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God from joint heirs with Christ, If so be that we suffer within that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in US, for the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Where the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in cold.
Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth and pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Even we ourselves grow within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patients wait for it.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
And he that searches the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the Saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that we might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, then he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified.
What shall we then say 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 elect? It is God that justified. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yeah, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.
Who also make it intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As is it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in 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, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We had the last reading meeting. We have become children of God.
Part of God's family now.
And in becoming part of God's family, we have received the life and nature of that family.
Peter calls it the divine nature.
And having received the divine nature, the life of the family, it enables us, it gives us the capacity to feel.
Things as God sees them and feels them, so our Jesus who passed through this world as a perfect man, suffered.
He didn't have sin in himself, but he did suffer because.
Law in the person of the Lord Jesus with the nature that he had.
Felt the results of sin and man, another brother said. In many conferences like this for many years.
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He used to say something like this, he said. It is not the difficulty of the way.
But the compassions of his heart that made the Lord Jesus a man of sorrows.
An acquaintance with three. And this 1St 17 is it's if we suffer with him, this isn't suffering for him, this isn't suffering illness in the body and tribulations of that character, but in this first of different types of sufferings. This first one is suffering with him, that is having the same life and nature. We now have a greater capacity.
To feel what sin has brought upon mankind and to suffer in our lives as a consequence of it, in compassion and love for mankind.
The Lord Jesus daily experienced what it was to interact with people.
Who had in their in their bodies and in their lives that which was the consequence of sin. And he felt it.
It grieved his heart. It was a pain to him. And so as long as sin exists in the world, and it will exist through our lifetimes, we are going to be children of God. We are going to suffer, and we're going to suffer in that same character that he suffered. And so it calls it here, suffering with him.
I'll ask a question down in that regards that is suffering with him, but would it would that not also include the results of sin are all around us, including old age and and sickness and all of those things?
Wouldn't it include how the Lord felt when he?
Witnessed all those things and went through them. Yes, soon apart in his case.
But it's it was the compassion of his heart for everything that he experienced in his relationships with others that had been caused by the effect of sin, like old age. And so you see this.
So you see it in John 11, don't you, when the Lord Jesus comes to the grave of Lazarus?
There were really two reasons why he groaned and wept at the grave of Lazarus. One was sympathy for those sisters. He understood what they were passing through, how they loved their brother. They were sorrowful in connection with the death of their brother. But he also groaned and speared and was troubled as he felt the effects that sin had brought in. And it's really what you have in Isaiah 53, isn't it? When it says he.
Well, let me just, let me just read it. It's quoted in Matthew, but let me just read it in Isaiah.
Because sometimes this verse I'm going to read is applied to the cross, but it isn't it.
Is not the. Its application is not at the cross.
Verse 4. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem and stricken, smitten of God and afflicted when it says He had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. In Matthew chapter 8, I believe it's verse 17. You can look it up.
That verse is quoted there in connection with the Lord Jesus feeling the effects of sin that had come into the world as he went about and viewed it, as he touched those that were sick and healed them and so on. He felt it very keenly. And so at the grave of Lazarus you see those two things. And what I want to say in connection with what Dawn has brought out is that the Lord Jesus after 30 some years of life in this world.
Never became callous or indifferent to sin and its effects. He he was sent apart. He was wholly harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. He was the Holy One. And when he stood at the grave of Lazarus, he felt the effects of sin as keenly as he did at the beginning of his public ministry, and he never got used to sin and its effects. I say that because if we're not careful.
We can become callous and even indifferent.
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In and its effects we might go through a trial, it might be a long trial and afterwards we kind of build up a crust and we get a little bit callous to it. We lose several loved ones perhaps, and we the effect of sin and death kind of wears off a little bit. We're not as sensitive as or as keen to what we're passing through and so we need to be careful in that we need to keep close to the Lord, we need to walk in personal sanctification and holiness.
So that we don't get used to sin and its effects. But isn't it wonderful, brethren, to realize that even though that may happen with us, and it does, I I think to some degree we all have to admit that it does happen, especially as we get older and we experience more of these things. But aren't we thankful that there's still one now who, though he walked this world and is not in this world now? Yet as a man he feels with us the sufferings of this present time?
We sing a hymn that I believe sums it up so beautifully, he in the days of feeble flesh.
Poured out his cries and tears, and though ascended feels afresh what every member bears. And as we go on and we speak a little bit about the trials and difficulties of this present time, maybe there's someone here and you say, well, there's nobody understands me, just nobody I can go to in the difficulties and trials that really understands. But there is one who does, the one who went through it himself as the perfect sinless man.
And felt it with those sisters and so many others. Is the one that goes through it with us and not only sympathizes, but empathizes with us because he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
In the context of this portion, it speaks quite a bit about groaning in the verses that follow, and I think that's what Ronnie is, isn't it? Is.
The recognition that things are not the way God meant them to be in this world, and so the Lord Jesus himself groaned.
He realized how far things had come from when He created them, and he is the Creator.
Saw how far it had degenerated, and he felt it deeply.
And we do. As we look around in the world today, brethren, we need to be sensitive. We need to groan.
Sometimes thinking groaning is not complaining. Complaining is something that we shouldn't do.
Complaining says I'm not in agreement with this. I don't know, I don't appreciate it. But thrown in is simply the recognition that things are not the way that God meant them to be. So that is what it means, like has been brought out that we suffer with him.
Look over at Syria now and how women and children are being slaughtered.
As well as soldiers, you feel that?
Can we isolate ourselves from those things that are happening, children that are starving to death? Is this the way God meant it to be in this world?
How awful this world is, and we need to know what it means to groan.
Well, you see it too, don't you, with the children of Israel. You know, it's interesting that when they groaned, God heard their groanings and he came down to deliver them.
It showed that it wasn't wrong to groan under the ******* of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. But later on, when they murmured and complained, he came in in his governmental ways. He heard their groanings and there was blessing. But when they murmured and complained, as you say, that was not what they should have done. And when they murmured and complained, they were really questioning God's wisdom and God's care for the providential care in their lives.
But in this chapter, Brethren, we need to see that we have two things. We have a contrast, two things. It's really our present state, contrasted with what is ahead, with what, with the glory. And that's why in the verse we began with, he speaks of suffering, but then he speaks of the glory. We shall also be glorified together. And Brethren, what is it that's going to keep us from murmuring and complaining?
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Or not. We may groan, and that, Bob said, That's right, and the Lord groaned in spirit and was trouble. But what's going to keep us from murmuring and complaining? It's to keep in view what's ahead. If we lose sight of the end, if we lose sight of the glory and all that is before us, we are going to murmur and complain. And that again, was the problem with Israel, when they lost sight of what was before them.
And the end of the story, when they only saw their present circumstances, or they looked back to Egypt from whence they had come, they murmured and complained. And that is why in the 16th of Exodus, very shortly after they were in the wilderness and they were murmuring and complaining, and Moses cried to the Lord. The Lord said to Moses, tell them to turn around, they're looking in the wrong direction. And when they looked out over the wilderness, what did they see? They saw the glory of the Lord revealed in the cloud.
And as long as they kept that before them.
Though they felt their circumstances, it kept them from murmuring and complaining. But when they lost sight of the glory of the Lord in the cloud and what was ahead, and when they turned from 1 to one side or the other, or looked back, then the difficulties came in. They got under the present circumstances. And so that's what we're going to find in these verses that follow. He speaks about hope and the glory that's ahead and what's going to be revealed.
And he contrasts the sufferings of this present time with the glory that's going to be revealed in US brother.
Not that we want to underestimate the circumstances. You know, there's brethren right here in these seats are passing through real circumstances and we don't want to belittle them. We don't want to talk like they're nothing, but we need to put them next to what is ahead. We need to contrast or compare them with the glory, and that's what's going to make the difference.
When they first got into the wilderness, one of the first experiences the Lord passed them through was they came to the waters of Mara that were bitter.
And they couldn't drink them because of the bitterness. And God told Moses to cast the tree into the waters. And the waters were made sweet, which we believe is the picture of the cross of Christ, the death and resurrection of the Lord. Jesus is what gives us an escape from these things. And I hope before us of resurrection a new life. And so it's picture there.
But I want to. I want to look at our our chapter here in a in a broadview.
In seeing what God is doing in that when God made this world and allowed sin to come in or Satan brought sin and man brought sin into the world.
It looked like all was ruined, but God never makes something and allows it to go on incomplete.
Would not be God if he were. So God always finishes what he does and he's going to finish the work.
When both creations really.
But his plan to in order to undo sin and to give deliverance, was to send his Son, the Lord Jesus into this world, to identify with us in going through the world of sorrow and sin and feeling it all.
What was his purpose? To bring in deliverance. God took this upon himself to do it when no one else could do it.
But when God chose to send the Lord Jesus into the world and to bring in deliverance by going into death and rising again, and then his choice, brethren, was to associate a people with him in that coheirs, joint heirs, This is our privilege.
To be called to this, to be associated with him.
When he reigns, when he puts it all into into its proper place.
Now let me ask a question. Would it be right for us to sit there with him and be associated with him?
Without having experienced any part of what it cost him.
To redeem us.
No, it would not have been.
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If we suffer with him, we shall reign, so he gives us the privilege then in that sense.
Of passing through the life here and feeling those things, He gives us an ability to feel it like he felt it.
To go through these things.
If, brethren, we can see our life now in this view.
What we're being assault, who were being associated with where It's all going to end up how the Lord, when he gives, brings in the deliverance of the creation.
He's he has chosen to identify a special people with him in that hour.
We are a part of that people and so when we see this whole picture.
It it gives us this hope, It talks about hope that is not seen. We don't have a hope that we don't see by faith. We see where this is all going.
Know the creation is going to be delivered from all of this other people and believers in this world. They look out on it and all they have is a blight.
Fatalistic.
View of how the world must be going to come to an end in a catastrophe or whatever, they don't know, but not so for us.
I'd like to go back to connect this chapter to verses that we're familiar with earlier in Romans.
Chapter 3.
And verse 23.
All of sins and come short.
Of the Glory of God, Chapter 5.
Verse.
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope.
Of the glory of God.
And then back our chapter again.
Verse 18.
Verse 17. We may also be glorified together.
And then verse 18, The glory which shall be revealed.
God looked upon man, and he came sharp.
Well, the only standard that God could have, which is consistency with his own perfection and glory.
And man came short of it. And so in the Romans, and in the beginning of it he shows us what he did in Christ to bring us into a relationship that took care of sin.
And removed it from his site.
Justified us before him and declared us righteous. And then he said, Now you can have the hope.
You can rejoice in the hope of that which is still ahead of you which is entering into that glory of God.
That I purpose for you. And in our chapter we learn a little bit more about how we get there because it's still future for us.
But the day is coming. Today is really the day of God's grace.
He's working toward the day of his glory.
And right now we're in the liver time of the liberty of His grace, but we're going toward the day when they'll be in the liberty of His glory, and in that time when His glory is in display.
We will be perfect.
In spirit and soul.
And body we will be totally consistent in our chapter. In Chapter 8 we learn about the redemption of our body, which is something that's necessary in order to bring us into that which we hope for, which is to be in the glory of God.
John, who takes it up in his own way in his first epistle. It says any man that hath this hope in him.
Purifieth himself as he is pure, that is, he recognizes he's not in that condition.
That is consistent perfectly with the glory of God.
But he's on his way toward it.
And he is lives. His life is it where he purifies himself even as he is pure. But when we enter into the fullness of the glory of God, we will be pure. We will be like Him, perfectly like him. As it says there, we shall see him as he is. And that's what this chapter is bringing before us. Is that future glory.
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But it's saying you're not there yet that hasn't yet been realized.
But we did come short of it. Now we live in the hope of it, and it's coming ahead of us. As Jim puts it commented already earlier that we need to have that vision, if you will, of the end result of this work that's going on by God, when we shall be perfectly and completely fully measure up to the glory of God.
When it says here that we may suffer with them.
That also means that we should suffer with.
Them that are his own with our brothers and sisters when they are in big trouble.
We know the Lord Jesus could never get sick or have some kind of a cancer or anything like that, but he could suffer.
When they?
Those that had leprosy at that time, sometimes ten of them, sometimes two of them.
When they came to him and said, Lord, have mercy upon him, upon us.
Well, He could suffer with them. When He healed them, He knew what they were feeling when.
Their members were just wasting away and falling off their body, a terrible thickness.
He could suffer with him in their sicknesses, which were so terrible.
And he couldn't do any anything but immediately heal them. That's what was in his heart.
Well, we should have a heart like that too, because it says that we may be also glorified together. We talk sometimes a lot. How wonderful it's going to be in heaven to be with him.
And to have this wonderful place.
Good, we have promised it, but in order to have that same compassion that he had.
Did we suffer like he did? Was a creation with our surroundings? Sometimes I hear people say well, like the Syrians.
The Muslims, they say.
God had no son. Got nothing to do with that. Because you, We hate you.
But how do we feel about that?
I was thinking of the condition of the Israelites after the churches.
When Samuel was just in the process of growing up.
And there they were. They had wanted a king.
And now?
They were surrounded by the Philistines they were going to be.
Threatened to be destroyed and they had no weapons.
What did the Lord do to them then?
He made him feel their weakness when they when they thought they could bring the the ark of the covenants out and they made a great big.
Now is that now they were going to be.
Saved by the Ark, and they weren't. The Ark was taken.
And their failure seems so good, man put them in the in the temple of Dagger.
What did God do then? But he showed them that he knew what idolatry was. They can fell down right on his face. His head was cut off the second time, his hands.
It's he told him that idolatry means nothing, but they're just making the ark an instrument.
Of.
Helping them without being exercised.
Didn't work at all either, and later on he they would find out that the art arc had come, Had to come back.
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Yeah, I couldn't stay with the philistine, although. So it is today.
Mars lamps. They can't be saved unless they come to the Lord Jesus, but we have to have compassion with them to get to that point.
When we speak about the glory and so on, what is ahead?
It's helpful to see that there's not just going to be glory revealed to us. It is true we're going to view a vast scene of glory in a coming day. But brethren, we're not only going to view it, but we're going to be part of it in the sense that, as Don mentioned, we're going to have bodies of glory like unto his body of glory.
We're going to have glorified bodies in that day, and not only that, but when heaven opens up to reveal the Lord Jesus coming back in power and glory, it says in Thessalonians. He's coming to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that are about him in that day. That's more than just glory being shown to us or revealed to us. We're going to be part of it and when the world looks up in the coming day.
And they see Christ in the heavenly company. It won't matter where they look or who they look to. Every St. of God in that day is going to perfectly reflect the glories of Christ. Now this is what He's presenting to us, brethren, to encourage us to give us that vision, to go on with the sufferings of this little time, that which is referred to in the end of 2nd Corinthians 4 as our light affliction, which is but for a moment.
And again, in that chapter, he's making the contrast of the glory that that is ahead. And so if we can get ahold of that, we think of what's going to be revealed to us. But, brethren, it's more than that. And to think that we're going to be part of that glory that's going to be displayed in a coming day that ought to, that will encourage us and give us the strength to go on like to just say this too as we go down these verses.
Remember, brethren, that just because we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't mean we're immune to all the things that affect a world that is under the curse of sin. I say that because I know that there are those in some Christian circles who teach and have taught that if a person reaches a certain level of spirituality or holiness or whatever it may be.
That we now become immune to pain and suffering, and the things that affect a world of sin. But when man sinned in the Garden of Eden, not only did man come under the curse of sin, but as we have in this chapter, every level of creation came under the effects of the curse of sin. Everything from the leaves on the trees to the animal life. The whole creation, as he says here, groaneth and travaileth in pain.
The redemption hasn't been fulfilled yet. It's been secured by the work of Calvary, but it hasn't taken place. There will be the redemption to whip the purchased possession in a coming day when the world when the creation is set free. But brethren, let's realize that we are still in a world of sin and sorrow, and there's no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. I'm not immune to what my next door neighbor goes through.
You're not immune to what your fellow student who sits at the next.
Desk goes through even though you're a believer and he or she is not. But the difference is we have one who, as we've been saying, who is faithful with us, one who sympathizes, one who empathizes, one who cares for us, and one who gives us a vision of the coming glory to sustain us. Your ungodly neighbor goes through a trial, and they become depressed. They get overwhelmed.
People take their lives because they just can't deal with the present circumstances. They don't have the resource and the future that we have, and that's the difference with us. He passes us through these things, allows these things in our lives to focus our vision on what's ahead and to cause us, to avail ourselves of the present resource that we have in himself, and to prove that God is faithful.
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Sense of word? Race.
We call this the day of grace. We rejoice in the verse. By grace are you saved through faith?
And we can see the working of the grace of God in Romans to deliver us presently from the domination of sin.
And its power over us by the indwelling of the Spirit of God, even to us in grace.
But grace doesn't always have the sense of removing us from something painful.
The Apostle Paul shows us the other side of it, and other scriptures do as well, but I'll just use that one. He had a thorn in the flesh. It was painful to him. It was a trial in his life.
And three times he prayed that it might be removed from him.
Was the grace of God not active at that point?
In the need of that man, in the desire of that man, in the prayer of that man.
Lord gives him an answer. He says my grace is sufficient for thee.
My strength is made good the weakness.
That is.
The present activity of the grace of God is frequently.
To sustain us in the trial, not always to deliver us from it.
And that's very important for us to recognize as it was in the life of the Apostle Paul. He accepted it.
He accepted that for the rest of his life he was going to have the thorn in his flesh. He also rejoiced that the grace of God was going to sustain him the rest of his life.
In that and enable him to go on in that less than perfect condition of life. It wasn't the state of glory that he was looking onto, and in fact it was the very outcome of having seen that glorious none of us have. He was taken into the third heavens, and it was such a fantastic experience to his life, and the one else that ever experienced it before since that when He was brought back into the present condition of things.
He received that thorn of the flesh. He had a wonderful experience by Rice. But then he needed the grace of God to keep him in his soul from that point on to the end of his life. And so, brethren, it's good to accept the grace of God in our lives as that which enables to sustain us in the trials of life and in the anticipation of the full deliverance.
Not only accept the grace, but they accept the trial from the Lord, isn't it? I think that's important is sometimes we tend to tend to rebel against the circumstances of life, but it's accepting them from the hand of the Lord. And so that Paul could say I rejoice in my.
Afflictions so that because in that way the power of Christ rests upon me when I am weak.
Then am I strong and so experienced strength that was not human. It was strength from God that worked through the tribulation.
In this chapter here in verse 17, it deals with the question of errors, and necessarily that means we're talking about an inheritance. It's a very interesting theme in scripture to to meditate on what our inheritance is. I think perhaps one of the largest views of the inheritance is in Ephesians 1.
Where it speaks about every created thing in heaven and in earth.
That's our inheritance. But the inheritance today is marred with sin. What is called here the ******* of corruption?
Been mentioned how that when man, the head of the creation, fell into sin the whole creation.
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Suffered as a result.
But the Lord Jesus is going to receive the inheritance. He hasn't received it in fact yet.
In Psalm 2, prophetically he says he's told the Lord Jesus is told ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. And so there's going to be an inheritance and we are united to him.
Position. So we are called joint heirs with Christ. But brethren that inheritance when he gets it, is not going to be marred with sin. It's not going to be under the ******* of corruption. And that's what we have in these verses. Verse 21 Says the creature itself also shall be delivered from the ******* of corruption.
Into and he could read it The Liberty of the glory.
Of the children of God. I don't think we have too much of A idea of the glory of the future day when Christ will reign supreme. And this creation that we live in today that is so marred, so struggling under the ******* of corruption, will be liberated. It's beautiful to go through the book of Isaiah and to read the different expressions.
Of joy that will reverberate in the earth in that coming day when the ******* of corruption is lifted off of this creation. The animal creation is going to be different. The lion is going to eat straw like the ox. The animals that today are ferocious are not going to be that way in that coming day.
Oh, and I day is just ahead.
You know, it's so tremendously different than what we know in the world today. And this world has known since the fall of man that it seems like it's almost fantasy when we read about it. But, brethren, it's going to take place.
In reality.
This creation is going to be liberated from the ******* of corruption. What a glorious day. I enjoy that little expression in Isaiah 55 where it says the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Trees clap their hands.
You can just imagine the trees moving with the breeze and.
The joy that will reverberate through the whole creation will be such that it seems like though even the.
Plant creation is rejoicing in the.
Liberation from the ******* of corruption that will take place in that day.
Oh, brother, and what a day of glory is at hand.
Sometimes when we speak of redemption, we limit it to ourselves, don't we? But redemption has a far, far more broader thought than just our being redeemed. And I think that's it's beautiful to see. And we don't really understand what the coming glory is, the vastness of the coming glory. The extent of the coming glory is if we just limit redemption to ourselves. Before I turn to a verse in Hebrews.
Just say this too, that we sometimes limit the thought of redemption by saying this redemption is to buy back, but that's only part of it. Redemption is to buy back, but it's more than to buy back, It's to buy back, to set free. You and I are redeemed. We've been bought back, but we've been more than bought back. We've been purchased. That's true. That's what purchase is. It's to buy. But we have been bought back or purchased to be set free.
I just want to read a couple of verses in Hebrews in connection with the broader thought of redemption. First of all, in Hebrews chapter one and these verses I'm going to read will notice a little difference in the in the Darby translation from the King James because in the in the King James translation it limits it to the thought of our redemption. But if we'll notice Mr. Darby's translation, there is really a broader thought than that.
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Just to get the connection in Hebrews one, I'll read verse two happen these last days, spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things. Brother Bob's been Speaking of that. Notice this by whom also he made the world's. So the context here is in connection with the Lord Jesus as Creator. But now notice what it says in verse three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.
And upholding all things by the word of His power. Now he's not just the Creator, he's the sustainer of the universe as we get in Colossians by him. All things not merely consist but subsist work under his headship and direction. But now this is what I want to notice when He had by himself. I'm going to read this in Mr. Darby's translation. Made the purification for sin sat himself down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
I believe the thought here is more than just the fact that he's purged our sins. That's true.
He has, and we can read this the way it appears in the King James and we can enjoy it. As for how it appears, it's very true. He's purged our sins. But brethren, he's done more than that. As creator, he's made the purification for sin and redemption. At Calvary's cross, he's going to take creation back and set it free in a coming day on the basis of redemption. He's made the purification for sin. Now just go over to the second chapter.
Again, a very familiar verse, verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death. It's a broader thought than just for every man, but the thought here is for everything. And so in Hebrews chapters 2, one and two, it's more than just our being brought into the blessing and good.
Of Deliverance and redemption. Later on we get that in the in more specific.
In the 10th chapter, by one offering it perfected forever them that are sanctified and and so on. But in these two chapters it's a broader thought and I thought of it in connection with what Bob said and we need to look at the full scope of that glory that's ahead. He's going to be glorified. He's going to be vindicated on this planet that spit in his face and cast him out. He's going to bring it all into a position of blessing where the the effects of the curse.
Are not felt like they are now in the Millennium.
And then in the eternal state, all taint of sin will be removed, all evil done away, and we shall dwell with God's beloved through God's eternal day. That really won't happen until the Millennium, and it will be finally the fulfillment of what John the Baptist said when he saw the Lord Jesus walking in this world. He said, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He's taken away our sin.
But he has not taken away the sin of the world yet, but he will in a future day.
Like to make a little plea on behalf of animals?
When God created us.
And I need he gave us a collective responsibility for him in his order of creation, he said. I'm giving you dominion.
Fish over the beast field.
All the suffering you see today in the animal creation is a direct result of our failure.
And we read here in these verses that the Lord isn't going to leave what we have failed in dominion that way.
He is going to restore to them that which was their place in the beginning.
As Doug said, he doesn't leave jobs unfinished.
And so I see that, brethren, because we ought to have, and the Lord get compassion on the animal as well.
Yes, it's true that after Adam, I mean Noah came out of the ark.
God gave to man the animal for food, as he had not previously done.
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And the consequence of that for the animal was to fear man, as he had not previously done.
It's also true that because of our failure and the consequences of sin and the creation, the animal creation has been equally affected by it, and some of God's creatures have become pests.
And those tests have to be controlled.
And so they are in the measure in which man is able to do it. I say all this, though, that we not treat them callously, that we recognize that their pain and suffering is a direct result of our own failure, and that we look forward with compassion to the day of let's describe your Romans 8, when the Lord will undo the effects in large measure, the effect of what we have done.
To the animal creation which now.
Wrongs and suffers and looks forward to, Perhaps not intelligently so, but in its effect they look forward to the Day of Glory.
To end the war, orders everything according to his own honor, his own majesty, and the animals again are brought into harmony with the creation. This might bring out the thought here that the animals here in verse of the Creek the creature.
In verse 19.
They were awaiting something specific.
It says for the earnest expectation, expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Well, I I take that to be us in new creation. Man in new creation is going to be manifest to the world as God intended for man to be.
And that will not be in its in its failure, as it was manifest the first time, the result of man being manifested the first time he fell into sin. And the effect was that it it it brought the creature under a curse.
Well, now the animals are looking for man to appear the second time.
For man to be manifest.
In what? God is going to place us in a new creation. And so I like the idea that the Spirit of God ties.
The the manifest state that that what the animals are looking for is the manifestation of the sons of God.
We failed them in the beginning.
First creation. Now they're looking for what God is going to restore.
Us in our relationship with him, as sons of God, and in that relationship.
We're we're not going to fail with the creature again.
David Oregon, your he has come to the point where in the Revelation he's no different from the Beast and he's called the Beast. That's the end final end of the fullness of the iniquity of man. And without further comment we see a lot of it in the United States today and that is tending toward that manner of life and behavior that is makes him of the character of what blog calls in Revelation at least.
Man being an honor and understand it's not like the beast perish.
I think. Can't think of a happier beast than that little donkey that took the Lord into Jerusalem.
Day before yesterday I was out in the field driving tractor, which I hadn't done for quite a while and felt like home and as I was driving.
I noticed a hawk out in the field, soaring above, waiting for the next rabbit to jump out. Sure enough.
I saw a little rabbit running down the road, around the road beside me. I thought. Oh dear.
I know what's going to happen to this rabbit.
And sure enough, as the rabbit got close to the end of the row, the hawk saw.
And the hawk guarding.
But that wasn't the first time I saw that happen. Few years ago I saw that same thing happened, and this time the rabbit ran to a man's house.
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And he found cover where he knew a man would be to protect him. There are many stories of animals that run to to the human. I believe God has input that an instinct in them that would look to man.
As the deliverer for them.
But rather, there's an effort being made today to protect the animal Kingdom that's not of God, that is seeking to do it without the Lord Jesus Christ. We who are Christians know there's only one man that's able to put this world back together and deliver the animal Kingdom from the ******* of corruption, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's told us how and when he's going to do it, and then he's going to.
His people with him at that time when he does it, so we know the God's plan how it's to be done. But there's a there's a humanistic way of approaching the suffering of the animal and trying to elevate animals and to care for them. As if we humans were still in control and able to get this job done if we all band together and so on.
I do not believe that kind of effort is God's way. It's a denial of the Lord Jesus at who has is the only one that has proven he's able to do it and so.
I'm a full agreement about making a plea for animals, but I warn us too that not to be caught up in the humanistic way of approaching this problem.
I'd like to comment on that.
Man was degenerated himself to the point where he acts like a beast.
And as part of the process on the other side, he wants to elevate the animal.
To treat it like himself.
And both directions are wrong.
The animal or the creature is the creature and will remain the creature and he is not to be elevated.
In the extreme sense of what sometimes you see in the things dog refers to, where man wants to elevate the animal so that he has a status like you're an animal, I am.
And he's really denying his twice in the way that he elevates the character of the animal, and it's wrong.
It's not a God, and it never will be. When God restores the animal to their place, it's to their place. They will never be brought into a place.
Equality of treatment equal to now. You get that in Romans, don't you? Earlier enrollments because it says they changed the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
And that's what's happening today. As man gives up the light of God's word. They really go back to heathendom, go back to that which has characterized man for from from the beginning of man's history of of sin, and you find today that they're more concerned about saving whales than they are about saving babies and that kind of thing, but they worship and serve the creature more than the creator. When I was growing up in a suburb Of Montreal.
Out on a hillside nearby, there was a large pet cemetery with actual headstones. Some very nice ones too, where people could spend literally thousands of dollars and lay their pets to rest and all that. That kind of thing. So on the one hand, as we've been saying, it tells us in Proverbs, the righteous man regarded the life of his beast, and it's a poor testimony not to take care of what God has entrusted to us in creation, even if it's the animal Kingdom.
But on the other hand, we want to be careful that we don't get caught up in that movement. That would worship the creature more than the creator. All right, a farmer tell me once his cows knew the day he got converted.
President, on these efforts.
Man is getting to a dead end.
Because when you go to a zoo, just about every zoo.
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You will see tablets telling you that such and such already extinct and they are going to.
Counteract against it by breeding them artificially and keeping them in zoos and in enclosures which they have created, but at the same time they are taking the natural habitat away from these animals.
So what's going to be the end of this?
Something is going to be missing. You're going to come to an end dead ended these things.
In verse 19 we have that there are going to be delivered at the manifestation of the sons of God, and of course that's the end of the great tribulation. When we come back with the Lord Jesus and our manifested with Him in glory, then they will be liberated.
From the ******* of corruption. But maybe we can go on just a bit here, brother, and where we get to the end of our meeting and touch verse 23. It has something very special to.
Not only they, not only the creatures, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves.
Waiting for the adoption to win the redemption of our body. We don't have the redemption of our bodies yet.
We who are believers get old. We have aches and pains. We have Gray hairs.
Just like anybody else.
But we are waiting for that day when we're going to receive the redemption of our body. Of course that will take place at the rapture.
When we will be changed, we're not looking for death. But in in First Corinthians 15, it says that the last Trump, the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible.
And we shall be changed.
For this corruptible our bodies are corruptible, must put on incorruption.
And this mortal, this is the mortal body because it can die, must put on immortality. So it's like putting on some clothing. We're going to that's what's going to take place at the Rapture. And I think this is what it's referring to here, the redemption of our body. But I find it interesting, brother, that it's called the adoption.
Aren't we already adopted? Don't we already have as we have in verse 15?
We have received the spirit of adoption by which we cry ABBA, Father.
Why does it call this the adoption in verse 23?
When it speaks about the redemption of our body.
That's a question.
This is not an answer.
When the Lord Jesus died on the cross.
He paid the price.
For our whole person, body, soul, spirit.
He paid redemptions price that God should have his fact and body, soul and spirit.
And to mark out that fact, the Spirit of God, at that point in when we received the the message of the Gospel.
And we're born again and receive new life in Christ, the Spirit of God. At that point Dwells came to dwell in us, to mark us out as now belonging to him.
And he has already.
Been brought into us that life and nature which we will have for eternity.
He says. I want to preserve you, spirit and soul and body.
Until my coming about what's brought before us here is that we.
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Have not yet the results of that which is purchased at the cross and that is the Lord would say no, your body is. I have purchased your body too and I am going to finish the work in it that Bob just described in First Corinthians 15. And I believe in part that the adoption.
Connects itself with the Spirit of God, that is, identifies us with him as belonging to him.
I suggest one further thought. I think that's right, Don.
But that I heard a number of years ago, I think in a conference of a brother who said that now we look like.
That other people in the world, pretty much they're not that much difference in US and the man on the street.
But when we receive our new glorified bodies.
We will look physically like the sons of God.
Even physically we will look like it. And I think that's right. I don't think you'll have any Gray hairs. And that day, brother Dawn, will you?
Not planning on it, taking care of us.
No aches and pains. All those things will be a thing of the past. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is to think about it. Those are so familiar to us now. But, brethren, we will have bodies that are incorruptible, impossible that they be sick or corrupted.
Immortal. Impossible. Those bodies that we will have.
That they can die impossible.
And impossible as well as all things are of God and new creation.
That failure will, or since we call it, will ever, ever come into that creation. It will not. And so it's a tremendous thing, not only the physical side of it, but even more importantly, the moral.
Side of it, the law will maintain that creation and moral perfection for eternity.
That's wonderful for us to rest in that there will never be in the new creation anything that will spoil the rest of God.
Salvation in the book of Romans is taken up in three different contexts, or three different the three different tenses in which we operate here in the realm of time. In the 5th chapter you get two of those contexts. Just go back and I'll read it.
Chapter 5 and verse 10.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.
Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved from it by his life. I wanted to back up to verse 9. Actually, much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. And so we are saved. We talk about being saved. Last night we preached the gospel and we pleaded with souls to get saved. And we rejoice to sit here in these chairs this afternoon as those who are saved. We're saved on the basis of the blood of Christ.
The the death of Christ and the shed blood. So it's his death that has given us that salvation, secured that salvation. And so we look back, some here, look back maybe over many years, some over a few years, maybe some just since last night. And we rejoice to look back to the time that we came to know the Lord Jesus and we were saved. But then I it says in the in verse 10 where I read that we're saved by his life. What is that?
That, I believe, is that which is present. His present intercessory life for us now is preserving us in the path of faith. As we've been saying at the in the earlier part of this meeting, the Lord Jesus is living for us, interceding for us as we go through the circumstances, the trials, and the difficulties of life. Here we have one who's preserving us by His life. We're saved from wrath through His death.
Were preserved through the path of faith by his intercessory life. Now just go over to the 13th chapter, which corresponds with what we have in our chapter.
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And he says in chapter 13, verse 11, and that knowing the time that now it is high time to wake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. Here's something that's future we've just mentioned, a salvation that's passed.
One that's present and ongoing. But what is this? It's the redemption of the body. It's what we're waiting for when we will be caught out of this world from the very presence of sin and the circumstances that affect us in a world that's under the curse of sin now. And we will have glorified bodies, bodies of glory like unto His body of glory will have the redemption of the body. And that is the salvation that we're looking for.
The salvation that is yet future. I'd like to go back to Bob's question too, and I'd like to add just a little further thought, not to take away from what we've had, but just a little further thought to illustrate what we've been saying.
There were four of us growing up. We were all adopted. We were adopted at three different times from three different backgrounds. I was the oldest. I was adopted when I was two years of age. I have no recollection of of anything before that. Next, they adopted a girl, Jennifer. She was an infant.
But then, as the years went by, they adopt my parents adopted twins a way and a girl. And when they adopted those twins, those twins were five years of age. And the adoption process for them was very different than it had been when my parents had adopted myself and my sister Jennifer. And the difference was because the twins were older and the adoption agency felt that there needed to be probation.
To see how things went and if there was a proper adjustment time or a proper adjustment in time. And so my parents went to the adoption agency and they signed adoption papers. They adopted those twins.
But that wasn't the final transaction. Between the time they had they signed those adoption papers and the final transaction took place, there was a year or So's probation.
And then after the year they went and signed further papers and then everything was completed. They were part of the family for that year. They bore the highland name for that year. But the final transaction took place at a later date. And brethren, we are adopted as the sons of God. There is no question about it. Now. Where my illustration falls down is there could have been.
A difficulty a glitch between the 1St paper signed and the 2nd paper signed, and the agency might have decided to pull those twins from the family and not allow the final transaction, but rather.
Between us being adopted as the sons of God and the final, as it says here, the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body. There's no question about it, but there is a gap in between.
We are now here in a world of suffering. We don't always properly reflect as the sons of God, that we are the sons of God. There's not always that those proper, that proper reflection in our lives. Things come between us, but there's a day coming when the final transaction of adoption is going to take place and as we quoted earlier in this meeting, when the world looks up.
And sees us coming back with Christ. And to me it's one of the most thrilling truths of Scripture in connection with the glory.
He's coming to be glorified in his Saints, and to be admired and all them that are about him in that day. You know, Brethren, in the measure in which you and I are occupied with Christ and glory. Now there will be a reflection of Christ in our lives will be changed into the same image from glory to glory as if we get in the end of 2nd Corinthians 3. But that isn't always the reality of the situation, at least in my own life.
But again, breathing it just throws my soul to think that when the world looks up in a coming day and they see the sons of God manifested with Christ's coming in glory, there's going to be no doubt in the minds of those that look up who these people are. Because we will fully and unhinderedly reflect, physically and morally, the characteristics of the sons of God. We will be not only coming with Christ, but we will.
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Like be, be like Christ.
That's what it means in verse 24. We are saved in whole.
So there is no.
Question about it. Is it like you mentioned there might have been a question in the case that you're younger than.
But there's no question about it. But it is still future and that's why it is in whole.
I could just share one more thought regarding redemption. Brother Jim outlined the definition of redemption. Redemption is a price paid.
To purchase and and set free, but we're being set free from something being.
Being set free from slavery, slavery or ******* when man fell into sin, he lost his liberty, he lost his freedom, and he became a slave. And redemption is to pay the price in order to to bring us out from underneath the condition of slavery and to be set free.
That's the reason why the animals are looking for their redemption, because they're under the *******.
The the slavery that sin has brought them in, and we have here the redemption of our bodies. Well, as anyone here has recently gone through like our family has, the death of a loved one, we see the effects that sin brings the body under.
And you and I are not yet free.
From the ******* our bodies are not yet free.
From the ******* of corruption, we have not been yet set free.
To be beyond the reach of sin. And so we're looking for that time when we're going to be redeemed, we're going to be set free and even our bodies are going to be set free from the effects that they are now under because of sin and the the the ******* that that our bodies feel.
Could we sing #208?
#208.
In how we live our way.
Into.
The.