Transcription
We thank you, Lord, for a place to come together around your precious word. I pray you prepare our hearts to receive what our brother gives out for his blessing, for his time of study and preparation. I pray you help him to recall the things that you've opened up to him. My Father, I pray for our service today. Pray for the pastor. Pray you touch him, strengthen him. And I pray you come into this place and meet with us, for it's in your precious, holy, righteous name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Thank you, brother. Uh, before we do get started, I'm going to ask for a special prayer request for, um, you know who he is, Brother David Peacock. Uh, he was the, he was the president of my Bible College and he's a great mentor of mine, and, and I love him. And, uh, his wife, um, she had stage four breast cancer. She got through that, and she went to the, uh, hospital the other day, I guess, for a PET scan, and she lit up like a Christmas tree. So they took her back, and from what I understand, it wasn't cancerous, it was pneumonia. But obviously, she has a weak immune system. So pray for that, okay? Her name's Adeline. So if you remember to keep her in your prayers, okay?
Um, let's go ahead and get into the Bible here in Romans chapter 3. I think we left off in verse eight last week. My hand, okay. Wrong. Can you hear me? Good. Okay. Uh, so Romans 3:8. So we got some folks that are slandering Paul, and he says, "And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, 'Let us do evil, that good may come?' Whose damnation is just."
Okay, so this is the folks that are saying that, uh, Paul is saying to go out and purposely break the law. They're accusing him of this antinomianism, okay? And you'll see that today in some of your, some different movements, free grace movements, and those kind of movements, hyper-dispensationalists. They, they prescribe to this thing. They said, "Well, since we were justified and sanctified at the cross, we don't have to confess our sins." 1 John 1:9. Okay? And so that's basically, so that's basically what they're accusing Paul of saying, that just go out and purposely break the law. That's not what he's, that's not what Paul's saying. He's saying that justified without the works of the law, okay? So then not having, not having that understanding, or accusing Paul and their slandering him of this thing right here, this antinomianism, okay? Which means just simply no law. It's what that means. Okay? Anti and nomos is the Greek word for for law. Anti is against or no. Okay? And so that's what they're accusing Paul of. And so he's, he's making his case here.
Oh, okay. Look at verse 9. Now, let me just cover this here. Um, is God going to get the glory out of you one way or the other? Yes. If you do good or do evil, is God going to get the glory? He's going to get the glory one way or the other. However, he would rather you him get the glory out of you by imitation versus contrast, okay? He's going to get the glory in one way or the other, but he'd rather get it through you, through imitation, through being obedient, versus having to whip you and showing how exceedingly bad you are and how exceedingly good he is, okay? That's the contrast, okay? So that's what they're accusing Paul of doing is, is he's going around telling people to break the law and purpose so that God can be glorified, which is not the case. Um, and, and I've heard of some of those cases. Martin Luther, matter of fact, used to go down every Saturday night and get drunk, okay, to prove that you couldn't lose your salvation because the Roman Catholics, they beat him up so much over the Book of James, that he went down there and said, "Okay, I'll get drunk every Saturday night just to prove that I can't lose it." Now, do I recommend that? No. Okay? So that's, that's just an example of kind of taking that thing too far to prove your point, okay?
All right, so let's, uh, continue on here. He says, "Whose damnation is just?" He says, "What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin."
Now, let's go back to Acts 15. Let's look at the Council of Jerusalem and what they told the Gentiles. Look at Acts 15:29. This is after the Council of Jerusalem, and it's been established that, uh, as Peter stands up and he says that, verse 11, "But we believe that through the grace of, of, of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they." So there's no difference between Jew or Greek, right? We're all saved the same way, okay? But this is the, um, the advice that they give to the Gentiles. This is for, this is not a commandment, but this is good counsel, okay? Look at verse 29, "That you abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled." When you strangle an animal, it taints that meat. "And from fornication. From which if you keep yourselves, you shall do well. Fare ye well."
So these are, um, these are, this is advice coming from the council here and from from the apostles, how the Gentile should live. That doesn't mean that they're going to lose their salvation if they do these things, but however, it's good counsel. It's good for your testimony. If you stay away from these things, you'll do well. We talked about that last time about setting the example, not casting a stumbling block before somebody, those kind of things. And so this is the advice because you have to understand how the Gentiles were living prior to the gospel getting to them. They were a bunch of heathens, and that's even how they're referred to, okay? So there's some guidance here from the, from the council or from the, from the apostles, from the elders of the church, that you do well if you do these things, okay? But that's not saying that you're going to lose your salvation if you do those things, but you can lose your fellowship, okay? That's, so important to understand those, the difference between those two things, okay?
And so go back to Romans 3. So he's concluded that we're all under sin, right? "What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise. For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin." Therefore, we're all going to die.
Now, let's look at the list here. Uh, Paul gets into some expository preaching. "As it is written, 'There is none righteous, no not one.'" So that's everybody there. "There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all, or they are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no not one.'" Does that cover it pretty, pretty plain? Waist high, across the plate, right? Can't miss that. "Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace they have not known."
Now, what he's doing, he's quoting the scripture when he's doing that. He's expositing the scripture, and he's quoting the Old Testament, okay? Now, let's look at some of the body parts. Somebody read those things off to me. We got number one, we got what? Throat. No good. What's the next one? What is it? Tongue. Tongue's no good. What else we got? Lips are no good. Okay. What else we got? Mouth. What's the next one? Feet. Feet are no good. What's the next one? Eyes. Does it say eyes? Okay. Eyes are no good. What's the next one? Should say their ways, right? Their ways are no good.
Okay, let's go to, uh, Acts chapter 3. Let's find some other ones. Look at, uh, 3:23. I'm sorry, not 3:223. Acts 2:23, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Peter, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's important. "Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have have crucified and slain." So we got hands are no good, okay? We mentioned eyes. Let's go to Second Peter, though. Go to Second Peter chapter 2. Look at Second Peter chapter 2 and verse 14. "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; and cursed children." Boy, that's a damning rebuke, isn't it? All right, so we got the eyes again, okay?
Uh, let's look at Titus. Uh, well, let's go to Titus first, then we'll go to Jeremiah. Let's go to Titus chapter 1. Titus chapter 1. Look at Titus 1:15. "Unto the pure, all all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." So they don't have a good mind. They don't have a good conscience, okay? Conscience is no good.
All right, let's go, um, one last one. Let's go to Jeremiah 17. Familiar passage. Jeremiah 17:9. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" So the heart's no good. Can you trust your heart? No. What can you trust? You trust the book. It'll straighten you out when your heart goes one way and the book says another, you better listen to the book, okay?
So we've got throat's no good, tongue's no good, lips are no good, mouth's no good, feet are no good, eyes are no good, your ways, your hands, your mind, your conscience, and your heart. No good. That's a pretty, uh, it's not a very good resume for us as a human race, is it? "There is none good, no not one." Okay, so that puts us, everybody, in a mess. That's the Jew and the Gentile, both, okay? Because everybody has all these things here.
Um, there was another verse I was going to, going to run, but let's go back to Romans. I'll think of it here in a minute, okay? So all these things has put us in, in a mess, hasn't it? All right. So once again, he's making that argument, but both Jew and Gentile are under sin. They need a redeemer. They need a savior, okay?
Look at verse 18. "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Once again, there's their eyes. Their eyes are no good. But there's no fear of God before their eyes.
Well, let's go back to Isaiah chapter 29. Isaiah chapter 29, verse 13. "Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men." So these men are doing things to be seen of other men and other people, and they're taught these things by the precepts of men because they care about what man thinks. We covered this last night with the folks.
But go to Matthew 23. So they don't have any fear of God before their eyes. They have fear man. Well, the fear of man is a snare, as it says. Says. Now he's talking about the Pharisees. So for sake of time, just go to Matthew 23:5. "But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments." Their outward appearance is to be seen of men. Their outward actions are to be seen of men. But God knows the heart, doesn't he?
Not only does he know the heart, he knows your thoughts. Go to Matthew, let's see here. Matthew chapter 9, verse 4. "And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?" There's that, there's that wicked heart again. So he knows their thoughts. Go to Matthew chapter 12, verse 25. "And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." So he knows their thoughts, okay?
So go to Ezekiel 11. Let's look at the deity of Christ. Ezekiel 11 and verse 5. Ezekiel 11:5. It says, "And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak thus: Thus saith the Lord; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them." So people that think that try to prove the point that Jesus Christ wasn't God in the flesh, if he wasn't God in the flesh, he couldn't know your thoughts. He knows the thoughts. He is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Remember we talked about that thing at length? Criticos, right? The critic, okay?
So it puts everybody under, under that condemnation, okay? So everyone here, you think you're getting away with something. And that's what they thought was happening. They said, "Oh, God didn't see us." If you keep reading Isaiah 29, they say, "Oh, God doesn't see us." He sees everything, and he knows everything that comes into your mind, okay? If he was to put that on high definition, everybody in here would run out the back door for just the thoughts you had this morning, okay? So no, there's none righteous, no not one.
All right, now let's go back to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 and: 19. "Now we know that what things so, so, uh, what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." So all the world is guilty before God. Those who are under the law.
Let's turn to Galatians. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4:4. "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." So that's both Jew and Gentile, isn't it? Okay. Remember the, that Gentile, his conscience was being, was a law to himself, who doesn't know it's wrong to commit adultery? Who doesn't know it's wrong to tell a lie? Who doesn't know it's wrong to walk around naked? When a person becomes to that point of accountability, that age of accountability, they start to cover themselves up. Why is that? Why is it when somebody commits murder, they try to hide the body? Well, if, if you didn't care, you'd just kill the body, leave it laying there, say, "What's the problem?" But everybody, because they have a conscience and they know that that is wrong, they try to hide that thing, don't they? What did Cain try to do? "Am I my brother's keeper?" Got defensive about it. What did Adam and Eve do when they both saw that they were naked? What did they do? They hid themselves, didn't they? Because that conscience became alive, it became awakened, and they said, "Something I did something wrong, and therefore I'm going to try to hide and get away from God." Can you get away from God? No. Jonah tried it. Didn't work too well, okay?
So that puts us all in the same boat, in the same basket. We're all under the law, okay? We all have to. Look, go to James, go to James real fast. James chapter 2, verse 10. James 2:10. "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." If you've broken one of the commandments, you've broken all of them. You break one, death sentence that gets, that's what gets pronounced upon you. Amen, okay?
So go back to Romans chapter 3. Here we go. "Therefore by the deeds of the law shall, uh, there shall, or the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." It highlights your sinfulness, doesn't it? You got it written down in black and white, even though you had a conscience. Now here comes the law, it's double damning. So now it's, now why do you think they wanted to take that out of schools back in, what was it, the 60s? Okay? You take that law out of there. Well, that law is a knowledge of sin. So if you tell a child that they should not, "Thou shalt not steal," all those commandments that we get over there in Exodus chapter 20, those things are to be your schoolmaster to bring you to Christ, because what it does is it points out your sinfulness, and you say, "I can't do it." That's right, okay?
And we've pointed out many times talking about this thing where it talks about somebody keeping the law in the Old Testament. All right, go to, uh, Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8:2. I want you to pay attention here to it. He gets down to the root of the matter. Look at verse 1. "All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, watch this: to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no."
Or no. All right, so what's the Lord tell him? John 14:15. He said, "If you love me, you what? Keep my commandments." Well, what's the greatest commandment? To love the Lord thy God, right? All thy heart, mind, soul. That's Deuteronomy 6:5. All right, to love the Lord thy God. Do you love God or don't you? Okay? It was always an issue of the heart. It's not what you're doing, it's why you're doing it. So yes, there was folks that would keep the law, but there's, there's other folks that would on the outside would honor him with their lips, but their heart was far from him. So on the outside, it looked like they're keeping the law, like that rich man. "Oh, I fast twice a week, three times a week, I give alms, I do these different things." He was doing that to what? To be seen of men. But what does God know about every single one of you? He knows your heart. He knows the motive that is behind that thing, okay? He knew that they couldn't be sinless until Jesus Christ shows up, okay? However, he understood the heart. He understood when David sinned, he had the heart of the Lord, he repented immediately, right? But Achan sinned, and he said, "I have sinned against the Lord." What happened to Achan? They burned him and his family, stoned him and burned him. Why? His heart wasn't right. See, when it comes to Achan, God had to dig through every single tribe and every single family until they get down to Achan, and then when he got caught, he had that worldly sorrow. He was sorry he got caught and said, "I have sinned." It's too late now, man. The problem was in the first place was your heart, amen.
So there's no flesh that's going to be justified in God's sight concerning the law. It's a, it's always a matter of the heart. Does that make sense? Okay. It's always an issue of the heart, okay? That's, that's the problem that we have is our heart. It's desperately wicked, isn't it? Okay? Because we're no good.
All right, so let's go back to Romans 3:20. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Look at here. "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." It's written down in scripture, the righteousness of God. Remember we talked about that before? Look at Romans 4:5. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." What do we, what we, uh, we talked about a couple weeks ago. Job 2 Chronicles 6:23. He justified the the righteous in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Romans 4:5, he justifies who? The ungodly. That's all of us. Because if you want to get down to brass tacks, that's every single person. There's none righteous, no not one. So in the righteousness of God, see, yeah, they had their own righteousness as far as how that they would keep the law and all those kind of things, but that didn't make them sinless, did it? But when Jesus Christ shows up, when you believe on Christ, you put on God's righteousness, not your own righteousness. See, that Jew was going about to establish his own righteousness, but have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Right there, Romans 3:22. Look at it again. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference."
All right, now let's talk about some of these terms. Call them T.O.N. words, okay? Now, you hear these words, this is biblical terminology, all right? Biblical terminology. We've got salvation, justification, which we're just talking about, sanctification, propitiation, operation, regeneration, adoption, translation, redemption, glorification, and reconciliation. All that is all part of this, okay?
So who's ever bought a house before? Okay? When you go to sign those papers, do you know everything baked in that cake? No, man. You're signing like the president. You put down your earnest money, which is the earnest of our inheritance, that's the Holy Ghost inside of you, okay? He bought you with a price. He put down the earnest money, which means he's going to come back and he's going to redeem it, the whole thing someday. But to show you that you're saved, he gave, he put some earnest money down on that house, didn't he? Whose house are we? We're the temple of the Holy Ghost, right? So when you got saved, salvation encompasses all. Did you know that all this stuff was in that cake? I didn't. I certainly did not. Didn't even know what a dispensation or nothing was, man, okay? I didn't have a clue what this stuff was, okay?
So let's look at each one of these things that's baked in the cake that you get as soon as you get saved. You get all this. It's a pretty good deal. What did he get? He got your sin. What did you get? You got all this and then some. Amen, okay?
Now, let's look at it. Justification. All right, justification. Look at verse 25. "This is the reason for the resurrection. Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." Without the raising of Christ, there would be no justification for you. There would be no way for you to get out of the courtroom, okay? You could sit there and confess your sins all you want to a judge. "I've done this, I've done that, I've done this." He's going to say, "Okay, that's fine. Where's the payment?" Confessing your sins is not going to get you saved, folks. Receiving Christ is what gets you saved. Receiving the payment for sins.
Look at Romans 5:11. Look here. "And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." Now, it's one word, not up there because it's not a T.O.N. word, but that's the only time in your New Testament that word shows up. One sacrifice for sins forever. Atonement shows up one time. Shows up 81 times in the Old Testament. Shows you the type because they had to go back every year continually, every year, Day of Atonement, Day of Atonement, Day of Atonement. Guess what? You've received the atonement. That's it. When he died on the cross, he said, "What? It is finished." Can you add anything to the finished work of Christ? No, okay? So that's what you received. You receive the atonement, therefore you receive the payment for sin.
I was in, I was teaching a, a youth class one time, and I asked to, asked the youth, I said, "What do you got to do to be saved?" And one of the young men, he's, he was called to preach, and he says, "Well, you got to commit your life to Christ." Who's heard that one? "Got to commit your life to Christ." I said, "No, you got to receive the atonement. You got to receive Christ." See, all this non-biblical terminology. And I, I know people mean well when they say those things, but when you start using things outside of the Bible terminology, it confuses people because committing your life to Christ is not going to save you. Catholic priests, do they commit their life to Christ more so than you? How about nuns? They commit their life to Christ, sure they do. But what are they trying to, what are they trusting? Their works. What am I trusting? The blood. All the time, people get confused about that. "Well, I just don't know if I believed right. I don't know if I believed right." Well, what are you trusting to keep you out of hell? The blood of Jesus Christ. The, the atonement. Got to receive that.
So justification, easy way to remember that one. Just as if I never sinned, right? Look at Acts 13. Acts 13:38. "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." See, that law of Moses couldn't help you. Couldn't take away your sin. It could only just put it off. Day of atonement, every year. They, they put it off every single year. Not till Jesus Christ shows up and you put on God's righteousness do you have his justification. So when the Lord God the Father looks at you, who does he see? He sees his Son. And when you sin, what does he see? He sees a dead man doing things that dead men do, which is nothing. It's worthless to him. Amen. That's the works of the flesh.
All right, sanctification. First Peter. 1 Peter 1:2. This will give you confidence in your salvation, and it's finished. Look at, um, 1 Peter 1:2. "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied." So we've got sanctification. When you are saved, you're sanctified immediately. You're set apart. Now, you have to rightly divide and understand that you have a daily sanctification. Your walk needs to be sanctified. However, judicially, how God looks at you in the courtroom, you're already justified. You're going to heaven whether you like it or not, okay? Your sanctification, you were set apart. You were put into his body, that's first, uh, Corinthians 12:13, by the Spirit, okay? That's what he's talking about here. You're put into his body, baptized into his body. You can't get out of Christ's body. We are, we good on that? When Moses got into the ark, he went in through the we, through the side, forth with came out blood and water. When Christ died on the cross, it came out of his side. You get into the body through the blood, right? When you get in there, in the ark, who sealed it up? The Spirit. So you can't get out, can you? There's a type, okay?
Propitiation. Romans 3:25. You'll notice a lot of these things. That's why we're teaching Romans because it's a great, great doctrinal book. Well, let's just keep reading in Romans since we're all there. Romans 3:23. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely it's a free gift by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God." Now, let's look at that thing. A propitiation, that's a special payment made for sin. That's what Christ is for us. He's our propitiation. He's that sin, sin offering, right?
Let's look at the operation. Colossians 2:12. Now, do you believe, do you think I could be up here saying with this with any kind of authority if I didn't believe this? I believe this, okay? I didn't know all this, but when I got saved, I knew something took place, and all these things I got, and I believe it because I've lived it, okay? Look at the operation. "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." All right, right. Let's look at verse 11. "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, and putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."
Operation. I was talking to, uh, Brother Lucas, I think it was last week, talking about how many times he goes to churches and people don't understand this simple thing right here. The operation of God. Standing and state. When you got saved, he cut you loose from the flesh. That's Romans 7:1-4. The new man cannot sin. Although you were caring about the old man, and he still can sin. "It is no more I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me." It's encoded in your DNA. You have Adam's nature in your flesh. That wasn't saved. The soul saved, the spirit's reborn. It's waiting for the adoption of the body, okay? So you're standing in, in Christ. You're justified. This is judicially. You're seated in heavenly places right now, presently. Can you understand that? No, I can't either. Okay? There's a way to explain it, but I won't get into it. State, right there. What's that? That thing fluctuates, right? Whatever state I am there with, to be content. That's how you feel. That's why you can't trust your heart. Fellowship can be broken depending on your state. Roller coaster. This, your standing cannot. You're in Christ. Can't get out of the ark. You're in the ark, okay?
So when the operation of God took place, it cut you loose in that flesh, although you can obey that flesh. If you've been saved for six months, you understand that principle. It doesn't mean you lost your salvation. It just means you may be out of fellowship, okay? Which dog do you feed the most? Who's going to win in a dogfight? The one you feed the most? Flesh or Spirit? See, the dual nature of man, okay? So that operation of God took place, cut you loose from the sins of the flesh. Now you're at liberty to serve Christ. You're free from that prison. Now you can serve Christ, and now you can bear fruit, okay?
Regeneration. Titus 3:5. Have to hurry through these. Dropped my pen. Titus 3:5. See how the word is able to build you up, gives you confidence. Titus 3:5. Look at here. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." We talked about that weeks ago. What did Adam lose when he sinned? Holy Ghost. We lost it. So Christ had to renew it in you. You must be born again. You got a dead spirit, okay? So you got to be born again. You got to have that regeneration of the Holy Ghost life, okay? So regeneration takes place.
All right, we talked about that before. Uh, Matthew 19:28 is the other place that thing shows up, talking about the regeneration of the earth. This is the regeneration of the spirit, okay? Kingdom of Heaven, Kingdom of God, one's physical, one's spiritual. Both need a regeneration, okay?
Adoption. Romans 8. Romans 8:19. "For the earnest expectation, there's the earnest of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." All right, uh, is it man? No, that's not it. Not adoption over here. Look at adoption here. It is 23. Romans 8:23. "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
Now, let's go to Galatians. Galatians chapter 4. Look at verse, uh, six. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ." Where's the adoption at? Verse 5. There it is. Read it earlier. "To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
Now, think about this. If you're naturally born, and you have natural born parents, did you have any, did they have any choice in that? Like the Jew, right? They were born into it. No choice. You're a Jew, you're going to read the Torah, you're going to believe these things, you're going to do these things, right? But we who are Gentiles, we got adopted. That means God chose us. And you hath he chosen, right? Is it better to be adopted or just naturally born? Well, it's better to be adopted because you cannot disinherit a son who's been adopted. We have an adopted son. We had to choose him. So God chose you, amen, amen.
Look at Romans 5. Did you deserve it? Nobody did. Romans 5:8. "But God commendeth his love toward us, and that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Once again, much more than being justified by his blood, we shall be saved through the wrath through him. So he chose us, okay? That's Ephesians chapter 1. I'm not going to get into that because I have to fight against Calvinism every time. That's one of their proof texts, all right? Not going to go there.
Translation. Look at Colossians 1:13. Got to try to get through these things. Colossians 1:13. "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son." Let's go to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11:5. "By faith, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; it was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
Now, what's Enoch a great type of? The Rapture. The church at the Rapture. Notice how he uses translation talking about Enoch. He went up, didn't he? He didn't see death, did he? He didn't taste death. He's been translated. He's going up. We're going up as the bride. Some of us are not going to taste death. Hopefully, that's everybody in here. When the Rapture takes place, we're going up. We're going to be translated.
Now, notice this. This will put it on them too, right here. Translation. Translation is always, always better than the original. You'll see this thing over in, uh, I think it's 2 Samuel, that kingdom, the first kingdom in Israel, the first king was who? Saul. Who was the second king? David. Says over there that the kingdom was translated, related to David. This one's better. This one's better. We've got a translation put into English. It's the word of God. It's the one that God wanted us to have, and it's better than the original, amen. So the word of God, he's translated it seven times. Won't get into all that, but what we have in our hands is better than the original. Because every time they want to go back to the original Greek, original Greek. Anybody in here speak Greek? He probably does. There's one. Do you speak Koine Greek? Koine Greek, common, right? Ancient Greek, right? That's what this thing, right? See, that's a dead language. What the New Testament is translated from is a dead language. They don't use that Greek now. They use the modern Greek. So, so they don't use that one. So guess what? The translation God gave you in English is better than the original. We won't get into all that stuff, okay? That's just something for you.
Redemption. Means you buy something back. We won't take time to run all the references, but "He has bought you back." "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:14, as well as Romans 3:24.
Glorification. Romans 8:7, 8:17. You haven't received this one as of yet, but you will when you get your new body. You'll get a new body. You'll be just like Jesus Christ. It'll be able to walk through walls, you'll eat, not get fat, amen, okay? That's probably the biggest thing, right? Glorification. That's what you're waiting on. You're waiting on a new body. So our, we groan, right? We wait for that because these old bodies wear out and they do things that we don't want them to do, but they do them anyway. But that new body, that's when you'll get saved from the presence of sin, because you're not saved from the presence of sin down here on earth, are you? You're still in this present evil world, and your flesh can still do things that it always has done. But one day you're going to get this glorified body, okay?
And Reconciliation. That's bringing two sides together. You have, he reconciled. Look, look over here at Psalm 85, and we'll leave it here. Psalm 85:10. "Mercy and truth are met together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other." That's what happened at the cross. You had two sides of the party that were at odds with each other. You have God the Father on one side, and you have man on the other. Man has offended God. Righteousness and peace have kissed. He brought two sides together through the cross.
Go to Ephesians chapter 10, and we'll leave it at this, and it's a free gift. Look at, um, well, let's look at verse 13. Ephesians 2:13. "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that's the distance, right? Even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: He's reconciled us to God through Jesus Christ. And you hath he reconciled." And you have the ministry of reconciliation. That's what you've been given as a Christian, to bring others to Christ. That's your ministry. Righteousness and peace have kissed, amen.
Okay, I think we're done there. Um, does that give you confidence? I hope it does in your salvation, okay? So all these words here, once again, biblical terminology. It's important that you use those things, especially in soul-winning, so that people are not confused. There's a lot of confusion out there today. They mean well, but you better understand some of this stuff here to be able to point them to Christ. They need a payment for sin. Without that payment, there's no hope, okay?
All right, we'll leave it there. All right, Father, Lord God, we just thank you, Lord, for another time to study your word. And we thank you for the precious blood of Christ. We thank you for Calvary. We thank you for redemption. Thank you for all these things you've given us, Lord, these gifts. And we just thank you. We just pray for the service this morning. Pray for Brother Barry as he brings the choir up, Lord. Just be with them. Pray for our pastor as he breaks the bread of life one more time. We just thank you. In Lord Jesus name, we pray for Jesus' sake. We ask it. Amen.