Romans (Session 10) Chapter 8b

[Music] father we just thank you for this opportunity we thank you father oh father we take it so for granted that we can assemble here in safety and privacy to celebrate who you are to explore your word we thank you for this privilege father for it indeed it is a privilege so rare on the planet earth this day we do pray father you would be among us that your spirit would open our hearts and lives to your word as we explore the treasures you've hidden here for our learning as we come before you this night in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christ amen well we're approaching the peak of the new testament in one sense many would regard the most precious book of the entire new testament as the book of romans it's the definitive statement of christian expression in the entire bible book of romans and in the book of romans right in the middle 16 chapters in chapter 8 is probably the most remarkable chapter in the bible in many respects and you're going to want to index put a tab or something on this chapter because if you're ever down down discouraged confused all you have to do jump in with both feet in the middle of romans eight and you'll see why as we get into it we're taking three evenings to get to we normally go about a chapter and evening normally but with romans chapter eight we're taking we've we've had one session already we're having a middle section this time and we'll do the wrap up next time but we're in chapter eight part two of three parts and just by way of review the first chapter in the book of romans was the introduction background and he takes on three people to be represented of all people first is the pagan man the pagan man what what's the plight of the pagan man chapter two he took more uh two more the the moral man and finally the religious man the point of those three categories being they're all lost clearly the pagan is lost because the creation alone is enough to indict him it's astonishing how god is jealous of being the creator as new testament christians we often miss that because we so focus on the redemption and indeed we should that's good but what's amazing to me to discover as i search the bible in support of our genesis company to realize how from end to end god is primary uh measure is to be recognized as the creator of the universe and so a pagan man is indicted by that then we in chapter two we ran into the moral man the guy that seems to at least by our standards lead a moral life and yet that's still fall short of what god would have and finally the religious man and of the of all the religious people he chose he chose jews to be the exemplar of those that pretend to keep laws but don't and so we have those that that basically first two chapters levels the playing field to show us our need for god's intervention and he's provided that and then we encountered god's biggest problem god has a problem yes he has an enormous problem because there's something he'd like to do that he did he can't violate his own nature as nature's just how does it just god forgive sin and even socrates puzzled over that it may be possible that the deity can forgive sins but i don't see how he said apparently god's greatest problem how does he is a righteous god forgive those that he loves despite their sin and that leads us to the great gift god's greatest gift and i love the way hal lindsey adopts the word grace as an acronym grace g-r-a-c-e god's riches at christ's expense that giving his son to pay the price of the sinner would allow god to justify the sinner for fellowship with him despite his predicament he paid the price so that led us to a study of the sequence towards maturity and uh tribulation gives patients in the climax of that chain was hope astonishingly enough then we had chapter six which started to reach us about empowerment by then we figured we've come to the realization that we are sinners in need of help we get help by having our passport stamped that's called justification we're justified by our belief in christ but we then discover that sin doesn't have to reign in our life anymore you're speaking here of sin as controlling sin ain't gonna rain no more that was chapter chapter six and that led us to chapter seven which we call law school what's the role of the law then by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified that's not its role that's not his job his job is to show us the need for a savior and this whole background now gets climaxed in chapter eight which many many scholars throughout history have marked the high water mark not only the book of romans but in the whole new testament in many respects and we're gonna we can look at the book of romans another way by the work of the trinity we saw god the father in the forefront in chapters 1 through 3 verse 20. and then god the son in salvation romans chapter 3 through the law school and now we're going to see god the holy spirit who addresses the challenge of sanctification we generally won't use the word salvation because that's confusing that can mean many things i was saved last week theologically no i was saved from a burning building or something you could be saved many ways the the elements of salvation will focus on the elements of it which are three justification sanctification glorification we'll talk about those specifically now chapter eight is in contrast in many ways to chapter five chapter five focused on the saving work of jesus christ chapter eight's gonna talk about what christ did to provide victory in each of our lives it's one thing to be saved it's quite another to have victory over sin chapter 5 talked about justification by faith which is forever if you're justified by faith it's nailed and we'll see why as we go forward in this chapter in chapter 8 the godly life is ensured through the power of the holy spirit you can have a godly life despite your sin nature but it'll require reliance on the holy spirit chapter five talks about performance based on understanding god's love for us chapter eight performance is based on the power of the holy spirit indwelling us those are two different things both powerful chapter five reveals our relationship to god chapter eight reveals our relationship to the world conflict flesh tribulation especially the first half of the chapter that's what we're in it's going to shift very dramatically before we get to the end of this chapter chapter 5 the holy spirit's mentioned only once but in chapter 8 it's mentioned 19 times the power available through the holy spirit is developed to the fullness in chapter 8. chapter 5 is the capstone of our salvation in christ you might substitute the word justification chapter 8 is the caption of our victory in christ as you'll see in breathless terms by the time we get to the end of the chapter romans 8 the first 13 verses that we looked at last session was primarily our deliverance from the flesh that's what we dealt with primary last time and also the realization of our sonship that we are his sons awaiting for the adoption and we talked about that last time what do i mean by that in the old world a son was not a son until he was adopted and only then did he inherit you could be a not a natural son but be adopted and it was irrevocable and caused you and inherit you could be a natural son of the father but you might not inherit because inheritance implied obedience one of the things we need to study and we will subsequent sessions get into this whole business of inheritance and how you can forfeit it all through the old testament and new testament inheritance was not assured except through obedience that's disturbing we're touching some of that here however once you're adopted you could never be disowned that's pretty exciting that's pretty exciting some of you may recall the the novel written by lou wallace the governor of mexico called ben hur where he threw a an act of saving this very powerful roman's life gets adopted into his family it becomes his his heir if you will he wasn't roman he was jewish ben hur was but he gets adopted by quintus arias and all that and and and it's a colorful part of the story but anyway that's dramatizes the adoption issue but we're gonna we're gonna get in chapter uh eight verse eighteen to thirty tonight which is gonna focus among other on among other things why do christians suffer there are a lot of books written about that a lot of people puzzle why do bad things happen to good people and why do christians suffer the more christian you are it seems the more you suffer why it's deliberate let's talk about that one of the reasons that people suggest that this time that we call life here on the earth is a boot camp someone joins the the military army navy whatever they usually get thrust into what typically is called boot camp or something equivalent to it where they get trained before they join the the main event and many people look at life as a boot camp for heaven what does that mean we'll talk about that a little bit last time near the final part as we were closing in the last session we were verses 16 17 18 in that area the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are what the children of god are the sons of god that's a very strange term by the way many people don't realize how distinctive that term is the sons of god in the old testament that term was emphatically used of a direct creation by god himself adam was a son of god because god created adam adam's children were sons of adam not sons of god the term sons of god in the old testament is used of angels because they were direct creations of god long before the earth was formed incidentally now it's interesting that when you get to the new testament you say that was just an old testament idiom no in john chapter 1 verse 11 he came into his own and his own receiving not but as many as received him to them gave he the power to what become the sons of god in other words a direct creation of god if you're in christ you are a new creation you're not an old creation fixed up or repaired you're not a heart that's been cured you've been you have a heart that's been replaced a new heart the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children or sons of god and if children then heirs heirs of god and joint heirs with christ you know we have no capacity to imagine what that means joint heirs with him wow if so be oh there's a catch if so be that we suffer with him that we may also be also glorified together see this is a conditional reward everybody assumes if you get to heaven you're going to reign with christ not certainly you may not inherit who is entering heaven and inheriting heaven the same thing well you can enter a hilton hotel i don't think you're inheriting it i don't have to go down that path around these days do i okay if so be that we suffer with christ everybody as soon as you get to heaven you're going to be at the marriage supper of the lamb not certainly you'll be in heaven will you be at the wedding feast that depends on some things i'm going to suggest to you the possibility that many maybe most people that get to heaven will be disappointed they'll be glad they got to heaven don't misunderstand me about that but they may be shocked to realize that all these glib promises that tv preachers have made ain't necessarily so there's a thing called rewards first corinthians 3 check it out that you may be saved but as by fire depends on what you have done for the kingdom and not what you have done what the spirit has done through you and there's a big difference well i attended sunday school regularly so what was that of the spirit or was that of the flesh oh there's some tough questions coming christian suffering and this is this this is a class one sense remember there's four classes of ifs in the greek this is sense indeed greek is the most explicit language ever devised every verb has to meet five conditions the structure the tightness of greek is unparalleled anywhere else and perhaps that's why god chose it or the new testament the hebrew has some very peculiar properties and that was very appropriate for the old testament but greek is very different in every almost every way and yet its precision of expression is astonishing it's very it often takes five or six sentences to translate just one word in the greek because of all that's communicated with the because of its syntax and structure now you and i can't imagine what verse 17 meant it means that we're going to be joint heirs with christ right and i think you you try to compare that to your wildest dreams it won't match up we have no idea what that means but paul says so first corinthians chapter 2 he says but it's written i hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which god hath prepared for them that love him you can't imagine you can't imagine what's coming and romans verse 17 through 27 is going to contrast our present state with that coming glory as both are ours but continue in romans 8 paul says for i reckon that's like bringing to account sitting down and doing an accounting analysis i reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us well that sounds pretty good jesus suffered trials and he promised his apostles that they would also suffer those trials you all heard you know all the passages there are two possible errors we can make about suffering the first is not to anticipate them we are we have been promised by our king that we're going to have trials the word trials and temptations in the translation is the same temptations really we think of us a little differently the trials is what he's talking about so many of us either don't anticipate the trials that they went in or we have a morbid fear of them that's not what we're supposed to do supposed to count at all joy james tells us right what does that mean we need to have the divine viewpoint part of what we're in the word of god for why we're here tonight is to try to stand back from the world and get god's perspective to put things in perspective every businessman knows the most valid thing most precious thing in life is a perspective if your perspective is valid you know what questions to ask and you get answers to any question the trick in life is to have a valid perspective not to have blinders they really have a perspective remember job and his three friends remember paul paul had us job had his troubles right if you think that the book of job is answers the question why do the the innocent suffer it was never answered see you and i are treated to a conversation in the first chapter that job did not was not a party to the challenge between satan and god about job he was a victim of a bet so to speak he didn't know any of that stuff he's just trying to get along right what a saga what about paul you know you have you have all these guys on television saying if you really have faith you'll be rich and you have a rolex watch and a cadillac and garage right gee paul didn't know that if you if you're sick it's because you don't have enough faith really tell that to paul about a thorn in the flesh where god says my faith is sufficient for you no that that mistaking of the health and wealth types the name it and blame it the blab and glabbit cries whatever the the anyway no we need the divine viewpoint on these things and how paul measured success and uh you and i are going to be joint participants in his glory and we need to try to understand some of the things that may lead up to that paul says in second corinthians says but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of god and not of us you can't get there you gotta let the holy spirit bring you there we are troubled on every side you're not distressed we're perplexed but not in despair we're persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed always bearing about what in the body the dying of the lord jesus that the life also of jesus might be made manifest in our body for which for we which live are already delivered unto death for jesus sake that the life also of jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh that's what we're all about to manifest christ and he'll use some very interesting ways to do that continues for which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but are the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal you know it's astonishing to me to read these passages that i've read since i was a teenager and thought i understood and then i pick up scientific american and see where the scientists are perplexed because they now realize that this thing we call reality is but a shadow of a larger reality and they're amazed by that and i sit there chuckling because that's what the scripture said when i was 12 yeah a couple generations ago those of you that are mathematical can figure it out we know that the nucleus of electron is about 10 to the minus 13 centimeters the electron going around it the the the orbit of that is 10 to the minus 8. 10 minus 8 10 to the 13th is 10 to the fifth between 100 000 in other words whatever the nucleus is the electron is one hundred thousand units away from that okay one ten to the fifth one hundred thousand well if that's the distance linearly the area of that thing is ten to the fifth times ten to the fifth and the volume of that is ten to the fifth times ten to the fifth times to the fifth or ten to the fifteenth in other words if i take an atom the simplest atom the part that's real and the part that's illusory has a ratio of 1 to 10 to the 15th that's a big number if you believe the world is about 15 billion years old that's about 10 to the 15 seconds so the ratio of materiality in electron in an atom to the space it occupies is about the same ratio as one second is to the history of the 15 billion year old universe in other words this podium is solid right no if i say it solid i'm wrong if dan comes up and says no that's mostly empty he's right more than i am by one part and ten to the fifteenth you can't think of a bigger number than that we look at things which are seen for the things which are not seen before the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are what eternal they're beyond time outside time okay paul continues another vein he says all right are they hebrews so am i are they israelites so am i are they the seed of abraham so am i are they ministers of christ i speak as a fool i am more and labor's more abundant and stripes more above measure and prisons more frequent in that soft of the jews five times received by 40 strife you want to talk about company he's doing this deliberately to be uh you know uh contrary here but thrice i was beaten by rods once i was stoned thrice i suffered shipwreck a night in the day i had been in the deep in journeys often perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils by my own countrymen in perils by the heathen and perils in the city and perils in the wilderness and perils in the sea in perils among false brethren boy that's the one that urged you by the way that's the one that hurts trust me in wariness painfulness in watching often in hunger and thirst and fasting is often cold and nakedness besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches that's paul in hebrews he continues and what shall i more say for hebrews 11 talks about the kinds of witness that god's looking for what what more shall i say for the time would fail me to tell of gideon and the barack sampson and jeff the of david also and samuel of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant and fight turned to flight the armies of the aliens women received their dead race to life again others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection every time i read that i think of some of our leaders who signed an agreement with the roman catholic church which basically took the position that these millions of people that voluntarily were burned at the stake did so because of a misunderstanding that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder and i believe that's an illusion to isaiah who was saw it in half with a wooden saw apparently they were stoned they were sinus under were tempted were slain by the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise god having provided some better thing for us that without us should not be made complete or perfect wow this sounds pretty dramatic doesn't it why am i getting into this here because many of us in this room are going to have this opportunity to experience the same thing we meet here very comfortably we don't have to be in secret that's a blessing we take for granted that's a rare privilege on the planet earth where do we as americans have the arrogance to presume we're going to be spared of what most of the body of christ in most of the world for most of the last 19 centuries has had to endure it's called persecution you're talking about the great tribulation no i'm not just because we believe we can prove from the scripture that the church will not go through a three and a half year period that's labeled by jesus christ himself as the great tribulation where do we get the arrogance to presume that we're going to have it you know cool and easy for the rest of our lives and if we don't the scripture says count it all joy that we can join these that we're talking about hey chuck that sounds pretty grim no it's an opportunity we'll see why here in a little bit why do christians have trials that's the question well to glorify god as one of them daniel chapter three we know all the story shadrach meshach and abednego answered instead of the king oh kevin nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter if it be so our god whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thy hand okay but if not be it known unto thee o king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou has set up the missile translation says up yours okay you know and these three men shadrach meshach and abednego fell down bound in the midst of the burning fiery furnace then they become after the king was astounded he rose up in haste in spain said to his counselors didn't we not cast three men bound in the midst of the fire the answer said the king true okay said lord i see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like the son of god the nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake and by the way you know they heated that furnace up seven times higher than norman the officers that put him in got burned interestingly enough anyway nebuchadnezzar came near the mouth of the burning fire furnace and spake said shadrach meshach and abednego he's servants of the most high god this is nebuchadnezzar talking come forth and come heather and then shadrach meshach and abednego came forth out of the midst of the fire and the next chapter in daniel was written by nebuchadnezzar and posted throughout the known world of his testimony that the god of daniel was the god of heaven and earth when i get to heaven i will not be surprised the nation is there i'd expect him to be there i may be wrong but that's what i expect that's what i believe so why do they have well glorified god is one reason god may subject you to some comparable opportunity and what a joy that would be if you have a divine perspective another reason we have trials is discipline for known sin oh why well okay we've got plenty of verses on that another we have trouble to prevent us from falling into sin what a blessing that is first peter four a couple of verses for as much that as christ has suffered for us in the flesh arm yourselves likewise with the same mind for he that suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sins that he no longer should live the rest of his life in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of god that's one of the reasons you might be having trials is to wake you up to the realities that you're facing another one is to keep us from pride well that's good there's a good example there that's paul paul suffered to keep him humble that was what the thorn in the flesh was all about read it read paul on that another reason it's pretty obvious to build faith and some of your most biggest trials are god's way for you to build your faith now if you want to understand that really i encourage you to get my wife's book faith in the night seasons it's incredible the research he's done from the ancient writers on that whole issue there's very very few modern writers have really dealt with the dark knight of the soul and all of that and i remember john ankerberg when he encountered that book he took it to his staff and had them all sit down read the first chapter he says this book is god breathed because it deals with something you won't find elsewhere faith in the night seasons to cause growth in general to cause growth that's one of the reasons we have trouble to cause growth another one is to teach obedience and discipline straightforward stuff here straightforward stuff but it's all in the notes that accompany this you can write them down now if you want or you just take it from the notes number eight by the way i'm indebted to this particular list there's many lists like this in the literature i've taken these these from a book called combat faith by hal lindsey the eighth one equip us to comfort others if you're going through some peculiar particular trial one of god's purposes might be to equip you to comfort others that will be going through that in the future going through bankruptcy in your business there might be a reason for that that you can comfort others going through banks bankruptcy and business or fill in the blank with whatever it might be that might be god preparing you to be a special kind of counselor to people who they're certain kind you can't walk in somebody else's shoes and there may be people that have a need for shoes that you did walk through but you can talk that language you can speak speak the other reason probably one of the broadest reasons here is to prove the reality of christ in us people are watching people are watching but i remember the academy how often we discovered that our impressions of the upperclassmen they'd watch when we were in adversity to see how we handled it see what we were made of and there's the strangest one to close it up with as a testimony to angels you've got to be kidding no it's there's some very interesting verses we'll just pick this one up first peter 1 peter himself says unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us that administer the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the holy ghost set down from heaven which things the angels desire to look into wow see we tend to assume the angels know everything no they're sent on certain missions but the picture we get from several hints in the scripture is that god chooses to reveal his plan incrementally in the word of course it's incremental but also to them you sort of get the impression or they're watching to understand what god is doing by watching what we're doing that's how his will is becoming manifest interesting interesting which things the angels desire to look into now all of this can be climaxed in the first chapter of the epistle of james the lord's brother he says my brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations the word there really means trials diaries trials knowing this that the trying of your faith work with patience but let patience have her perfect or complete work that you may be complete an entire wanting nothing the word perfect there is perfected in the sense of being completed okay count it all joy boy boy boy that's that's that's a tough thing you just found out that something really went wrong pitching between the eyes counted all joy oh come on chuck you gotta be kidding no that's what james is telling so that what god has see there's nothing that can happen to you that isn't father filtered and that's a great comfort when something really goes wrong what a comfort to know that god's in it and i'll prove it to you before the chapter's over count it all joy well let's we're we're this is all by warm up because let's get back to romans back there where we started left off last time the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of god and if children then heirs heirs of god and joint heirs with christ every time i see that i can hardly believe what that i i cannot grasp what that must mean that we are joint heirs with him ah here's the rub if so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified this is a conditional reward if so be that we suffer when you suffer you're picking up points that are going to count in the real scoreboard the important scoreboard that's why i say many that arrive in heaven are going to be disappointed they're going to be shocked that a lot of the things they took for granted are not to be taken for granted because they're conditional they're based on obedience your salvation isn't that is your justification isn't but anyway let's move on for the for paul says for i reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us for the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of god the word therefore creates a creature created thing or creature is kitsis and it is a that really should be translated created collectively or individually better translation would be for the earnest expectation of the creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of god the sons of god are going to be manifest when he comes and that's what they're waiting for the interrelationship of man with his physical creation which he was a part of was established in god's sentence of the punishment on adam after the fall in genesis chapter 3 there's a curse pronounced upon the creation because of adam's sin the inner relationship is their manifest and by the way the word sons of god is a term referring to the creation a declaration of god and when it's manifested that we are new creations in him that's when the creation itself is going to rejoice let's go remind ourselves genesis chapter 3 back there when they when they they blew it adam and eve you all know the story the lord god said unto the serpent then the shining one because thou hast done this thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field upon thy belly thou shalt go and the dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life and i will put enmity between thee and the woman that's interesting between thee and the isn't woman interesting how islam singles out the women adversely tell me it's not satanic opportunity entity between thee of the woman in between thy seed and her seed ah there's two seeds the seed of the woman is the title of christ we all use that term we forget there's another scene seed of the serpent and he's forthcoming yet shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel unto the moment he said i'll greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception and sorrow thou shalt bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee and unto adam he said because thou has hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and has eaten of the tree of which i commanded thee saying thou shalt not eat of it curse it is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns and thistle shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in the sweat of thy face thou shall eat bread till our return unto the ground for out of it thou was taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shall return you see the connection though with the creation and the curse of adam why am i getting into this here because see we're under the curse the creation also is involved in that curse of genesis 3. and this is a future aspect of the redemption gee we're redeeming christ yes but so is the creation that's the point that paul's going to get into here see the creation itself is eagerly awaiting let's do it in verse 19 the verb for eagerly awaits the zebedee apec deco my it's used seven times in the new testament each time it's used it refers to christ's return i think that's interesting tell me that there isn't design in the scripture down to the very precision of the words god's word is pure the scripture tells us after the curse see the revealing of the sons of god will occur of course when christ returns for his own and we'll share his glory according to verse 18 and several other passages and we will be transformed but so the creation that's part of what's going on here that's what verse 23 is going to hit here all of nature inanimate as well as animate is personified as awakening eagerly for that time does very read about the lion and the lamb or the what is it the wolf and the lamb can lie down together right they can do that today if the lamb's inside the wolf right yeah verse 20 for the creation was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same and hope the word vanity there means futility frailty purposeless failure decay perishable describes change and decay that pervades all created things that's a scientific law we're going to talk about here in a minute god judged the totality of his creation along with the people for their sin his creation also bears that curse there's a name for that curse we'll come to in a minute yet the curse was instead instituted with a future hope and that's what paul is calling attention to here because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of god here here again is the word katissas katissas i guess i'm pronouncing that right it's a greek word for creation creature anything created after rabbinical usage by the way they use that term for a man that's converted from idolatry to judaism as being a new creation which is interesting that's very that's a very new testament kind of theology it refers to the sum or the aggregate of things created so the word creation is a more inclusive translation if you will but the other thing is the creation itself shall be delivered from what the bondage of corruption the bondage of corruption or the equivalent phrase would be the bondage of decay do you know that has a scientific name that has a name that shows up in every field of science except one it's called the second in thermodynamics it's called the second law of thermodynamics the law of entropy and i want you to understand law of entropy because see the whole universe we now watch as we understand from every field of science we realize it's winding down it's like a big clock has been wound up it's winding down nowhere is it winding up it's all winding down and that's the entropy laws by the way one of the questions that we should be asking okay who wound it up who ended up in the first place it's all been wound up well we're going to have if we just have one tenth of a percent difference in the ozone layer it's going to be cosmic doom oh gee that's interesting who balanced it in the first place if it's that delicate that proves it could have been accidental the more rare it is the more unlikely it was to be a result of randomness i'm coming back to that thermodynamics there are three laws that you learn if you're in college on thermodynamics first law conservation of matter and energy modern energy can be exchanged one another but you can't create or destroy either one second law is the law of entropy called the bondage of decay if you will the third law is everything has a positive finite entropy most people don't even get into that unless you're in in graduate school the first law says basically there's no way to win you can't create or lose there's no way to win matter of energy energy and mass okay that's where the e equals m c squared thing comes that's how much energy you get for how much mass but still it's just equation second law you can't even break even because every engine has a less than 100 efficiency there's always a loss to the ambient temperature and someday the universe will be at a uniform temperature and more work can be done they would call that the heat death the third law says you can't get out of the game you can't win you can't break even you can't even get out of the game that's really what they're doing says but the real one i want to focus on is what's known as the second law of thermodynamics the bondage of decay we find in the scripture by the way all through the scripture find it everywhere actually but in psalm 102 of oh thou has laid the foundation of the earth the heavens are the work of thy hands they shall perish really but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall wax old like a garment as a vesture thou shall change them they shall be changed that's an expression of the bondage of decay isaiah 51 6 lift up your eyes to the heavens and look upon the earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke the earth shall wax old like a garment see it's going on and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner but my salvation shall be forever and my righteous shall not be abolished and matthew says equivalent kind of thing heaven and earth shall pass away the word shall not pass away entropy what are we talking about here all information that is useful is ordered is ordered alphabets make up words just make up language that's order that contrasts with noise which is randomness community if you're a communications engineer you deal with signal-to-noise ratio it signals what you want noise gets in the way the ratio of signal to noise is how good your thing is whether it's a bandwidth or whatever see noise is entropy randomness signal is something ordered that you're after now there's a thing called disorder the opposite is order with me so far thing called noise and the opposite of that is a signal something you're interested in noise is what you're trying to get out of the way cacophony and music today that's hard to tell but i'll get into that here there is chaos confusion and the greek term for order is cosmos and the word cosmos means bringing order out of chaos it's the route from which we get the term cosmetics it is all right rand this on the left here is randomness different expressions of randomness on the right are different expressions of the opposite of randomness which is design over here we call that entropy over here we call that information that's how they're different one is ordered one is not ordered they're opposites to each other in fact it's even worse there's an inherent flow towards entropy it takes energy and commitment to bring order out of disorder your front hall closet your locker at school your desk at home or at work whatever you leave it alone its tendency is to disorder when you're willing to set aside a saturday morning and spend the time to get it straightened out great how long does it last the drift obviously is to entropy it takes energy and effort and information to go the other way now in the information sciences there is a thing called randomness and you would be astonished at how difficult it is to get randomness see most of us were taught in school a kind of mathematics it's called deterministic 2 plus 2 equals 4 always a plus b equals c always whatever okay that's deterministic e equals m c squared f equals m a that's deterministic mathematics there's another field of mathematics it's called stochastic processes just a fancy word in which some of the elements in the equation are random the average height of a woman walking through a an aircraft door the guy designing that door has got a problem how tall is a woman well she's about this tall but it can have this variance and you're suddenly dealing with whoops the height is a variable it's got to be it's part of a probability distribution you see and you've got women and men well they vary they're not they both vary but they have that point you suddenly just you're plunged in the real world in which data is has included in it a random element whole different field of mathematics by the way and uh so it turns out by the way in science and laboratories you often need for certain reasons a source of numbers that are truly random now where do you find a random number how can you get a number that's truly random let me ask you a better question how do you know it's random how do you know here's his set of numbers how do you know they're random one of the great think tanks in the world is called the rand corporation and back when i was with ran not i had nothing to do with this but they they published a book in fact it was 1955 they published this book called a million random digits you say oh come on you got to be kidding what's it all about just random numbers the question is how do you know the random it took the biggest think tank of the world at that time using the most powerful computers that were available at that time to go through these and wash them and scrub them to make sure that there was no periodicity there's no repeatability there were no patterns of any kind that they were truly random because there were occasions for certain experiences and so with the scientists needed to be able to reach in and pick up some numbers that he knew were random that begs the question what do you mean by randomness so this is around corporations one million random digits and a hundred thousand normal deviates you say you got to be kidding they published a book on that it represented at the time a milestone in of scientific publication try to find a better source today well i can do it the computer no you can't what the computer has in it is a generator called a pseudo random number generator and there are a string of numbers that have for certain limited expressions a reasonable amount of randomness but they're not perfect i was chairman of western digital and one of the first thing first uses we made of the data encryption chip was to use it as a source of random numbers because that was something that was needed inside a computer million random digits that's all it is now why am i getting into this here because i want you to remember this how do you tell that it's random because this is not as trivial as it sounds what is its defining characteristic i want you to remember this if nothing else about this silly example it has the total absence of design they use the best computers the best minds to go through this to make sure there was no design evident no repeatability no patterns no design if you would have told those scientists back then that we're going into a day where it's going to be illegal to teach our kids in school that it takes intelligence to design that the that our universe our bodies all these things happen by randomness they would think you're putting them on that would be an iq test that anyone would fail they didn't understand that randomness is the opposite of design and we're in a culture that has inculcated our culture our teachers our legislatures our attorneys before juries total ignorance of the role of design design happened by randomness anyone that's been in here in a design team knows that if you have a design team of any complexity there's coordination and skillful court is required to bring it home altogether and anyway okay same thing's true with design design is order chaos is the absence of order or entropy every field of science recognizes this except one things go from order to disorder intrinsically only biology and anthropology attempt to ignore entropy that's where you get the ascent of man the whole idea that you can have random chemicals that somehow get together and produce a living cell more complicated than any of most cities on the earth etc the entire theory of evolution we'll use that term what we really mean is biogenesis i'm not talking about micro adaptation a lot that's not the issue is the origin of life is a direct violation of the entropy laws anyway paul continues here with that background because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious liberty of the children of god they'll that creations can be delivered from in some sense at least the entropy laws really well that changes everything it's going to be begin with a relief of nature's curse in isaiah micah zephaniah zechariah it's all through the old testament can a woman we'll fly down with the lamb today yes if the lamb is inside the wolf right yeah it's gonna be different then for a thousand years be people living on the earth without the curse now we'll be totally gone or slightly lifted i have no idea but clearly there's going to be some major changes not just you and i but in the creation itself so god's program for the salvation for people as one of a new creation and paul talks about that in several of his letters the physical world is also going to be recreated now we're going to now encounter three groans in the romans eight three even the groans are going to be beneficial here grown number one of three now what i mean by a groan what's the term is translated it means an intense longing an emotional pain the entire creation is presently suffering you thought you were no the whole creation is paul says in verse 22 of romans 8 for we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now that's a strange idea isn't it whether it's a volcano or whatever you can imagine you just let your imagination go that's grown number one of three now deliverance of the creation is going to be in two stages stage one is gonna be the renovation of the present cosmos the return of the earth of the lord jesus will be stage one the establishment of the messianic kingdom on the earth my wife and i are doing some research and making some what we for us at least is remarkable discoveries that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of earth may not be synonymous most commentators assume they are we're beginning to suspect they're not there's some interesting differences the messianic kingdom that's really only matthew uses that term 33 times interesting so my wife and i are diligently exploring that area and going to be working in that area the second stage of course is that new at the end of the month the new heaven and new earth so there's two stages of complete renovation of creation complete renovation verse 23 and not only they but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves grown with us in our creations growing now we're groaning right ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption to it the redemption of our body that's what we're waiting for right this is grown number two by the way the believers here are described as having the first fruits of the spirit here's where the greek grammar helps us a little bit to understand most people don't realize what that means the appositional use of the genitive means that the holy spirit is the first fruits of god's work salvation and recreation in the believers holy spirit itself is the is the fruit if you will interestingly enough you think of it the word grown is in the present tense it means we keep on growing groaning we're continuing to grow each believer has already received the spirit of sonships that's what this is arguing each believer has the spirit of sonship remember the prodigal son he blew the inheritance he never lost his sonship there's a difference between sonship and inheritance you can blow the inheritance you're still the sun the redemption here apologen is a greek word for the release or deliverance achieved by a ransom payment that's us huh we're called by the way the revelation of the sons of god back in verse 19 remember the glorious freedom of the children of god that's in verse 21 a couple of verses ago the day of redemption is the term paul uses in his ephesians letter it will occur at the harpazzo or the rapture when the believers will be transformed with glorious new bodies and your scriptures full of those first corinthians 15 first thessalonians four and second corinthians 5 2 where we get the the habitation and of course first john 3 2 incredible passages but we're running out of time let's keep moving here on verse 24 for we are saved by hope but that hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth what if he had hoped for but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it that makes sense doesn't need a lot of comment but this gets saved see back here we are saved by hope what do you mean by saved here we get this that's a dangerous word i was saved what does that mean you mean theologically what's saying well let's talk about that it has the way we're using it here in the bible three three tenses three tenses of being saved there is the past tense have been saved ephesians 2 8 9. where you're saved through faith whereby gracie received through faith and that not of yourselves it that is the faith is even a gift of god that's positional salvation it's called justification to be more precise and once you have that that's like having your passport stamped you were declared saved from the penalty of sin you haven't changed yet but your passport is stamped because jesus christ paid for that stamp you are justified he is justified in letting you in or enter heaven that's your entrance ticket many people are comfortable with that they think that's enough they're in for a surprise unfortunately they've got their get out of hell free card no there's more coming than that that's the past tense the penalty of sin the present tense of beings are you're being saved it's present tense continuing that's operationally by the holy spirit moment by moment that's not a one time thing you go down the sawdust trail and make a decision for christ great that's getting your justification are you being saved i hope so operationally by the holy spirit you're being delivered from the power of sin penalty of sin past tense power of sin continuing present tense that's called sanctification to get it distinct to be more precise that's why salvation is a is a fuzzy term let's be precise one is called justification one is called sanctification we're not through there's a future tense you shall be saved what does that mean from the presence of sin that's called redemption of our body here in verse 23 past tense penalty of sin present tense the power of sin in your lives day to day moment by moment you sin need not reign over you you have the power to overcome it through the holy spirit you have the opportunity you don't have the power of the holy spirit has the power and of course the element is to be delivered from even the presence of sin glorification but if we hope for that we see not then we do what patients wait for it the word hope there and the word in the greek is different than the way we use the word hope it's stronger than no i hope and i know we see from us knowing is stronger than hope no in the greeks the other way around to hope is that you're trusting in something you can't see but you're trusting in it with more certainty than if you could see it in effect that's the that's the concept that's there it's a confidence a sureness of future things it's almost the opposite of our use in the english the word hope sort of implies it out in the english right and pekka decami eagerly await is the term and again it's seven times in the scripture always of the return always connected with the return of christ interestingly enough and he who has the strongest hope will have the greatest ability under stress that's what second corinthians 4 was all about that we read earlier well make it verse 26 likewise the spirit also help with our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the holy spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered that's the third groan isn't it creation groans we groan we now have the holy spirit groaning for us now this is grown number three if you will it says the holy the likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities that's a present tense verb he keeps on helping he doesn't do it once and he's done he keeps on that's what the present tense means it continues it's continuing tense now by the way a lot of people misunderstand this and i'm not here to offend anyone i try to i try to have something to offend everyone i don't play favors um there are many people that take this as somehow related to the gift of tongues i'm not against the gift of tongues but this ain't it why because it says so the spirit itself maketh intercession for us not us making intercession right the spirit's gonna make with groanings which cannot be uttered to argue that those are tongues is reading something into it that's not there the holy spirit is groaning in a way that can't be uttered you see that see what i'm getting at okay so this may not have anything to do with tongues the groaning is done by the holy spirit not believers and apparently it's not stated in words is the point but not a big deal i've mentioned passing verse 27 and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of god praise god for that now this is a statement about the intimacy of the trinity that's been all through here but i want to just call your attention to it here the lord jesus continually intercedes for for the believers in god's presence that's what hebrews 7 25 is all about and he's also going to be doing that in verse 34 that we haven't gotten to yet okay this entire session then contrasts our present state with trials with the coming glory okay so we have the okay how are we doing here okay we're gonna make it here now we get to that verse which i suggest you put a tab on that page in your bible it'll save you a lot of time because i checked this about once a day to make sure it's still here if you don't know any other verse in the bible beside john 3 16 of course you want to know romans 8 28 we know that all things work together for good for everybody no all things work together for good to them that love god more than that to them who are the called according to his purpose but what a comfort that is now the quiz question is in this verse what are the three most important words the first three and we suspect that all nations no no no that we we hope that all things work together for good know what it says and we know we know that most things practically everything that what it says all things work together are you kidding do you take the bible really seriously let me tell you after literally 60 years of studying the bible and many times having to correct my impressions as i went along of course i'm learning all along it's always been in the direction of taking it more seriously than before yes i'm an extremist i believe that in psalm 119 when he says the word of god is pure when jesus says to satan quotes the scripture to him that that man shall not live by bread alone but by what every word matthew 22 when he goes up against the lawyers and quotes the psalm 110 he puts him to total confusion because of one yoda that makes adonai possessive how can if he's the son of david how can david call him my lord it hangs out of yod every yacht and tittle is there by design the scripture says so when it says this do i believe it absolutely does it sometimes get me confused yes and we know that all things work together for good to them that love god to them or who the called now here we open a pandora's box of confusion what do you mean the called and who called you and how do you know and how certain are you and so forth because any you think you think you understand it you get to verse 29 for whom he did for know them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren i love what charles hadn't spurgeon said about this verse he says i'm sure glad he we know he chose me when before the foundation of the world ephesians 1 4 right i'm glad he chose me back then because if he saw me now he might change his mind that was apparently originally with god chose before i was born i'm glad he did otherwise i love that uncertainty about the election can arise from some kind of self-righteousness but we'll get more of that next time but then he amplifies this in verse 30 moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified whom he justified them he also glorified that's your unbreakable links five unbreakable links the eternal choice and foreknowledge involves more than simply establishing a relationship between god and the believers this involves the certainty of your sanctification and that has caused hundreds of years of theological wars trying to reconcile that what about the carnal christian that gets that falls away was he not saved in the first place is he's if he if he doesn't see it all through to the end is he saved or not the armenians have their answers the calvinists have their answers they're both right and what they are certain they're both wrong and what they deny and there is a middle path that we'll talk about as we go here a bit and uh that's a whole study that i'm indebted to my wife we're doing some for which for us is some real research some very different perceptions emerging out of that those that god foreign he also predestinated to be conformed to lightning of his son that's what he said a verse ago right there are five phases here foreign predestinate called justified glorified that's the link unbreakable chain of five links whom before no then we predestined it called justified how do they foreign god's knowledge is outside time you can tell he can tell the head before ahead of it he predestinated but there are many scholars who believe that paul had the patriarchs in mind here abraham was predestinated he was saved before he was circumcised he was saved in chapter 15 he was circumcised in chapter 17. okay and he was saved before the law was given that paul makes a big thing of that the earlier chapters of romans as you recall so abraham in isaac thy seed is called that phrase is used in the scripture it's quoted in uh genesis 21 12. i mean it's in 2012 and it's quoted in hebrews 11 18 in that very context and it's going to be dealt with when we get to romans chapter 7. so well i mean excuse me in chapter 9 verse 7 excuse me and uh after ice comes jacob if god can justify that conniver he can justify any of us okay enough said would you buy a used car from jacob i don't think so and of course glorification there's joseph and there have been publications of over a hundred ways in which the life of joseph prefigures the life of christ over literally over martha w pink's to open that box so there's a whole that's a very interesting thing if you want to we have that in our justice commentary it's also in our appendix to our cosmic codes book you can find those if you want the whole list of 110. we know that all things work together for good to them that love god whoever called accord be called according to his purpose for whom he did for no he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren over whom he did predestinate them he also called whom he called them he also justified whom he justified then he also glorified tying this all together is an assurance not just of your justification but ultimately of your sanctification your challenge is is to have it completed in time to enjoy some of the fruits we'll talk more about that as we get into this well we've been through verses 18 through 30 why do christians suffer and the boot camp for heaven next time we're going to take the rest of this chapter verses 31 to 39 and it's going to raise two of the most fundamental doctrinal issues that confront anybody the whole issue of eternal security what does it mean is it there is it not whatever and eve and predestination versus free will is if it's really predestinated do we really have any choice does predestination make our choice illusory or do we really have a choice and if so what are the choices and so forth so let's just take a peek at what's coming what shall we say then to these things if god before us who can be against us he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things who shall lay anything to the charge of god's election is god that justifieth and who is he that condemneth it is christ that died yay rather has risen again who is even at the right hand of god who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or pearl or sword as written for thy sake we are killed all day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter nay and all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for i am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present or things to come nor height nor depth or any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of god which in is in christ jesus lord that's what we're going to take next time next session now what you want to do the faith versus free will issue if things are prophesied or predestinated do we really have any choice how do you answer that and what's wrapped up is can a christian lose his or her salvation that's a question there are good people good solid scholars say absolutely the rather good scholars say absolutely not okay we're going to deal with that head-on next time and this is going to so it's going to focus on two doctrines eternal security and what they call the perseverance of the saints what about the saints that don't persevere what's their situation what i want you to do for next time is take 12 verses and memorize them romans 8 28 pick the one up you want anyway right carry it through to the end of the chapter 39 memorize it between the next name and as you do that in your notepad take the seven questions and find out what the answers are there's seven questions that are posed there and i encourage you to take a look at that let's stand for a closing word of prayer okay let's bow our hearts father we praise you for who you are we thank you that we have your word on so many issues we thank you father that there is a destiny that you've called us to we pray father that through your holy spirit and through your word you would help us realize and achieve that destiny not by our efforts but by the holy spirit working through us we thank you father that you've gone to such extremes that we indeed can enjoy your riches at christ's expense become our riches at christ's expense and father we also thank you for the holy spirit that through him we have the opportunity to cease the reign of sin in our lives we thank you father for the resources that he the holy spirit has brought to us in this relationship we pray father that through your word and through that spirit we might indeed fulfill that destiny that you have called us to as we commit ourselves to that destiny in the name of yeshua our lord and savior jesus christ [Music] amen [Music] you

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020