things, whenever we stand before him, no man can say or boast that I did this, I did that. God says, I did it all. All to him I owe. We know that all things work together. Are you talking about my sin too? You're telling me that my sin is working to good for God? Absolutely. I know people don't like that. I know people don't believe the Bible teaches that. That God has purposed sin for His purposes. To glorify Him. The sin of man will glorify Him. I have created the wicked for the day of evil.

He restrained sin. What about the rest of sin? He allows sin for a season. He restrained sin for a season. Did he not say? Joseph and everything that happened to Joseph. Was for his purpose. You meant it for evil. But God meant it. He didn't say God turned it around. God changed it into a goody. No, he said God meant that sin for good.

The Bible here says that all these things, these sufferings of this flesh that we experience, he says they are for our good. Why? Because it causes us to hope. It causes us to hope. If I can't find any hope in what my, that's what Paul came to. He found no hope in himself. That's why he says everything I did was done. So the only hope I have is Jesus. It brings us to hope. And when we're left with hope, We don't look to anything else. We look to the only thing that gives us hope and that's Jesus.

We know that all things work together for good to them that love God. Now here's the question again. Who are them that love God? Again. The ones who love God are the elect of God. Look with me if you would quickly. One John 419. 1 John 4, 19, we love him because he first loved us. And who is it that God loves? God loves his people. Jacob have I loved. Esau have I hated. I have loved thee with an everlasting love. He has loved the righteous, but he has hated the wicked. So the reason that we love God is because he first loved us. He set his love upon us. He's about to tell us that anyway here in a minute, To them who are thee called.

Now you've heard me say this a lot in past. The word thee in front of called it's the definite article thee. The definite article thee means that it is a specific group of people. It's not everybody. It is thee called. Thee called are thee elect. Thee called are thee brethren. Thee called are the children of God. The called are the ones who are in Christ Jesus. The called are the same for he. Let me read it, not misquote it. Second, Timothy. Chapter one. 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That's who the called is, those people who before the foundation of the world, God saved through the slain lamb.

To them who are the called, According to we know that all things in this suffering Work together see remember again brethren Paul is writing a letter to a Specific group of people and in that letter. He has a purpose of writing these things He's not just grabbing little doctrinal things willy-nilly out of here and just slapping them in his letter this is a methodical letter that has a flow to it, that has context to it. And the context, as we've been seeing, is Paul is talking about the people of God who are wicked and evil and cannot do anything Godward. must be redeemed, must be saved, and Christ has been that salvation.

And in that salvation, Jesus justified us by His faithfulness and then imparted to His people, through the new birth, faith of their own, to trust and look back to his faithfulness as their righteousness. Not to have faith in themselves to do righteousness to God, but that they might have faith to trust that what he did is what satisfied God. And so the faith that saves is not me trusting in Jesus, but Jesus doing what he did. It isn't about me doing anything. It's about what Jesus did. That's what actually saved. And then he gave me faith that saved me from ignorance and blindness and deafness and hardness of heart. He give me faith to receive the spiritual things that Corinthians just told us the natural man rejects, but the spiritual man receives and loves and adores and finds comfort and joy and rest in. That's why we love sovereign grace is because that's the message of joy and rest.

He says. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. God is working that sinful life that they continue to have. That's what Paul is saying here. Remember context. Oh, wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death. That these sufferings that we experienced with the old man and the new man. God has subjected us to so that we in hope would be preserved until the end.

See, if he didn't send his spirit into us, we couldn't cry Abba Father. If he didn't send his spirit into us, we wouldn't be convicted of our sin and who we are and the knowledge of who we are and the understanding of our inability. If he didn't send his spirit into us, it wouldn't let us know that we are his children. And so therefore, if it was just who we are in the natural man, we see these things and we think we're doing righteousness before God. Hey, we're out there trying our best. We're going to church. We're giving our money. We're feeding the poor. We're opening up our building named after some famous person. And we're feeding everybody in town. We're inviting every church. Oh, we don't discriminate between who believes what. That's just divisions of man. We just let anybody come together because we're all worshiping the same God. They are worshiping the same God. They're all worshiping a false God that doesn't exist. They're all worshiping a Jesus who didn't save.

But we know. Not because we're smarter than anybody else. Not because we figured it out, not because we appropriated the means, not because we we know by grace. That all things work together for good to them. That love God. To them who are the called. And brethren, it says that we are called according to his purpose. What was his purpose? Well, his overarching purpose is the glorification of himself. More pointedly, the glorification of himself in the man Jesus Christ. And then the subtext underneath that subheading underneath that, the glorification of God through the man Jesus Christ in the redemption of His people.

Romans chapter 9. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of him that works, but of him that call. See, the purpose of God in election is going to stand because it's not of works. God didn't choose based upon what we did. He didn't look down through the corridor of time and see that we would choose him. God didn't look and see and wait until we were born of God and then wait to see if we kept his commands. God didn't look down the corridor of time to see whether or not you would be obedient and continue in obedience. If you would stop sinning, No, that ain't what God looked at. God looked at a people. And love the people. And said I'm going to glorify myself by putting my loved ones. Into subjection to vanity. Something that they cannot get out of. Something that they cannot control. Something that they cannot do anything that would equal my justice. And I will take those people out of that same lump. The wicked and the righteousness come from the same lump, Adam, all of them with the same characteristics, unable to do the things of God, unable to perform, unable to keep the law, unable to do that which is holy and righteous and perfect. All of them subjected under sin.

But for my children, who I've subjected under my will into vanity, I will redeem them and I will give them grace. I will show them mercy and I will show to all the rest of these people that God can do something that you cannot do. He can save a sinner. He can cause a sinner who hates God, hates the ways of God to be changed. Not in the outward man, but by putting himself in us.

And then the reward, that those people will receive at the end by going through all of these sufferings throughout their life, the reward is that that corruption will be laid down and incorruption will be raised up. And that person, my child, whom I love, whom I've shown mercy, the one who was adopted in the outward man, will now have a body that coincides with this inner man and that's brethren is what we see in verse 29 and 30 and we'll take that up lord willing next week

all right does anybody got any questions or comments all right let's pray father lord we thank you for this day and we thank you for your word We thank you for Christ Jesus. We thank you for this salvation that no man can touch. But thank God your people can experience.

Father, we pray for all those that are sick. We thank you for the safety you've given us in our travels this week. And Lord, that you've helped me through my sickness this week. And I pray for those who are becoming sick, that are not here for Heather and her children who are sick and not here. Lord, I pray for them. We pray for the Phillips. We don't know where they're at today, Father. We haven't heard from them, but I do know that they have experienced some hardships this week, and you know all about that. But, Father, we do lift them up to you as well. Continue to pray, Lord, that you'd be with them in all this.

We continue to pray for Daniel's friend, Lindsey, that we mentioned last week. Father, we just ask that you would continue to help us and grow us in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus. that we might see more and more the beauty of this relation between God and his people. And what Jesus Christ has done. As their mediator. Revealing God to us. And being our surety towards God.

So Father Lord, we thank you for all that we come to know and will will come to know. We thank you for your mercy and grace. We pray for our friends and family. We ask, Lord, that the scales from their eyes will be removed. We ask that the hardness of their heart will be taken out, that you will give them faith to believe in the sovereign grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done on their behalf, and that they might rest from all their dead works and they might see and know that you have predestined all things for your glory.

Thank you again for all that you are, for all that you will reveal to us in the days to come. But Lord, we know that it was all finished from the foundation of the world, that nothing new is under the sun, and that Lord, you are continuing to reveal yourself as you have willed. It's in Christ's name that we pray these things. Amen.