SPEAKER_00: Still dealing with allergies.
SPEAKER_00: Be over that by now.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, all right.
SPEAKER_00: Well, as we noted uh last week, we're continuing with Romans 8 today, with the goal of finishing up on Wednesday evening, and I realize that some of you may just can't attend on Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00: I will make every effort to record that one so that you can tie it all together, hopefully.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you can't be here, as it turns out, it it will deal with um Romans 8 28, which is just a great passage.
SPEAKER_00: It's the one where it says that God works out all things for the good for those who love him.
SPEAKER_00: And then uh there's a um section on what's called the believer's triumph at the end, and then there's that Calvinistic passage I mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: And I I thought about trying to cover 28 in that section today, but it just seemed to flow better in the context of um the what follows.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll deal with it then.
SPEAKER_00: Um again to set the stage briefly.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has been talking about how the believer is to walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And we said last time, perhaps more precisely, he affirms that believers do walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he writes, the spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
SPEAKER_00: As such, we are heirs and co-heirs with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There will be suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we considered that is instrumental in some way in bringing us to the fullness of the glory that God has for us.
SPEAKER_00: That glory, while we cannot give all the specifics, it surely includes eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: It includes a resurrected body, it includes sinlessness, it includes presence, of course, with our creator, and also, of course, no doubt, with our loved ones who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning we'll be reading from verses 19 to 27, Romans 8, verses 19 to 27.
SPEAKER_00: For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God's sons to be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay and to the glorious freedom of God's children.
SPEAKER_00: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the first fruits, we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Now this hope we were saved.
SPEAKER_00: But hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?
SPEAKER_00: Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
SPEAKER_00: In the same way, the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.
SPEAKER_00: And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, uh, we continue studying here in Romans 8, which is uh very encouraging chapter for us.
SPEAKER_00: So, Father, we pray as we consider these things that you would just uh give us encouragement in it and strength and help us to learn more from it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we thank you, Father, for your word and ask for your guidance in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul transitioned really from walking in the Spirit to our ultimate glorification in verse 18, and we talked about that last time a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: The reference to our glory and the associated sufferings then moves into a new thought of how all creation is currently groaning in anticipation of our glory being revealed.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to offer an outline because it it just seemed to the text seemed to lend itself to one.
SPEAKER_00: You probably can see it as well.
SPEAKER_00: It's first we'll have creation groans, and then we groan, and then finally the spirit groans.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so creation groans, we groan, spirit groans.
SPEAKER_00: All this groaning sounds like this old folk sermon, don't it?
SPEAKER_00: It'll apply to all of us in some way.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so the creation is waiting eagerly and with anticipation.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: In order to be set free from the bondage to decay into glorious freedom, into the glorious freedom of the children.
SPEAKER_00: There's that word decay, everything breaks down, right?
SPEAKER_00: Not only us, but everything in creation.
SPEAKER_00: As we read here, creation has was subjected to futility.
SPEAKER_00: This is the uh second law of thermodynamics.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember that from your science education, all those years ago for some of you, for me especially, but not to put too pineappoint on it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the law that disorder in a system is always increasing, which we can say it in reverse.
SPEAKER_00: Order in a system is always decreasing.
SPEAKER_00: We're breaking down, in other words.
SPEAKER_00: It may seem more obvious why we are waiting for our glorification, which we'll come to more momentarily, but why should creation care about our glorification?
SPEAKER_00: Well, again, Paul says that creation was subjected to futility, clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Richard was talking about it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this came clearly on account of our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And thus creation will benefit ultimately from our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: I want to turn to Isaiah 11.
SPEAKER_00: I want to read the passage from which our little lectern emblem comes from.
SPEAKER_00: You've noticed it.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 11.
SPEAKER_00: And beginning, I'm gonna read verses six through nine.
SPEAKER_00: The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
SPEAKER_00: The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be together, and a child will lead them.
SPEAKER_00: The cow and the bear will graze, their young ones will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle.
SPEAKER_00: An infant will play beside the cobra's pit, and a toddler will put his hand into a snake's den.
SPEAKER_00: They will not harm or destroy each other on my entire holy mountain, for the lamb will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water.
SPEAKER_00: Now we read that, that has to be after redemption, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because no one is going to be playing near a snake's den nowadays, especially not a toddler.
SPEAKER_00: Um in thinking about this, a little teaser for our upcoming study.
SPEAKER_00: We will be looking at the fulfillment of this more in detail when we consider prophecy in a few weeks.
SPEAKER_00: That study is going to delve into these Old Testament passages concerning what appears to be Israel's ultimate fate.
SPEAKER_00: What's clear here in Isaiah is that creation is certainly going to be liberated.
SPEAKER_00: This provides a wonderful view of what that's going to look like.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not going to dive into it here, but for your thinking, again, we'll come back to this in our prophetic study.
SPEAKER_00: That passage in Isaiah is thought of by many to be what we would call a millennium passage.
SPEAKER_00: And we've talked about that some.
SPEAKER_00: You may recall what that is.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us are probably what is called premillennial.
SPEAKER_00: And according to premillennial thinking, we experience the redemption of our bodies at the coming of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Creation, however, will not be transformed fully until the new heavens and new earth appear after the millennium.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the premillennial view.
SPEAKER_00: I make mention of it because it's of note here that Paul doesn't say anything about that.
SPEAKER_00: And I've noted this before, but we're confronted here with a concept, and it happens in a number of New Testament passages, which are against the premillennial view, which is why there are other views in part.
SPEAKER_00: But again, the idea, many Christians, probably a number of you, not most of you, believe that Revelation 20, and we've studied this some, but also Old Testament passages like I read from Isaiah, which we've not studied as much, and as which what I intend to do, some suggest a millennium of Christ's reign where we redeemed saints and our resurrected bodies will live on with sinful humans for this thousand-year period or whatever, however long the millennium is.
SPEAKER_00: However, the New Testament writers often seem to equate the return of Christ with the final transformation of all creation, as in here, and as in Revelation 22.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 22, 3 says, There will no longer be any curse after the new heavens and new earth.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says here the creation will be set free from bondage after Christ's return.
SPEAKER_00: But again, in premillennial thinking, death continues on in Christ's return.
SPEAKER_00: So which is it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we'll discuss that more later.
SPEAKER_00: It's something for you to ponder on now and perhaps do some self-study.
SPEAKER_00: For the moment, Paul is personifying creation to make a point.
SPEAKER_00: Just like when Jesus said, you know, if the stones would be quiet, or if these people would be quiet, the stones would cry out.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of personification, really.
SPEAKER_00: We know that things will be much better after Christ's return, irrespective of our millennial viewpoint.
SPEAKER_00: The earth will be in a much better environment than we're having to deal with now.
SPEAKER_00: The whole creation is groaning until that happens.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, looking forward to it, anticipating Christ's return as we are.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's why Paul writes that creation was subjected in hope.
SPEAKER_00: When I first read it, it sounded a little strange to me.
SPEAKER_00: It sounded, I don't know how it comes out in your translation or if you noted it, if you have a CSB, but it sounded like God was hoping.
SPEAKER_00: I I think it means that creation is hoping.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little vague the way it's phrased.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's kind of put in a figurative way, I think, again, for the personification of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Guzik says it's indicating that it was God who ultimately subjected the creation to futility, not man or Satan, because only God could do it in hope.
SPEAKER_00: I guess that makes sense when we think of our own plot.
SPEAKER_00: We are subjected to all kinds of difficulties, and even if God didn't directly cause it, he allowed it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: So from that standpoint, he subjected us to it in a sense.
SPEAKER_00: He could definitely have stopped it, but it's all done in hope, and it's in our hope in God through those difficulties.
SPEAKER_00: The other possibility is that verse 20 is not referring to God, where it says, because of him who subjected it in futility.
SPEAKER_00: Translators often view it as God naturally because typically what they do when they have a pronoun in the Greek is they'll go to the last noun and say, okay, that's what the reference is to, and God is the last noun.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the reason they think that it's referring to God.
SPEAKER_00: However, the correct reference may be to Adam.
SPEAKER_00: It would actually make more sense, and Paul would just be using the term for him at like a grammatic, non-personal effect, meaning all of us sinners subjected creation to futility.
SPEAKER_00: And if he does mean God, though, it would have to mean that God subjected the earth by his judgment on what Adam done.
SPEAKER_00: So either way, the good news is this is not a permanent situation, right?
SPEAKER_00: The creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and decay.
SPEAKER_00: Creation is groaning, Paul says, as if in labor pains.
SPEAKER_00: And that, of course, is hopeful.
SPEAKER_00: He says labor pains, which is something, you know, that brings something good.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say death pains, thankfully.
SPEAKER_00: The creation's distress is, if you will, different from ours because the frustration of the creation, what it's experienced, is not its own fault.
SPEAKER_00: It's our fault.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I separated it from creation.
SPEAKER_00: We're part of creation, but we humans have a part in the fall.
SPEAKER_00: Non-human creation did not.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that will bring up the issue in some people's minds about the angels and the fallen angels and that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00: I only mention this briefly because Paul doesn't discuss it at all.
SPEAKER_00: They were created, the Bible indicates, uh, but it doesn't give us a whole lot of information about them.
SPEAKER_00: Um it does say all creation is groaning here.
SPEAKER_00: I almost suspect Paul just doesn't want to get into it.
SPEAKER_00: For one thing, I suspect they were all affected by our fall as well, but they had a fall before that.
SPEAKER_00: Um as far as the groaning part, the good angels probably are groaning until we are redeemed.
SPEAKER_00: The bad angels are probably groaning, but for a different reason.
SPEAKER_00: They're not looking forward to our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: So it could just be that Paul says, I'm not gonna get into that right now.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have to worry about it too much because that's not his main purpose here, is going considering the angelic part.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the creation part that we do see.
SPEAKER_00: Creation that we do see ended up being bound with the fate of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: It's because of human sin and the rest of the created world outside of the angels.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't obtain its purpose because of what happened with the fall, thus it's groaning.
SPEAKER_00: If creators was creation was conscious, in other words, it's looking for our redemption.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is no doubt referring to all the imperfections that have come upon the world because of the fall, just what we were talking about, the instability of our weather, right?
SPEAKER_00: The hurricanes at the coast and in the mountains of all places, as we experienced tornadoes, droughts, floods, earthquakes, where you know the Teutonic plates of the earth are shifting.
SPEAKER_00: Um, these are natural disturbances in our world.
SPEAKER_00: They will not be in the new world.
SPEAKER_00: You know, what we call the catastrophic events.
SPEAKER_00: Currently, they're there because creation was subjected to this futility.
SPEAKER_00: And it's more than bad weather, right?
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can think about it, I was thinking about the lawn.
SPEAKER_00: It's futile.
SPEAKER_00: You mow it and you have to go mow it again.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it just keeps growing.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I want to pour mine in concrete.
SPEAKER_00: I want to live, I want city life without living in the city.
SPEAKER_00: It's just don't happen, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's futile.
SPEAKER_00: When you wash dishes, you're just gonna dirty them up again.
SPEAKER_00: Just have to do it again.
SPEAKER_00: I shave, I have to shave again.
SPEAKER_00: One good thing about getting older is I don't care if I look a little unkempt.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter to me if you think I'm crazy and you want to avoid me, that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I don't have to shave as often, but I still have to shave.
SPEAKER_00: Point is, and we all know, everything runs down, everything decays.
SPEAKER_00: Something's always wrong in the house.
SPEAKER_00: There's something always broke in your house.
SPEAKER_00: You get one thing to fix, and there's something else you gotta fix.
SPEAKER_00: That's the way it works, and it's almost it's working against us, it seems like.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, we're not told specifically how these things will be, but we're rest assured here that creation won't be working against us, it won't be like this.
SPEAKER_00: Creation is groaning, and not only is creation groaning, so are we, the children of God.
SPEAKER_00: Why are we groaning?
SPEAKER_00: Well, a big part of it's these bodies, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: The older we get, the more we groan.
SPEAKER_00: But then our cells, Paul says, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: We mentioned last week in conjunction with the fact that we are the children of God, and it's it's we've got the spirit of adoption now, but the fullness of adoption, it says, comes here when we're given our new bodies.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's when we'll be given the full heirs, that's when we're like full sons in the sense we get it all.
SPEAKER_00: We're children now.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible makes that clear, but the fullness of it is coming at the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: This is also another way of answering Paul's question back in Romans 7: who will deliver me from this body of death?
SPEAKER_00: And this means more than physical wellness.
SPEAKER_00: That's typically how we think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was I was thinking about that this week and praying about it and studying.
SPEAKER_00: I I want to think about it more in a little different way today.
SPEAKER_00: We are free from guilt because we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul has talked about how we are to walk in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, we have an obligation to do so.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means, and we understand, and that's what he's been talking about, is we're fighting our mortal flesh that we have.
SPEAKER_00: When we get redeemed bodies, then what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned earlier today, and we mentioned it last week, that we will be sinless.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's hard to imagine, I think.
SPEAKER_00: And the question sometimes comes up: how do we know we won't sin?
SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that we won't have free will after Christ's return?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, why won't someone just repeat what Adam and Eve did?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't know that the Bible gets very specific about it, but I think this is what Paul is talking about, what he's talked about in these earlier chapters.
SPEAKER_00: I think we'll definitely have free will after Christ's return, much more so than we do now.
SPEAKER_00: If we're Christian and we love the Lord, we wouldn't sin now if we had control over our free will.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is our free will is actually restricted by the power of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We want to obey God.
SPEAKER_00: The reason I sin is that my will isn't completely free, it's still in a fight with the will of the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: The sinful nature, that's what Paul talked about so much in chapter 7.
SPEAKER_00: He said, The good that I want to do, I don't do.
SPEAKER_00: But he says it's because of the flesh, not because of my spiritual will, if you want to call it that.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I want to follow God.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is our wills currently aren't 100% free to obey because we are body and soul.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, so says Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, our body is still saying, Hey, give me what I want.
SPEAKER_00: When the resurrection comes and I'm liberated from this body of death, then I'll be truly free.
SPEAKER_00: And so will you.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, when we think about Adam and Eve, as best we can tell, they didn't have a predisposition to live a holy life at creation.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have sinful nature for sure, but they didn't have the Holy Spirit either.
SPEAKER_00: So I'd say they're about as neutral as you can get.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is debated.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is when I read it and study it, this is what I think the Bible is saying.
SPEAKER_00: And what and if we take it as a whole, they had absolute free will until they fell, but they were tempted by the devil and deceived.
SPEAKER_00: At least Eve was.
SPEAKER_00: It seemed that Adam just didn't want to lose Eve, so that's why he fell.
SPEAKER_00: But ever since they took that wrong step, no one has had free will, not full free will.
SPEAKER_00: Once we are glorified, our will will be freed up from the law of sin in our flesh.
SPEAKER_00: We won't have the desire to do wrong, or some have suggested, and this may be just as difficult to think about or for us to really comprehend, but some have suggested, and I've thought about it, and it makes some sense, there may not be anything forbidden.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all we see that was forbidden to Adam and Eve was eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: Now it doesn't mean that there's not other things that are wrong, but we don't know of any other thing that they were told not to do, and that is quite possibly because they wouldn't have even thought to do anything else wrong.
SPEAKER_00: They having the tree in the garden was a test for them.
SPEAKER_00: It was a test.
SPEAKER_00: Were they going to follow God?
SPEAKER_00: The fact is, we're all being tested in this life.
SPEAKER_00: We're being tested now.
SPEAKER_00: If we make it to the resurrection, we pass a test.
SPEAKER_00: When uh I did Fay's funeral, I've done this other ones, but I read that section where um Paul says, I've finished the course, says, I've fought the good fight.
SPEAKER_00: And at that point, testing it.
SPEAKER_00: Is over at Christ's return, at least for the redeemed, testing is completed.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all remember going back going to school?
SPEAKER_00: Think about going back to school and you finally get through grade school or college or high school, whatever you did.
SPEAKER_00: You have to take test, but once you finish the highest level that you were going to finish, you're not taking tests anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You're moving on to your profession.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is you're doing, testing's over.
SPEAKER_00: I remember I went back um to school after I'd been out of college a few years.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I wanted to get my master's uh in accounting.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't bored enough, apparently.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I went back and uh I think I took I took two classes I remember at Appalachian State, and I I can't remember if I'd done them the same semester.
SPEAKER_00: I think it was over two semesters.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, at one point in the middle of the tax class in the that year, I was like, I'm not doing this anymore.
SPEAKER_00: I actually like my job.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need this to do my job, and this is for the birds.
SPEAKER_00: I'm getting out of here.
SPEAKER_00: So I did, I thought about just dropping out, but I thought, well, I'll go ahead and finish uh in case something crazy happens.
SPEAKER_00: I'll lose my job and I'll have to do something else.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't want to deal with those tests.
SPEAKER_00: I was living life, working.
SPEAKER_00: No, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: We won't have to deal with the sinful flesh anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You won't have to deal with the devil.
SPEAKER_00: There won't be anything tempting you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it I understand it's hard for us to imagine as life is often a daily struggle, I think any of us would admit.
SPEAKER_00: And people bring up the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't he fall without any any temptation?
SPEAKER_00: I think he did.
SPEAKER_00: It's argued by some that Satan was created as a tester.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've heard that, um, because I've never taught it.
SPEAKER_00: I I mean it's not an unreasonable suggestion.
SPEAKER_00: We we've we're not given a lot of information about the devil.
SPEAKER_00: And some people think we're not given anything about him before the fall.
SPEAKER_00: They don't think that any of those two passages in the Old Testament really apply.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I just don't think there's any way that God created the devil to be doomed for destruction rather than a being who chose to sin.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if the devil is some kind of robot-like creature, it seems you would have God creating evil.
SPEAKER_00: So I do believe the traditional view of Ezekiel 28.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we I'm not gonna turn there, but you can look at it later if you're not familiar with it.
SPEAKER_00: The picture of the king of Tyre probably is a reference to the fall of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: It seems to indicate the devil was created perfectly, which makes sense, but then he failed due to pride within himself.
SPEAKER_00: Um so if that is the case, and most Christians think it is, could that happen to us after glorification?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'd submit that's a big part of how we're going through what we're going through now.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people are given the gambit of options here on the earth.
SPEAKER_00: You can partake of all the various sins, do your own thing.
SPEAKER_00: When we come to Christ, we ready we've already determined that's no good.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the way to go.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I understand we're all tempted.
SPEAKER_00: I we get that.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's the flesh pulling us.
SPEAKER_00: But it's quite possible that the suffering that's mentioned so often is contributing to our glory in some way, as we're told that it does.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe it's just embedded in us in a way that will help us recall in eternity the pain that is brought about by sin, so that we won't forget.
SPEAKER_00: But it's clear we'll be sinless.
SPEAKER_00: What else could Revelation 21 4 mean?
SPEAKER_00: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Death will be no more, grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is the cause of all that, the cause of tears, death, and ultimately pain.
SPEAKER_00: Sin will be no more.
SPEAKER_00: Not for us.
SPEAKER_00: I and yes, we will be delivered from bodily decay.
SPEAKER_00: We had a spa day yesterday.
SPEAKER_00: I've only done it once or twice before.
SPEAKER_00: We were supposed to be getting some work done around the house, and Rile said, uh, let's let's not.
SPEAKER_00: So she really had to twist my arm, you know, get me to not do work around the house.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so anyway, we ended up there there's this place called Shoji over there in Asheville.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've heard of it, but they have different things.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, we decided to do this massage chairs.
SPEAKER_00: Any of you ever been in those?
SPEAKER_00: I that's a little bit scary.
SPEAKER_00: I I didn't know if it was helping me or if it was gonna break my spine.
SPEAKER_00: Because I mean, it was and Mariah's had that kind of thing before, so she was telling them to turn it up.
SPEAKER_00: And the girl was asking me, Do I need to turn it up a little?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, No, it's it's good.
SPEAKER_00: Where it's at, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I I let her turn up just a little bit after a bit.
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was gonna rip my feet off.
SPEAKER_00: It was just crazy.
SPEAKER_00: And after we got done, I did feel a little looser, you know, feel a little better.
SPEAKER_00: But I got up this morning as the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Like nothing ever happened.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm like, man.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're dealing with.
SPEAKER_00: There will be no more sickness or pains or death or aging.
SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder what age our bodies will be in the resurrection?
SPEAKER_00: I thought about that before.
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I I was thinking maybe teens to early 20s, just that's the closest approximation when you seem to be your strongest.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know, maybe we'll be like in our 30s or even 40s and have the energies of the younger ones.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: Um, I doubt if we'll get tired.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think sleep will be a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: Although my mom loved naps so good, she probably hopes we do get to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And eternity, some people do, they like napping so good.
SPEAKER_00: But um I I it it will be glorious, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're being promised here.
SPEAKER_00: Though there'll be no more groaning.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be saved from physical ailments and spiritual struggles.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we're groaning for.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 24 and 25 then talk about the hope that we have as we wait.
SPEAKER_00: When we're saved in Christ, that hope is out before us.
SPEAKER_00: It seems something distant to us, but it may not be that distant in reality.
SPEAKER_00: People will say, Are you living in the last generation?
SPEAKER_00: You think we're living in the last generation?
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm living in my last generation, and so are you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not going to outlive ourselves in that way.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we may not be living in the last generation, but we're living in our last generation, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so in any case, we hope for the redemption of our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting here.
SPEAKER_00: Here, first to hope in the same way we see faith referred to in Hebrews 11.
SPEAKER_00: There's there it's faith is the assurance of what is hoped for.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a parallel, really, and it says that Paul says we are hoping for what we do not see.
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a little different than faith.
SPEAKER_00: The hope is here, because we really don't have a concrete understanding of what it's going to be like.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we have faith in that Jesus rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: We we have a concrete understanding of what that is.
SPEAKER_00: We have faith in the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: We have a concrete understanding that we're going to be raised in some way, but the hope goes beyond that in the sense that we're hoping we don't even know it's what we're hoping for.
SPEAKER_00: We're hoping it's as wonderful as we dream.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul, in effect, says, yes, we wait for the redemption of our bodies eagerly, but yeah, we have to do it with patience.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is someday we will be set free from all this.
SPEAKER_00: But hope, by its very definition, isn't yet, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's in the future.
SPEAKER_00: It's if you're hoping for something, you don't have it yet.
SPEAKER_00: Because already here we'd be experiencing it.
SPEAKER_00: That seems straightforward, but I think Paul just wants us to be reminded it's good to keep your hope in this.
SPEAKER_00: It will help in your struggle with the trials you're dealing with today and even with the sin that you struggle with.
SPEAKER_00: We have a great hope of what's to come when we're in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And if it is our hope, we'll wait for it.
SPEAKER_00: We do it with patience because it's not here yet.
SPEAKER_00: So there's going to be occasion for groaning until Christ returns, which is okay for us.
SPEAKER_00: Why it's okay for us to complain a little bit about our ailments.
SPEAKER_00: We're following what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: Groaning about my aching body, groaning about my failed behavior at times.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, please deliver me from this body of death, Paul said.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this would be much more daunting if we didn't have the help of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has already told us that the Holy Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us more here of how the Holy Spirit is actually helping us with inexpressible groanings in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: We often don't know how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: God himself, who lives in the person of the Holy Spirit, helps us by making intercession for us.
SPEAKER_00: So the term inexpressible groanings, this will may surprise some of you, but um I think that may include at least a reference to praying with the spiritual gift of tongues.
SPEAKER_00: And by that I'm not referring to a foreign language.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that is certainly the reference of speaking in tongues in Acts 2 at Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: There's not much doubt about that.
SPEAKER_00: But as we said when we studied 1 Corinthians 14, I don't know if you'll remember this, but Paul does seem to speak there of a private prayer language, which is something different.
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually going to read it because 1 Corinthians close.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 14 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For the person who speaks in a tongue is not speaking to people, but to God.
SPEAKER_00: Since no one understands him, he speaks mysteries in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And then over in verse 14, he says, For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: What then?
SPEAKER_00: I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with my understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if I've I probably said this at the time we studied, I don't remember for sure.
SPEAKER_00: But I think anyone can speak in tongues.
SPEAKER_00: Um it seems to be to me anyway, to be, and others have kind of indicated this as well, it's like an emotional type utterance where you just free your tongue and speak.
SPEAKER_00: I think it would be done in the joy of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I've done it myself a time or two, but as Paul indicates here, I also want to pray with my understanding so I don't practice it.
SPEAKER_00: But in in deference to our charismatic brothers, I don't have any issues with it, so long as Paul, uh as what Paul indicates in 1 Corinthians 14 is this.
SPEAKER_00: It seems to be that it should only be done in private unless someone can interpret.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't recall anyone ever interpreting when I've been in services when tongues were spoken.
SPEAKER_00: But I think the purpose of the gift of tongues is enable Christians is to enable Christians to communicate with God in a manner that is not limited to our knowledge or our ability to articulate our heart before God.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's possible that our minds can sometimes get in the way of what we really should be praying for.
SPEAKER_00: Um that said, even if Paul is thinking about what we call a gift of tongues for the spirit's inexpressible groanings, it certainly would not be limited to tongues.
SPEAKER_00: And really, I'm not sure he's referring to that.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't specifically mention it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fairly easy leap because he said he spoke in tongues over in 1 Corinthians 14, but it's not certain because it would have been easy for him to specify he was including tongues if that's what he meant.
SPEAKER_00: So, so so don't get all upset.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not advocating that we start speaking in tongues in the service.
SPEAKER_00: What you do on your own time between you and God is your business.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the main idea, I think, is that the Holy Spirit communicates beyond our ability to express.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's really getting to.
SPEAKER_00: The deep groanings, the things that we really want, and sometimes we don't even know how to articulate it, those longings.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit does that for us.
SPEAKER_00: While we are groaning and waiting, the spirit is helping us.
SPEAKER_00: And since we have the spirit in us, part of what's happening, part of the reason we're groaning, is we see everything now through the spirit's eyes or through Christ's eyes, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're more Christ-like in our orientation, we're at odds with the sinful world now.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we see things going on, it's just very upsetting to us or distressing.
SPEAKER_00: Watch the news.
SPEAKER_00: I've almost quit watching it.
SPEAKER_00: It's just so, oh, I watch it and I get so frustrated.
SPEAKER_00: And I think part of what this is saying is that the Holy Spirit takes that dissatisfaction with the real problems in the world and translates that into prayers that speak to God in a way that we really can't get it out, or maybe don't know exactly how we would or should express it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is telling us that all this discomfort from being in this world and what we suffer in its fallenness is not unnoticed by God.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit helps us communicate that to God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this again further bolsters what we said last week that God leads us behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00: We talked about we are led by God's Spirit because we have God's Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Here we see how the Spirit can take even our internal decisions and really put it before God as well.
SPEAKER_00: You know, because we when we're trying to figure out something, we may him and hawl around and not know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: But it's saying here, God is searching our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the deep things that trouble us, what deep things that we long for so badly.
SPEAKER_00: And God helps us in that and fashioning our prayers as the Spirit is with our spirit and bringing that before God.
SPEAKER_00: It's really an amazing consideration when you think about this.
SPEAKER_00: All this groaning and discomfort that we experience.
SPEAKER_00: It is not fruitless.
SPEAKER_00: God is seeing to it that it's not, it's being communicated to Him.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, we're gonna stop here.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you looking at what's left in chapter 8 are inclined to say, I'm not coming Wednesday because he'll keep us all up.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'll try to keep it moving.
SPEAKER_00: We will have to spend some time on verse 28, but I'll I won't spend much time on the Calvinistic section.
SPEAKER_00: And then again, the rest of the passage falling under that header of Believer's Triumph.
SPEAKER_00: That's going to be encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: So I think it'll be good.
SPEAKER_00: I'll try not to leave you groaning and waiting in anticipation too long.
SPEAKER_00: Plus, there'll be food.
SPEAKER_00: There's food now, too.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and pray off for God's blessing on that too.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, thank you so much for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your encouragement, Father.
SPEAKER_00: That you we don't even know what to ask you a lot of times, and and that the Holy Spirit is translating for us or interceding and and and making it clear where we're deeply longing or deeply lacking or what what we're struggling for and with, Father.
SPEAKER_00: You you bring it to yourself through the Spirit, through the the wonder of you being the triune God, Father.
SPEAKER_00: We we thank you for loving us like that.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for all you give to us, and just thank you as as again as we study your word together, and please um help us to apply these things that we learned today and be encouraged by it.
SPEAKER_00: And uh thank you for the food we have, and again, for the food and the fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: We go ahead and ask your blessing on the meal, and just thank you so much for the abundance that you've given to us, and we praise you for it, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we'll do one more song.