The Ground of Hope

Q: What does the Bible say about spiritual blindness?

Spiritual blindness is described in the Bible as being blind by both birth and choice, highlighting humanity's natural state of separation from God. The Bible illustrates spiritual blindness as a condition where individuals are unaware of their need for God and unable to perceive spiritual truths. In the sermon, the preacher describes how he, like many others, was 'blind by birth' due to original sin inherited from Adam, and 'blind by choice' due to the traditions of false religion. This two-fold blindness signifies an inability to see one’s own sinfulness and the glory of God. Notably, Jesus encounters a blind man in Bethsaida, demonstrating how He personally intervenes to give sight, both physically and spiritually, emphasizing that true sight comes from God alone.

Q: How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

God's sovereignty is affirmed through His absolute control over creation and His divine purpose in salvation, as seen in scripture. The sovereignty of God is a cornerstone of historic Reformed theology, asserting that God exercises control over all events in history, including salvation. In the sermon, the preacher highlights how God specifically singled out individuals for salvation, demonstrating His sovereignty in the personal call to faith. Furthermore, Scripture, particularly Romans 8, emphasizes that God's calling, foreknowledge, and predestination ensure that His plans will unfold according to His will, leaving no room for chance or human effort to thwart His purposes. God's sovereignty offers believers hope in that their salvation is secure, anchored in His divine decisions rather than their fluctuating emotions or actions.

Q: Why is the sufficiency of Christ important for Christians?

The sufficiency of Christ means that His atoning work completely meets all the needs of believers, affirming their security and acceptance before God. The sufficiency of Christ is a vital doctrine for Christians because it reassures them that all that is necessary for salvation has been accomplished in Christ. The preacher emphasizes that there is 'no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus' (Romans 8:1), which highlights the completeness of His work on the cross. By bearing the full penalty for sin, Christ has rendered the law's demands fulfilled, granting believers freedom from condemnation and a new life in Him. Understanding Christ's sufficiency allows Christians to rest in His grace rather than their performance, fostering assurance and peace in their relationship with God. It is not merely the doctrines of Christ that uphold believers, but Christ Himself, who is the source of their salvation and living hope.

But there was an occasion when
he was in the city of Bethsaida, and everywhere he went there
was always a multitude of the curious and the religious and other people But it said,
Mark reported, that they brought to him a blind man, in total darkness and blindness,
having been blind all of his life. And the scripture says that our
Lord, and I always hate to hear preachers
even indicate or insinuate any weakness in our Master, impotence. I hate it with a passion. He's
the Lord. And He took this man, I suppose
by the arm, I don't know, but it says He took him and led him
away from this crowd and out of this multitude of people and
from them, from the religious profane and the curious and led
him out of town, took him out of town. And when he got him
out of town, the Scripture says he spat upon his eyes. I don't know how he did that.
I was thinking about that and I wondered maybe, I can't imagine
our Lord spitting in a man's face. That would be insulting. But I think maybe, perhaps, he
might have put the moisture of spit on his
hand and placed it on the man's eyes. He did that two or three times.
One time he spat on the ground and made mud and put it on a
man's eyes. But nevertheless, he touched
his eyes and he said to him, this is between the master and
this man, he said to him, Yes, he said, I see. But I see imperfectly. I see, but I don't see too good.
I see men as trees. They're there, and I see them,
and I see the outline, but I see them as trees walking. He put
the eyebrows and the nose and the mustache and the cut of the
clothes. I just, I see him. I see me in his trees walking.
And then he says, our Lord touched him again. He didn't spit again. He just touched him. And he said, I see now. I see
now. One time, like most of you, I was in religion, and there's
nothing like the slavery and bondage of self-righteousness
and false religion. There's nothing like it. The
prejudice, the presumption, the profanity, the blasphemy of false
religion. But I was in it. I had a two-fold
blindness. And religious people without
Christ have a two-fold blindness. They're blind by birth and they're
blind by choice. That's exactly right. They're
blind by birth and they're blind by choice. By choice. And that's where I
was. I was blind by birth I was blind in Adam, and I was blind
in the traditions and customs of my inherited religion handed
down to me, unwarranted, without any foundation at all,
but hearsay. Heresy. Hearsay. That's what
heresy is, it's hearsay. And I was blind, and there's
nothing drier or deader or darker than twofold blindness. That's
what we were talking about a while ago. You're not going to make
men see by arguing with them. Now, you can forget it. You're
not going to make men see the gospel by quarreling and arguing
and getting mad at them and demanding that they see what you see. You
see, our Lord singled this man out. There were other blind people.
I'm sure because of lack of medical facilities and these things and
so forth and so on, there was as much or more blindness then
than now. But this man was blind, and our
Lord singled him out, singled him out. And he singled me out. I don't know what in the world
am I doing in Ashland, Kentucky. Now, I go over that over and
over and over again. What in the world? How in the
world did I get here? Or you? I was born in Central
Alabama during the Depression, before the Depression. I was
born in the Roaring Twenties. And then the Depression hit and
we moved to a farm. in South Alabama because there
wasn't anything to eat in town. There wasn't anything to eat.
There wasn't any work. Starvation was everywhere. Poverty. We moved down to a little old
farm in South Alabama. Here I am, a little old freckled
face, skinny, scrawny, depression kid, down in South Alabama, living
on a sharecropper's farm, picking peas and cotton on the hay. I never heard of Kentucky, talk
about geography, let alone Ashland, Kentucky. And then here I am, now God brought
me here, but he singled me out, he took me by the arm, as he
did some of you. You go back over the providential
dealings of God with you, with you, John, a mountaineer from
up in West Virginia. But he singled us, he took us
by the arm. God doesn't save crowds. No, he saves people, individual
persons. He took me by the arm and led
me out of the mess. He led me out of the multitude.
He led me away from the curious and the careless and the profane
and the presumptuous and the self-righteous. He led me out
just me and him. And I hear these fellas on television,
they say, you in trouble? Do you have a need? Call our
counselors. Don't you do it. Don't you do it. They got nothing
to give you but the scraps they have. You get with him. You ask him to lead you out of
this mess. Lead you out of town. Just you
and him. Just you and him. And he led me out. And you know
what he did? You see these old, this man's eyes, and I thought
about this, this man's eyes were dried up. He was blind, and there was no
moisture, no life, no sight, darkness, deadness, dryness. And our Lord, he's life, he's
life. You see, the womb of a woman
is dead. There's got to be the life, the
moisture planted for life to come in. And these eyes and this
dead center here, see, my Lord is the moisture of life. He's
the life. He's the moisture. And he took
that life. That's what he did there. He
took life from himself and put it in that man's eyes. And that's what happens when
God saves the sinner. That's exactly what happens when
God saves the sinner. He singles him out, it's him
and the Lord, and he takes the life of God, the moisture of
God, and literally puts that in that man. Born not of the
will of the flesh, not of the will of man, not of nature, but
of God. And he put that life in that
man's eyes. That man's eyes were dried up
in darkness and dead. And when the life, I am the life,
he said. I am the life. And he gave him
life. And he said, now can you see?
And he said, I see. But I don't see too good. I don't
see too clearly. And back yonder in 1950, dates
do not mean a thing. Time and place doesn't mean anything,
but I know when I heard for the first time this gospel. I do
know when I heard for the first time this gospel. I know when
I heard who God is. I know when God, with the moisture
of life and with the deliberate purpose of a holy God, made this
dead, dry, depraved, darkened, religious sinner to see. And I saw dimly, not distinctly,
I did see though, I saw not too clearly, but I saw what I'd never
seen. I saw what I'd never seen, God's
absolute, unchangeable, indisputable majesty and sovereignty. I saw the living God, dimly,
not distinctly, not too clearly, but I did see him. I did see
him. And I saw something else. I saw his holiness. Never in our circles they talk
more of our righteousness than his. They talk more of our holiness
than his. I heard more about the good people
and the holy people and the holy Daniel and the holy David and
the holy Abraham. I didn't hear a whole lot about
the holy God that Isaiah saw. And for the first time I saw
the holy God, that he would by no means clear the guilt The
holy God, the righteous God, the God you talked about who
is just and has to be just, who is righteous and must be righteous. And I saw something else dimly,
not distinctly. He says, do you see? And I said,
I do. But I see me in his trees walking. I can't define it clearly and
I can't describe it clearly, but I do see. I see what I've
never seen. I have light, and I've never
had light. I see these things that I didn't even know existed.
I saw total, complete human ruin and inability. I'd never seen
that. I'd always been of the impression that there was a little
good in everybody, there was a little fire that needed to
be fanned, you know, and a little flame that needed to be stirred
up, and a little life that needed to be to which we could appeal
and maybe make it burn brighter. I didn't know that those folks
were warming by their own fires. But he showed me man's depravity
and deadness. You see, a blind man who has
always been blind doesn't know what he doesn't see. And I learned something about
sinfulness and inability. I experienced what Isaiah experienced. I'm cut off. I experienced what
the Apostle Peter felt when he saw, when Christ revealed his
great power with that great draft of fishes, Peter turned to him
and said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. You've got
no business associating with me. I'm not fit company for you. You ever felt like you weren't
fit company for God? I'm not fit company for you.
You ought to be around somebody else besides me. And then you
know what I saw? I began to see the feebleness
and folly and the utter absolute foolishness of present day religion. Boy, I tell you. Oh, and I'll tell you this, I had to confess I didn't have
anything, but I knew they didn't either. They didn't either. There's an
emptiness and a hollowness and a frivolity present-day religion
that is absolutely indescribable. God is nowhere near what's going
on in his name today. I'm confident of that, confident
of that. I saw the emptiness and feebleness
and foolishness of religion. But you know, and I see, and
I saw then, those early days But I saw someone else, not something
else, someone else. I saw him who touched me. I saw
him. And I learned something about the efficacy of his redemptive
work. Prior to that time, I preached. I went to school, I studied, I sang, I went to church, I gave,
I did these things. But there was not involved in
what I believed and what I did and what I taught and what I
preached a person. It was doctrine. It was heritage. It was tradition. It was Bible. It was morality. It was righteousness. It was he lives his religion
sort of thing. In all of this, there was not
the person. And when he with the moisture
of God himself, with the life of God, when he touched this
old blind, dried up, dead sinner, I saw him. Him. Now, I realized I saw him perfectly,
like Like the scripture says, we see through a glass dimly,
we know in part, we prophesy in part, one day that which is
perfect is come. But then our Lord said to them,
do you see? And he said, I see. I see. I sure wish I could see better. You ever felt that way? Oh, I
wish I could see better. I see. And I see me in his trees
walking. And then, by his grace, he reached
out and touched him again. The Word touched him. But he
didn't spit. He just needed to do that once.
Just one time. That moisture of life was there.
But he needed to be touched again that he might see more perfectly. And that's what God has been
pleased to do. for me and for some of you. It's
the same, I see God's sovereignty and power and glory and majesty. I saw that before, but I see
it better. Do you? I see it better. I see better his holiness. I see more of his holiness. of
his righteousness. I don't see less, I see more
of his righteousness and holiness. I do not come up these steps
again year after year after year, month after month, week after
week, almost day after day, and sit here and come up here mechanically
or even traditionally. My dear beloved friends, The revelation of His majesty,
the awesomeness of prayer, the awesomeness of opening this book,
the awesome, awesome, mysterious, miraculous revelations
of His person to me are overwhelming more and more. I'm more awed in his presence
than I've ever been before. I see better. I see better. I don't understand. I just, I
just, I guess it's because they're blind. But I don't understand
approaching worship, or preaching, or praying, or the Word, or the
fellowship lightly. I don't, when I see that, when
I glance around, not often, but I see an indifference and a flippancy
and a wandering eyed mind in these things, in the very presence
of God, just stuns me. I don't understand that. Because
to me, what I see is clearer than ever before. And of our,
I tell you, our sinfulness and our wretchedness and our defilement,
do you see more of that? Doesn't it just drain you? Doesn't it just, my thoughts,
oh, wretched man that I am! I love the way some of these
men read the Word. I could just sit there and listen
to them read, just skip the message and read the Word of God. I love
to hear them read. And when Tom got to it, he said,
oh, wretched man that I am. You better believe that, don't
you? You better. He read the things that I would
do, I do not. And I could feel his emotion.
Couldn't you feel it? Couldn't you feel it? Oh, I see more and more of our
sinfulness. I tell you about this religious
business around us, I'm more and more done with it, done with
it, done with it. You might as well walk off. You're
not going to change it. I hear people talk about they'll
infiltrate these churches and they teach a class and there's
nothing in the pulpit, but maybe I can bear witness fully. You
better come out of it. A good apple, it ain't going
to change a rotten barrel of apples. You don't put a good
apple in a rotten barrel of apples to change it. You throw them
away and get some new apples. You can forget it. There's no
hope for it. God's not going to deliver Southern
Baptists. He's not going to deliver the
Nazarene. He's not going to deliver any other corrupted, contaminated,
God-dishonoring religious organization. Forget it. Forget it. But I'm learning more and more.
I'm seeing clearer and clearer. And if God gives me another day
to preach or another decade to preach, I'm going to set forth these
two things. I see Him. And I see the simplicity of Christ. The simplicity of Christ. That's
what you preach this morning, the simplicity of Christ. The
blood, the blood, the blood. The blood, the blood, the blood.
The blood, the blood, the blood. The simplicity of Christ. It's
not, it's only confusing to the confused. That's right. Talk about, talk about, well,
I don't understand doctrine. Doctrine is not understood by
dead people. But it's loved by living people. The doctrine of Christ. doctrine
of Christ. And I'm going to declare, because
I see more clearly than ever before, the simplicity of Christ,
but I'll tell you something else. And that is that second point
that he wrote so beautifully this morning, the sufficiency
of Christ. The sufficiency of Christ. I'll
tell you, in him there is no condemnation. Now, you look at
Romans 8, and I'll tell you this. Romans, when I feel the need
for reassurance, reassurance of my interest in Christ, when
I feel the need of encouragement along this way, and man, I tell
you, I need it every day, encouragement. I need to be exhorted. I need
to be encouraged. When I seek the true peace of
God, the quietness of spirit, like I said to you tonight, Richard,
it will work out. It'll work out. It'll be all
right. How do you know it'll be all
right? Where do you go to find out if it's going to be all right? Well, I go back to that experience. No, I don't want to see like
I saw then. Do you go back to the experience?
Do you go back and look for some feeling? Like Martin Luther said,
feelings come and feelings go. That's what's wrong about feelings.
And feelings are deceiving. Where do you go to the writings
of some man? You know, I found this to be
true. Every time you follow a man and imitate him, you'll imitate
his weakness. When you follow Christ, you pick
up his strength because he has no weakness. But every time you
imitate a man, you'll imitate his weakness. That's right. You'll pick up
something in his life or his preaching or his experience that
will justify something you want to justify. That's right. He'll give you a reason, it's
like a friend of mine, justifying, listen to me, justifying his
support, this pastor friend of mine, justifying his support
of Billy Graham, wrote to me. And you know how he justified
it? He said Mr. Spurgeon supported Dwight L. Moody and loved him and had him
preach for him. And he did. Spurgeon did. Moody preached his Jubilee sermon
when Spurgeon was 50 years old. The Armenian Moody was invited
to the tabernacle and preached. But that wasn't Spurgeon's strength. That was his weakness. That's right. That was not his
strength. If I'm going to imitate Spurgeon,
I'm going to pick out his strength if I can. But I'm not going to
imitate him because he wasn't anything but a man who loved
to have his picture taken. more than any man I ever saw
in my life. But I told Doris this, when I
read that in the letter, I read, this is what men do, to justify
themselves, they'll follow a man and then they'll pick out his
weak point. They surely will, instead of
his strength. But I'll tell you where to go
if you want reassurance and exhortation and comfort. Go to the Word of
God. Listen to this. Let's just look at Romans 8 like
Tom read. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. Well, he doesn't say here we're
not condemnable. All sin is condemnable. I'm condemnable. You can find plenty about me
to condemn, but in Christ there's no condemnation. That's my whole
point. In Christ there's no condemnation.
Why is there no condemnation in Christ? Because he had borne
the penalty and the judgment and made the payment and there's
no condemnation left. There's no judgment left. He
took all the judgments. He drained it dry. He took the
bitter cup of God's wrath and didn't leave a drop in it. He
took it all. We walk not after the flesh but
after the Spirit. May I skip that for a moment?
Go to verse 2. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. What's that saying? The covenant
of God, the covenant of God in Christ has literally, actually,
eternally freed me from the covenant of works. From that law as a
covenant, from that law as a curse, from that law as a condition.
The curse is removed for every requirement is met in him and
I'm no longer under the law. The covenant of life in Christ
has freed me. Verse 3, For what the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh. The law wasn't weak.
The law is perfect. The law is holy. The weakness
is in me. The law can't save. Not because
the law is not perfect and holy, but I'm unable to keep it. But
what could not be done through the law because of the weakness
of our flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, he actually
subdued it and delivered us from its power. Verse 4, he did that
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled. The righteous requirements of
the law are fully met for us and in us by our substitute. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might literally actually be made the righteousness
of God in him. Danny said this morning, you're
looking, can you say this, at a perfect man. But he added,
in Christ. And he said, I'm looking at perfect
people in Christ. That's what that says. The very
righteousness of God, the righteousness of the law, is literally, actually
fulfilled in me, because of him. Now then, those who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. This is not the reason we're
not condemned. The fact that we walk not after
the flesh but in the Spirit of God, that's not the reason we're
not condemned. The reason we're not condemned
is Christ died. Who walk not after the flesh but after the
Spirit, that's not the reason that the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled. The righteousness of the law
is fulfilled in us because Christ kept the law. Who walk not after
the flesh but after the Spirit is a description of those who
are in Christ. That's a description of those
who are in Christ. The flesh is not my master, it
was, it's no more. The flesh is not my guide, it
was, it is no more. The world and its materialism
is not my way of life, it was, but it's not anymore. See that? These people who are regenerated
by the Spirit, redeemed by Christ, and made righteous by his obedience,
their people who are new creatures, and they want not after the flesh
the world, not their master, their God, nor their way of life.
For it says in verse 5, for they that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh. What's that saying? People who
have never been born again, who have never been brought to Christ,
they set their minds on and pursue and seek the things of this flesh.
This world to them is a master. It controls them. Their minds
are set on these things. They pursue these things. They
seek these things. But they that are after the Spirit,
they that are born of the Spirit, their minds are set on, they
think upon, they pursue. And they seek the things of God. They delight in the things of
God. They love the things of God.
They set their affection on things above. And then verse 6 says,
for to be carnally minded, to be fleshly minded, to be worldly
minded, that's death. They're still in death. They're
still in darkness. They've never known Christ. I
said in this study to someone a while ago, when you come to
know the Redeemer, when you really come to know the Redeemer, when
Christ is revealed to your heart, when you love him, when you see
him, when he's formed within you, you just lose interest. in these materialistic, physical
things of the world. Just lose interest in these things.
The pursuits of the world, the honors of the world, the glories
of the world, just lose interest in those things. Oh, that I may
win Christ. Oh, that I may know him. To be
fleshly minded, to have your heart and mind set on the things
of the world, that's death. But to be spiritually minded,
to be Christ-minded, That's life and peace. Because, here's the
reason, the carnal mind, the natural mind, is enmity against
God. The carnal mind hates the living
God. The carnal mind doesn't hate
his God, he hates the living God. The natural man hates the
law of God. He hates the things of God. Oh, he'll go through his religious
duties and ceremonies and requirements and responsibilities, but the
carnal mind, the fleshly mind, the man whose mind and thoughts
are on this world, he hates the living God. And the carnal mind, the fleshly
mind, is not subject to the law of God. It can't be. Augustine
said this one time. How can snow, that snow out there,
how can it be made warm? Can it be made warm? Can that
snow be made warm? How can it be made warm? There's
only one way. By making it cease to be snow.
As long as it's snow, it's cold. But if you can make it cease
to be snow, to make it be liquid, to make it be water, to destroy
the snow and make it something else, it can be warm. So this
natural mind, this fleshly mind, it is carnally minded, it does
hate God, it does love the world, it does love the flesh. But what
God has to do is make me somebody I wasn't, and something I was
not, and give me something I didn't have, something that never existed,
and that's spiritual life. the presence of God, the life
of God. And then when he does that, there's
a conflict and a warfare between these two natures. But we do
have that spiritual mindedness. And I'll tell you this, and greater
is he that's in you than he that's in the world, and there's a subduing
of that gentleman. He's always there, but there's
a subduing. It's like someone said to me
one time, the bin of my will and the tenor of my life and
the objective of my heart to know Christ, to seek the kingdom
of God, to grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ, to let my
light shine, to sit me and see my good works, to live for his
glory, to adorn the gospel, that's the bin of my will. tenor of
my life, that's the objective of my soul. And I have some battles and some
warfares and some conflicts. I walk in the light. Unfortunately, I step in the
darkness every once in a while. But a man who doesn't know God
walks in the darkness. And even occasionally, he may
do something that looks like life. But that's his general
direction. You see what I'm saying? He's
fleshly minded, he's carnal minded, he's warily minded, and he hates
God, and he hates the truth of God, and he hates the power of
God, and the greatness of God, and he hates the redemption of
Christ, and he hates the righteousness of Christ. Yet he may occasionally do something
worthwhile. But this man over here loves
God. and hates the flesh, and he loves
the truth of God, and the law of God, and the person of God,
and the grace of God, and the gospel of God, and the Christ
of God, he may once in a while do something unworthy, and does. Think, say, and do. But that's
his direction. Does that make sense? This man is carnally minded.
Carnally minded, that's his nature, like the snow is cold and Hard
and freezing. And it's going to stay that way,
unless you change it. Warm, liquid, soothing. Huh? But he has to change it. And thank God, he says in verse
9, you're not in the flesh. That's not where you are. That's
not your domain. That's not your direction. That's
not your nature. You're in the spirit over here. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Is he? Has he ever touched you?
Has the moisture of life ever given sight to those blind eyes?
Life to that dead soul, urchin. Well, now he says, if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. That's just
so. He doesn't have the Spirit of
Christ, he's none of his. You don't walk down an aisle and
get the Spirit of Christ. You don't shake hands with a
preacher or call a counselor or sign a card or send in your
tithe and get the Spirit of Christ. He's like the wind. He blows
where he will. He gives life to whom he will.
But once he does give life, life, life, life, there's life. If Christ be in you, verse 10,
the body's dead because of sin. We'll have to put up with it
until he gives us the victory and puts it in the ground. But
the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And I tell you
this, if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus Christ from the
dead dwells in you, he that raised Christ from the dead is going
to one day be even quicker than that mortal body of yours. It
will be sown in corruption, it will be raised in incorruption.
In other words, Christ redeemed me soul and body, and he's given
me restored my soul and my spirit and given me life. But I'm still
dragging around this, you read it right, this body of death.
I'm still dragging it around. But you know something? One day
he's even going to raise that. That's right, John. He's going
to raise that. Sown in corruption, raised in
incorruption, sown in mortality, raised in immortality, sown in
shame, raised in power. I'm going to be redeemed a whole
man. That's right. Therefore, brethren, we're debtors,
all right. How much I owe, Bridget, that's
what he's talking about. We're debtors. How much I owe.
But not to the flesh. I don't owe this old rotten flesh
anything. I'm not a debtor to this flesh,
I'm not a debtor to this world, I'm a debtor to Christ. I'm a
debtor to Christ. Not to live after this flesh.
For I tell you, verse 13, you do and you'll die. You live after
the flesh, you'll die. You think flesh, live flesh,
talk flesh, walk flesh, you'll, that's all yarn. But if you through
the Spirit of God. If you do have that, if we do,
I and you do have this Spirit of God, this life of God, it
will mortify the deeds of the body and you'll live. For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God, sons of God. Oh, verse 15, you haven't received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. We're not slaves. That's
what the spirit of bondage and fear is, an attitude of a slave
under the whip. in chains and fetters, a prisoner
toward his captive. You don't have that kind of spirit.
But you have received the spirit of adoption whereby you cry,
Father, Father. And I'll tell you this, the Spirit
himself will bear witness with our spirit that we're children
of God. And I tell you, if we're children of God, we're heirs
of God. And we're joint heirs with Christ.
And if so be that we suffer with him, that's twofold. We suffer
with him on the cross. and will suffer with him in this
life. But not only that, we're going to be glorified together.
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. Now watch this. While I read verse 19, I'm going
to quit in a moment, verse 19 through 23, while I read it,
you put the word creation. Everywhere you see creature,
you put creation. Verse 19, for the earnest expectation
of this whole creation is waiting for the manifestation of you
and me, sons of God. Even the trees and the valleys
and the mountains and the streams that have all been contaminated
and polluted by sin, this whole nature, that's right, whole creation,
sin entered heaven, there's going to be a new heaven. There's going
to be a new earth. This whole way of everything,
there's nothing you see that hasn't been touched and tainted
and marred by sin. And so this whole creation is
waiting for one thing, for God to make all of his people like
Christ.

The Ground of Hope

What does the Bible say about spiritual blindness?

How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

Why is the sufficiency of Christ important for Christians?

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About Henry Mahan

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The Ground of Hope

What does the Bible say about spiritual blindness?

How do we know God's sovereignty is true?

Why is the sufficiency of Christ important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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