All right, everybody.
Thank you for showing up to Pure Words Baptist Church.
Glad you could all make it here tonight.
Man, learning this Houston traffic,
it's a miracle anybody could make it here, so.
Glad you could make it here.
We're gonna start off in song number 20,
"When I See the Blood."
Song number 20, sing it all together on the first.
♪ Star Redeemer died on the cross ♪
♪ Died for the sinner, paid all his due ♪
♪ All who received need never fear ♪
Yes, He will pass, will pass over you. See the blood, see the blood, the blood. I will pass over you.
As sinners, Jesus can save, as He has promised, so will He do. Center here, trust in His word, then He will pass, will pass over you.
Blood, blood, blood, judgment's coming. All will be there, sinner, hasten, Jesus and then God will pass, will pass over you.
Blood, blood, pass, I will pass over you. Passion, boundless love, does have power, Jesus is true.
All who believe are saved from the storm, so pass over the blood, blood, singing. Bow your heads for a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we just thank you that we could gather here tonight to hear the preaching of your word.
Thank you for Brother Dylan driving down here. I pray you bless him and his family for the sacrifice they make for this church.
And just bless our ears as we hear your word that we'd be ready to accept it Lord and apply it to our lives.
Please just bless these folks here who are taking the time out of the week to come to the service.
We love you Father and pray all these things would be done in your honor and glory.
It's in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Next is gonna be 138, The Haven of Rest, 138.
Altogether on the first.
My soul with sad eggs, I was out on life's sea.
So burdened with sin and distress.
Till I heard a sweet voice, saying, "May be your choice."
And I entered the haven, buried my soul in the hails,
And all the wide seas no more.
Tempest may sweep all the wild stormy deep,
And Jesus I've saved evermore.
I yielded myself to his tender embrace,
Taking hold my fetter love, and I entered my soul.
The haven of red is my Lord's soul,
Since he tempest may sweep all the wild stormy deep,
And Jesus I've saved evermore.
The song of my soul, since the Lord made me whole,
Has big old stories so blessed say,
So that the haven of red the tempest may sweep all the wild deep,
Jesus I've saved evermore,
Savior, he patiently waits by his power,
The beloved tempest sweep all the wild time,
Saved evermore.
Great singing.
At this time, we'll go through our announcements.
Do we have a couple bulletins left over?
All right, brother James, he has some bulletins for you.
If you need one, raise up your hand nice and high.
On the front page of the bulletin, you'll see beautiful mountains, hopefully.
I want that mountain, right?
We started a new Bible memory chapter.
We're in Romans chapter four, verse number one.
So we just started, so now it's time to get on board.
Verse number one, pretty small verse, as you can see.
So everybody, I hope, could be able to start this.
But at least push your kids to do it, and then bring them back next Thursday.
We got some ice cream or popsicles.
Let me know what snack you want.
If it's going to get them to come, if they need a Twinkie or whatever,
if they're going to memorize it, we'll hook you up with something.
For you adults, anybody, if you quote the entire chapter,
if you can quote all of Romans chapter four, you get a special prize.
It's 25 verses, so it's going to be a big prize.
Might not be a car, but you know, get you a nice pencil or something.
No, I'm just kidding. Be nicer than a pencil, I'm sure.
Inside of the bulletin, you'll see our service time,
Sunday morning 10.30, Sunday evening 5.30, Thursday evening at 7.00.
We've got Brother Dylan with us tonight.
And so I think Pastor Shelley will be back here next Thursday.
Probably, unless something comes up, Pastor Shelley will probably be back next Thursday.
So they're just kind of helping me ease in, so it's nice having them come down and preach the Thursday service.
Plus, you know, they're better preachers.
So you get a break from me as well, so you can enjoy that.
Churchwide Soling Times, Brother James, he does Sundays at 2.00 p.m., Thursdays right before the service at 5.15.
Those meet here at the building.
And Brother Mo, his time is out on area.
So if you want to go on Saturdays, he goes around 2 o'clock.
You can just text him directly.
That way, y'all don't have to drive here to church and all that.
So just contact him.
And I'm here, and my schedule is pretty free, especially with my new job.
And so I'd be glad to help you go soul winning.
So if you can't go to any of these soul winning times,
shoot me a text, shoot me a call.
We can meet up together somewhere, and we can go soul winning.
So I'd like to do that if I can, if these things don't work out with you.
And typically my wife and I, we're not going to make this an official soul winning time,
but we're probably going to go out Saturday mornings, just because it's not as hot.
We've got a one-year-old, so that's the best time for us.
So that's when we plan on going.
And so if you want to join up with us, just shoot me a text message,
and we can let you know where we're planning on going.
I think that's it for soul winning.
The stats so far for the month, we've got 29 salvations, 260 for the year.
We've got two baptisms for July, and we've got seven for the year.
So those are some great numbers right there, so keep up the good work on soul winning.
I think I need to get soul winning from the last few days, yeah?
So I guess we go back to Monday, anybody Monday?
Tuesday, can I get it Tuesday? Wednesday and Thursday.
Three for today, praise the Lord. That's awesome.
Good job going out there, so you survived the rain.
We've got three salvations, so that's 263 for the year,
and that'll be 32 for July, so that's awesome.
Please be in prayer for our expecting lady.
We have Christian Rogers, she's expecting May 15th,
so just keep her in your prayers that her and the baby would be in health.
That's very difficult any time somebody is pregnant,
so we'd like to ask everybody to pray for them.
August 18th through the 20th is the Mighty Men's Conference.
It's going to be awesome, going to be a bunch of mighty men,
so if you're not mighty yet, you've got a couple weeks to get mighty.
Hit the gym or whatever you've got to do, stop crying.
You've got time to prepare, okay?
Because there's no crying on this trip.
For mighty men, you can cry on the way home,
but nobody knows when you're tired and sore.
There's lots of fun. I wasn't able to go last year,
so I should be able to go this year.
I know they did different sports activities,
and I saw they were on the water.
They were knocking people off into the water,
doing fights and stuff like that.
So, it'll be a lot of fun if you can make it.
I put a sign-up sheet in the back,
so even if you already told pastor or anybody,
you already told people you're going,
I'd still like you to sign up on that sheet
just so we can be clear.
We know who's going, so we can just prepare.
And it's completely free, so you don't have to pay anything.
You just drag your carcass there.
And there's also a thing that you can put if you want a carpool,
so if you want to ride with somebody else,
especially with gas prices nowadays.
It's always nice if you can share a ride,
unless it's with Brother James.
Just kidding, lovey.
Prayer requests, we have the Goodwin family.
They're up at Steadfast, so just pray for their healing and comfort.
Brother Edward, just for his health.
Mrs. Liberty's daughter-in-law, Mother Catherine, with her breast cancer.
Brother Joel, he has an unspoken prayer request that you be in prayer for them.
And then we're just asking for blessings upon Oklahoma City.
It's a church plant by Steadfast,
so we just ask that you pray for their blessing, that the work keep thriving there.
And if you have any prayer requests, just email them to the church and we can throw them in here.
If you want them private, just let us know or just tell us what things you don't want included,
and we'll be sure to not include that.
But at this time, we'll go ahead and pray for everybody mentioned here.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have Pure Words Baptist Church.
Thank you for Pastor Shelley and his leadership and guidance.
Thank you for all the ladies we have that are just constantly getting pregnant throughout the year.
I just pray you to help continue them, Lord, to be able to continue and bear children.
You help Mrs. Christian throughout her pregnancy, Lord, that it would just be easy and as pain-free as possible,
especially for her delivery and that you just help that baby to be in health and that everything would go well for them.
We'd also ask you to just bless this church with soul winners.
Lord, we know the fields are white, they're ready to harvest, but the laborers are few.
And I just pray you to send out more soul winners that we could go out and reap these fields, especially in our area.
And I pray you'd rise up more faithful men that could start churches in every city,
and that Pastor Shelley could send men out of this church to go start soul winning churches in other cities.
I'd like, Lord, to pray for the people at this church with their various requests.
I pray you'd be with the Goodman family. I know it's just been such a pain and a struggle for them.
I just pray you comfort their hearts, so you'd be with Jeff and Wendy, and help Anna and Daniel to heal, so they could just make a full recovery.
I'd also like to pray for Brother Edward. Lord, it's such a blessing having him at this church. He's a good example.
He's just very zealous, and I just pray you'd help his health, that he could just continue to grow and thrive and be here with us.
We also pray for Catherine. You just please heal her of breast cancer. That's very difficult, and especially for her family,
and I just pray you'd give her more time here on Earth, that you would cleanse her.
For Brother Joel, he just has an unspoken request, Lord, and I just pray you'd help their family with whatever it is they're suffering with.
I'd also like to pray for your blessing upon the church in Oklahoma City. It's a great church up there.
And give Pastor Shelley and Brother Furr, the evangelists up there, just wisdom and just help that church to continue to grow and to thrive and get people saved.
We love you, Father, and thank you for all you do and want to pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Church reminders, you got the nice prayer, so now it's time for a hard preaching.
We just ask you to keep the children off the stage. Expensive piano, so if you see a child up here, if it's your child, take them away.
Especially, we got the baptism. We don't want them jumping in here, ruining things. We got a nice pulpit.
Okay, so if you see kids up here, just keep an eye on your children. Don't allow your children to run around.
It's easy. Small church, bump into people, break things, so if you see them running, correct it.
If your child is being a distraction, we got a mother/baby room where you can take them outside and just take care of business, whatever you got to do.
And just don't leave your children alone in the mother/baby room, even if it's like a sibling or something.
We just want the mother to be there with them for the child's safety and just to keep an eye on them,
because it's not fun just taking care of other people's kids and you're stuck there and things are going crazy.
And if your child is just being a distraction there, just please take them out or take care of the distraction,
because other ladies are in there trying to listen to the sermon and everything else.
So just keep that in mind, that way we don't have any problems with the service.
And we love having the children here, but also we want to keep things balanced
so that everything will be done decently and in order.
So with that, I think we're done with announcements.
If you want to take out your hymnal again, we're going to sing "145."
"It is well with my soul," that's Brother Dylan's favorite, right?
Try to pick a good one for him. "It is well."
So with the chorus, especially tonight, we don't have a whole lot of ladies,
so the ladies are here. I need y'all to really belt it out on this chorus, alright?
So the ladies will start off, and then the men will follow after the ladies on the chorus.
"145." "It is well with my soul."
When peace like a river attended my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll,
One heard my vow to say, "His soul, ladies' soul, it is well with my soul, it is well with my soul."
Now should God let the blessed usher his control, That Christ has regaled my sin, and shed his own blood.
My soul says, "Long my sin may sound so."
That was beautiful. Good job on the chorus.
At this time, while the offering plates are being passed around, please turn your Bibles to Romans, Chapter Number 8.
Brother James is going to read for us.
Romans, Chapter Number 8.
The Bible reads, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
If so, be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,
he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal body by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.
For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, 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 waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit.
Even we ourselves groan 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 doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience 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 heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, as 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 called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them also justified, and whom he justified, them also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for 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 justify it.
Who is he that condemneth? Is it Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again?
Who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted 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.
Amen. Alright, well it's great to see everyone. Thank you as always to Pastor Shelley for giving me the opportunity to preach.
It's especially more sweet now that you guys have an evangelist and I don't anticipate to be preaching as often as I had, so I really do appreciate the opportunity that I have today.
And also I just want to say, you know, make sure that you treat the Urbanic family well, because we'll take them back.
I miss my song leader. Whenever I was making the song leading schedule, if there's a song I'm like, "Yeah, that's a little too high for me to sing. I'll give that to Brother Duncan."
You know, I need that guy back. So if you guys mistreat him, you know, I'll take him back.
I think it's awesome that Brother Duncan came here and I'm really excited for the future of this church.
This church already was doing great things for God and I just see that accelerating even more now.
So I'm praying for you guys. I'm very happy the direction this church is going.
So we're here in Romans chapter 8. It's a pretty long chapter, so we'll just go ahead and get right into it.
Romans chapter number 8. I just want to do a Bible study through this chapter this evening.
Let's start reading in verse number 1. The Bible says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
And right off the bat when we get into Romans chapter 8, it's another great verse to prove that you can never lose your salvation.
Because if you have the King James Bible in front of you, my Bible says that there's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Yet how many people want to tell you that, well, if you start living a life of sin, you'll be condemned to hell.
Well, if someone commits suicide, they'll be condemned.
Well, if someone stops going to church, if they stop reading the Bible, if they stop praying, they're going to be condemned.
But no, the Bible says there's no condemnation, no condemnation whatsoever.
I'll read for you, John 3, 18 says this, "He that believeth on him," speaking of Jesus, "is not condemned."
"But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
The Bible makes it very clear, the difference between those people that are condemned to hell
and those people that are not condemned is based on one thing, it's on your faith in Jesus Christ.
And all throughout the book of Romans, we've seen this hammered over and over and over again,
where the book of Romans destroys this doctrine of work-salvation.
It destroys this idea that you could somehow lose your salvation by not continuing to do good works.
I mean, in Romans chapter 7, we're learning about the relationship that we had with the law
and about our sinful flesh. We already realized that we can't keep the law.
So, of course, you're not going to have any condemnation if we're in Christ Jesus.
We already had condemnation in the law. If you're in Christ Jesus, you have no condemnation.
You can never lose your salvation. Romans 8, look at verse number 2, says this,
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death."
Notice, the only way to be free from sin and death is through Christ Jesus. That's the only way.
It doesn't say that, you know, good works made me free from the law of sin and death.
No, you were already condemned. You already had sin and death abiding on you because of the law.
Now, because of Jesus Christ, that's what's able to free you from that.
Your good works are not going to free you from that. It's not possible.
Verse three, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh."
Notice, there's something that the law could not do, and that's free you from sin and death, right?
Yet you have the dispensationalists that tell you, "Oh, in the Old Testament, it was a mixture of law and faith."
The Bible says literally right here, "What the law could not do and can never do is save you."
The law cannot make you free from sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
Go ahead and keep your place there and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
You know, you have to realize that the price that Jesus Christ paid for us,
the debt that we owed was so huge,
and it was completely impossible for us to ever be saved without His sacrifice.
You should never just take your salvation for granted or just make light of it.
No, you have to realize that without Christ, you are damned on your way to hell.
The Bible says, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 5, verse 21.
It says this, "For he hath made him," speaking of Jesus, "to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
You know, every once in a while it's good to just remember what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us,
and just to appreciate the great sacrifice that He did.
That without Jesus Christ, the law couldn't save us, we were under the bondage of sin and death,
we were condemned to hell, but Jesus Christ literally became sin for us.
That is a huge sacrifice. That's a sacrifice that He Himself didn't even want to pay.
He was even praying to the Father saying, "If there's any other way, take this cup from me."
I mean, He was sweating just profusely at what He was going to have to go through on the cross
and thereafter in hell, right?
He was sweating, as it were, great drops of blood for the horrible suffering that He was about to go through,
but He did it for us because He loved us and because it was the only way that we could be saved, the only possible way.
And we should never forget that it's the law of the Spirit of Christ that makes us free from sin and death, not your own good works.
Never think that you're something special. Never think that just because you're saved that all of a sudden you're like a great person now.
No, you were just saved by grace from the law of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, nothing else. It was by grace alone.
Romans chapter number 8, go back to Romans chapter number 8, says this in verse number 4,
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Notice the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us now once we're saved. How is that?
Well, because now we have a perfectly righteous Spirit, because Jesus Christ gave us a completely new, regenerate, saved Spirit.
And so now the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us by our good works? No, of course not.
You need to go back to Romans chapter 7, right? Your flesh doesn't want to obey the Word of God.
You have this battle inside of you, and you see a different law in your mind,
a war against the law of your flesh. And so obviously it's not your flesh that fulfilled those things.
It's the Spirit of Christ that fulfilled those things. I'll read for you.
You can stay there. First John 3, 9 says, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,
for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
Now this verse is completely true. This is a great verse.
But this is a verse that false prophets often like to take out of context
and tell you, "Oh, see, now I'm perfectly sinless, because the Bible says,
'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin.'"
You've got guys like Jesse Lee Peterson, this false prophet sodomite
that interviewed Pastor Anderson several years ago,
and he's just mocking the fact that, wow, Pastor Anderson is admitting that he still sins.
Jesse Lee Peterson is saying, "Well, I don't sin at all."
He's a liar, and he just got busted for being a sodomite.
It's literally like a 40-minute documentary about him on YouTube getting busted as a sodomite.
So, of course, anyone that wants to take you to this verse and say that they no longer sin,
you know that person's a false prophet.
But what is this talking about? It's talking about our spirit,
because our spirit is perfectly righteous.
Our spirit hasn't sinned.
That new man is 100% perfect, as we learn in Romans chapter number 7.
But our flesh is still sinful, right?
Our flesh will be sinful until the day we die,
but our renewed, our new man is 100% perfect, sinless, is not a sinner whatsoever.
Go to Romans chapter 8 and let's look at verse number 5.
It says this, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,
but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."
Now, something you have to know, and if you're in this search you probably realize this,
that out there, there is a battle today for your mind.
And it's not the battle that Alex Jones likes to talk about.
He likes to hijack that phrase and say, "There's a battle for your mind.
You've got to fight against the gay frogs and against all the chemtrails and all that stuff."
That's not the battle that I'm talking about right now.
When I'm talking about there's a battle for your mind,
what I'm talking about is that there's a battle for your mind based off of fleshly things and spiritual things.
And how you overcome the flesh, how you live the Christian life,
how you can repent of a sin and stop committing a certain sin,
how you do that is the fight in the mind.
If you look at a person and they're living a really fleshly, worldly, carnal life,
let me tell you why they're living that way is because they're losing the battle in their mind.
And if you see another person where they're living a godly life,
they're soul winning, they're going to church, they're memorizing Scripture, they're preaching the Word of God,
it's because that person is winning the battle in their mind.
Where your mind goes, the body follows.
Because notice, let's read this again.
"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh."
The Bible talks about the works of the flesh.
The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, and it lists a whole bunch of sins, right?
Fornication, idolatry, covetousness, all of these sins.
How does a person get to the point where they are an idolater?
Where they are committing fornication?
Where they are committing adultery? I'll tell you why.
Because that's where their mind was.
You don't just wake up one day, slip and fall, and murder someone.
You don't just wake up one day, slip and fall, and commit adultery.
You know how it happens is you start thinking about it.
You start thinking about it long before you ever get to the destination of committing that sin.
And when you're thinking about it, you're not foreseeing the road that you're going down,
and you're not even necessarily seeing the end result of the sin that you're thinking about.
But when you start thinking about sin is where you're starting to lose the battle.
You think about King David, you know, he's sitting on his roof at a time when kings go forth to battle,
and he sees a beautiful woman and he starts thinking about her.
He starts thinking about how it would be nice to have her, and he calls and summons her.
And he eventually ends up committing adultery.
But do you think that David realized that the result of that sin would be Uriah the Hittite being killed,
his baby being killed, and his son Absalom laying with all of his wives in the sight of all Israel?
Do you really think that David foresaw all of those horrible consequences to his sin?
No, but guess what? David lost the battle there in his mind.
And other times when David was doing great exploits for the Lord,
I mean when he's facing Goliath as a young lad, you don't want to know why?
That led him to do that is because his mind was on spiritual things.
He wasn't focused on the flesh and his disparity of force right now.
He was thinking, hey, you know, I come to you in the name of the Lord God of Israel, right?
That all the earth may know.
He had a spiritual mindset at that time.
And so if you find yourself really struggling with a sin,
you need to find a way to break that in your thought processes, in your mind.
Because you can't just will yourself to stop sinning because you have the flesh.
You have to cut it off at the mind.
And they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh.
They think about the things of the flesh.
Likewise, if you want to be a spiritual person, and I think that's everyone here.
You come to the Pure Words Baptist Church, you say, "My goal is to be a spiritual person."
Here's how you start taking the first steps.
What you are thinking about, where your mind is.
You wake up in the morning and force yourself to start thinking about something spiritual.
That's why reading the Bible in the morning is such a great thing because,
hey, if I want to be after the Spirit, my mind has to be after the things of the Spirit.
How am I going to do that?
Well, I'm going to let the Holy Spirit speak to me by reading the Word of God.
You want to be playing hymns in your car rather than listening to the garbage music of today, right?
Because if you're just listening to fleshly things, your mind is going to be after fleshly things.
That's going to lead you down a road that leads to serious sin.
If you listen to godly things, it'll lead you down a road where you're coming to church,
where you're preaching the gospel to people, where you're hearing good preaching.
That's where you want to be.
You have to realize that the battle, it is for your mind.
It starts in the mind.
You're not going to just will yourself to stop sinning.
It has to be cut off in the mind.
Go to Romans chapter number 6.
Romans chapter number 6, let's look at verse number 12.
It says this, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey
it in the lusts thereof.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God."
We see here that God wants you to use your body, your carnal body, your instruments,
your members, as unto service unto God.
And like I said, how are you going to do that?
You're not going to just will your flesh to serve God.
It starts in the mind.
And when you build that habit of starting in the mind, thinking about spiritual things,
that's what's going to lead you down a road to a life of serving God, is starting in the
mind.
And that goes both ways.
Let's go to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8, look at verse number 6.
It says this, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace."
And people don't really believe this or understand this oftentimes until it's too late.
Oftentimes until they've gone down that road of sin and their life is completely destroyed.
And sometimes there is no remedy for just the destruction that they've left in their way.
You think about a horrible sin like adultery, oftentimes there's no remedy for that.
You know, the Bible does say that you should forgive your spouse, but oftentimes they won't do that.
Oftentimes there is no remedy for that, and you just have to understand that to be carnally minded is death.
Being carnal will destroy your life. Being carnal will completely ruin your life.
And so if you want a reason to serve God, how about this, so that your life doesn't get destroyed, right?
I mean, sometimes people lack motivation of why do I come to church week after week after week.
Well, maybe you've just gotten a little jaded to the fact that if you lived a carnal life, your life would be destroyed.
You know, why don't you go to downtown Houston and look at some of these drug addicts that don't even know what planet they're on.
They don't even know if they're an animal, a mineral, or a vegetable when they wake up in the morning because they've shot up so many drugs into their bodies.
Look, those people have destroyed their life and people want to make fun of Christians.
Oh, you show up to church three times a week. Oh, you're like a cult going out door to door.
Yeah, but guess what? My family's happy. I'm a happy person. I live a happy life.
The people in here look normal and happy and they're not emaciated, walking zombies like these drug addicts are.
They're not committing suicide on gigantic rates like they are out in Hollywood.
These really hyper-successful people, you think, "Oh, they're so happy," yet they have really high rates of suicide. Why is that?
It says this, "But to be spiritually minded is life and peace." That's what everyone wants.
Everyone wants their life to just be peaceful, for things to be prosperous, but how that is found is through obeying God's commandments.
And everyone wants life and peace, right? Everyone wants to have a peaceful life and a successful life,
but people don't want to have to do what needs to be done to get there, which is through obeying God's commandments.
You know, people see having a fruitful family is such a burden, right?
But yet, when they get to their deathbed, they want people to be there to care for them, right?
They don't want to be left in the nursing home where no one cares about them whatsoever.
But yet, you made fun of the people that obeyed God's commandments, that were fruitful and multiplied,
and when they're in their old age, they actually have people that take care of them and that love them
and that respect them and that honor them.
Meanwhile, you wanted to sow your wild oats as a young person, and you're alone.
We had a ministry when I went to Sure Foundation Baptist Church before COVID destroyed everything,
and it was a nursing home ministry, and I loved that ministry.
But what was really sad about that ministry is that a lot of the people that were in those nursing homes
had no one in their life, no one that cared about them, no one that loved them.
Their family just completely abandoned them.
And I tell you what, there was many, many, many of the old ladies that were there
that were talking about how they wished that they had had more children,
because here they are, in their old age, and they've got no one to take care of them.
But why is that? Well, often it's because they didn't obey God's commandments.
Often it's because you're reaping what you've sown.
And if you want life and peace, it's not going to be through living a carnal life.
It's not going to be through a life that is just serving yourself, doing whatever you want.
It's going to be by looking at this book and doing what it says.
Not just being a hearer of the Word, but being a doer of the Word.
Look at verse number seven, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
So notice, first of all, the unsaved, they can't even begin to start living a godly life because the carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God, the Bible says, right?
And it says this, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God."
Now, I kind of want to change gears real quick and explain this thought in the Bible.
And that is that you can be saved according to the Bible and still be an enemy of God.
Go to James chapter number four, James chapter number four.
Like I said, this is a Bible study.
We're just going through this chapter and wherever it leads us, that's what we're going to talk about.
James chapter number four, so we just read how the carnal mind, the fleshly mind, is enmity against God.
Look at James 4.4, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?"
There we have that word again.
Now the Bible is going to define what that means.
"Whosoever therefore will be the friend of the world is the enemy of God."
Now does this say, "Whosoever is unsaved is the enemy of God?"
No, it's just saying if you love the world, you're the enemy of God.
So there actually is a danger for even people that go to a good church, even people that are saved, born-again believers,
to actually live a life where you can become the enemy of God.
This is not a place you ever want to get to in your life, but I'm explaining to you that this is possible,
but hopefully you can avoid it at all costs.
Now, I told you to keep your place there in Romans, let's keep reading really quickly.
It says in verse number 8, "So then they that are in the flesh cannot, please God,
but ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
Now go to 2 Samuel chapter number 12, 2 Samuel chapter number 12.
We're talking about how you can still be saved and be the enemy of God.
Let's look at 2 Samuel chapter number 12.
I thought this was something pretty cool that Pastor Shelley pointed out a few weeks ago in his Bible study.
But this is Nathan, the prophet rebuking David, King David.
And look what it says starting in verse number 9.
It says, "Wherefore thou hast despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight, thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword,
and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me,
and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife."
Nathan is saying, "Thus saith the Lord, David, thou hast despised me."
Now, of course, David, we know, is a saved man.
David, obviously, here, had a certain level.
Now, I'm not saying this is the same level that we use it for in our modern vernacular,
but David had some level of hatred towards God in his actions here, did he not?
Did the Bible not just say, "Thus saith the Lord, Thou hast despised,"
that's a synonym for hatred, "me, the Lord."
That is sad. That is a scary thought.
I don't ever want it to be said of me that Dylan, you know, hated God
with his actions or with his words or in any certain level.
Because, obviously, the Romans won reprobate that hates God.
They don't even want to retain God in their knowledge.
They have just a complete hatred for God.
They have a hatred for any level of truth whatsoever.
But even safe people can become an enemy of God
and even safe people can have a certain level of hatred for God.
How is that? By despising his word and by despising his commandment.
And so you can't -- that's why Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments."
Because you cannot say you love Jesus if you don't keep his commandments.
You cannot say that you love God if you're going to sit there and mock Leviticus.
You can't say that you love the Lord Jesus Christ when something's preached from the word of God and you don't like it, you disobey it, you hate it.
But yet people can be saved and be that way.
So I don't want you to freak out when I say that someone that's saved can have a level of hatred for God because we use it in a certain way, usually talking about reprobates.
But I'm telling you, it is possible for a saved Christian to be an enemy of God and to have a level of hatred for the Lord.
Now turn to 1 Kings chapter number 22. I'm going to read for you a very familiar portion of Scripture.
2 Chronicles 19.2 says this, "And Jehu the son of Hineni, the seer, went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat,
'Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord.'"
Now, who is this referring to, the ungodly and them that hate the Lord? It's referring to King Ahab.
That's who he's being rebuked about being friends with, is being friends with King Ahab.
But I submit to you that King Ahab was saved.
Now, look at 1 Kings, chapter number 22, verse 40. Look at this.
"So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead."
Nowhere in the Bible do you see an unsaved person die and him being described as being in sleep, falling on sleep, sleeping with his fathers, things like that.
Sleep, falling on sleep, being gathered to your fathers, being gathered to your people, sleeping with your fathers.
This is always a reference to a saved person, okay?
But in light of what we just read with David, "Thus saith the Lord, thou hast despised me," in light of what we just saw in James chapter number four, in light of what we just saw in Romans chapter eight, is it not possible that King Ahab here is the one being described as hating the Lord?
"Shouldest thou help the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord?"
We use that often in reference to an attack on reprobates, and I think that's a totally valid and fine application of that scripture.
But that scripture primarily is actually referring to a saved person.
And so that's a scary thought because you don't want to be someone that can be described as being a hater of God.
But let me tell you, there are saved people right now that hate God to a certain level in the sense that they hate God's commandments.
I mean, you have Christians today that want to fall all over themselves apologizing for what the Bible says about sodomy.
They don't want to talk about it. They'll even say that the Bible's wrong about it.
They'll even just say, "Oh, you know, we just talk about how we can just make sense of this in the scriptures.
I mean, I know it's what it says, but that just can't be what it means."
It's like you have a level of hatred towards God by not just believing His words.
Because if you loved the Lord, you'd keep His commandments, like Jesus said.
Now, look at Romans chapter number eight. Romans chapter eight, go back there.
So, you know, you want to make sure that you're taking your life seriously, and when you're hearing the Word of God being preached,
you need to check your heart and make sure that you're not despising God by despising His Word, or by despising prophesying.
The Bible says, "Despise, not prophesying." Because when you're just turning your ear away from the law,
when you're turning your ear away from what you're reading in the Bible, you have a certain level of hatred for God in your heart.
And that's a wicked sin that you need to take care of. You need to humble yourself and hearken to the voice of the Lord.
Romans chapter number 8, look what it says here in verse 10, "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live."
And so here it's talking about the resurrection of the saints and us getting a new body.
And it's a great blessing that someday God's going to give us a new body.
We're not going to stay in this temporal flesh for forever.
And so because of that, the Bible says, "Therefore we're debtors not to live to the flesh, to live after the flesh, but we're supposed to live after the Spirit."
The way I look at it is kind of like this.
What if I told you that tomorrow your car was going to be 100% total?
I mean, this thing is going to be destroyed tomorrow.
It's going up in a ball of flames.
You're not going to be able to recover one single part off of this car.
It's going to be destroyed.
If I was somehow able to get a revelation from the Lord and tell you this is going to happen to you tomorrow, okay, let's just pretend it was true.
And then you're like, "Okay, I appreciate that."
And then you went to the auto shop and you got new shocks.
You put a lift kit on it, you put new tires on it.
You went ahead and just gave it a really cool paint job.
You're doing the upholstery, new leather, you're putting a new stereo inside of it.
You're just spending all this time making improvements on this car that's going to be destroyed tomorrow.
Well, guess what?
That is the same level of silliness that a person has that's saved, that knows that this life is temporal.
You're getting a new body someday.
All the things of the flesh, all the works of the flesh is all going to be burnt up in the fire,
but yet you're sitting here living your life after the flesh.
It makes about just as much sense as the person whose car is going to be destroyed tomorrow
and then giving it all these upgrades and all this attention.
It doesn't matter.
It's going to be destroyed.
And so people often, you know, you got like bodybuilding movements, which I love working out.
I love lifting weights.
There's a difference between lifting weights and bodybuilding, okay,
where you just have to see what the lowest possible body fat percentage you can have
and just like see as much how close to an alien you can really look, you know,
and just spray yourself with all this tanning oil and stuff like that.
Look, that is a complete waste of time.
That's like putting a new paint job on a car that's going to be destroyed tomorrow, right?
Or people will give their entire life.
Men will dedicate their entire life to a career and never go soul winning.
And look, it's great to have a career, great to have a good job.
It's great to work hard. It's great to provide for your family.
But the reason that you're here on this earth is not so that you can become a bodybuilder.
It's not that you can have a good job. It's not so that you can make a lot of money.
It's so that you can win people to Christ.
It's so that you can disciple them, get them in church, get them in the baptismal here.
Get them under the preaching of the word of God so they can learn all things whatsoever Christ has commanded.
That's why you're here. So don't ever get distracted by that.
Stop putting paint jobs on your car that's going to be destroyed tomorrow.
Because the Bible says God's going to give us a new body.
That flesh is going to be destroyed. It's going down six feet under.
And someday God's going to give us brand new flesh, perfectly righteous flesh.
But all the things, all the woodhane stubble in this life means nothing.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number three, 1 Corinthians chapter number three.
Let's talk about that for a minute there in 1 Corinthians chapter number three.
Let's start reading in verse number 11, it says this, "For other foundation can no man lay,
than that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward;
if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
What is this talking about? This is talking about being judged by Jesus Christ.
This is talking about Christians standing before the Lord Jesus Christ and Him judging your life,
judging the works that you did, and are those works going to abide His judgment?
Is it going to be gold, silver, and precious stones? What could this look like?
This could look like reading your Bible. This could look like doing the memory verse every week.
This could look like raising godly children.
This could be like being a good testimony for the Lord by obeying His commandments.
This could be winning souls to Christ. This should be building a church.
This could be pastoring a flock.
This could be all manner of good that the Lord commands us to do.
And all good that we do that's of God is going to abide the fire on that day and will be rewarded in heaven for that.
But the wood, hay and stubble, your bodybuilding career, your muscle car, your really nice house
that you spent every weekend of your life working on rather than winning souls to Christ,
your career that you put every ounce of your strength into for your entire life for 40, 50, 60, 70 years,
none of that is going to matter whatsoever.
It's all going to be burned up. It's all going to be forgotten about.
It's all vanity and nothing and completely meaningless.
And so sometimes it's hard for us because we live here in a physical reality.
All we can see is the physical reality that we're entrenched in every single day.
But every single person in here, we need to live our lives for the judgment seat of Christ.
That is how we should be living our lives.
You should, every decision you make, think, how is this going to pan out for me on judgment day?
How is this going to pan out for me when I stand before the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is this decision that I'm making right now something that's going to abide the fire or is it completely meaningless?
You know, sometimes people will pray for a good job so that they can provide for their family,
or so that they can have enough money to have gas to go to church.
And then God will bless them with that job and then they'll stop going to church.
They'll pray for a car, God will bless them with that car, and then they'll stop soul winning.
You know, that is a complete waste of your life. It means nothing whatsoever.
You're not going to have any profit whatsoever by just giving that car a paint job that's going to be destroyed tomorrow.
It's foolish. It's ridiculous.
And you always need to keep in mind of the judgment seat of Christ.
Go to Romans chapter number 8, look at verse number 14. Romans 8, 14, let's keep reading here.
It says this, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
What does that mean? Let's keep reading.
Verse 15, "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."
So what does it mean in verse 14 where it says, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
Well it says in verse 16, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God."
What that means being led by the Spirit is the Holy Spirit of God is bearing witness to the truth, to the fact that you are God's son or that you are God's daughter.
And so this is one important reason why I don't believe it's ever possible for a person to just stop believing.
If someone is saved, I don't think it's possible for them to just forget that they're saved or just not believe anymore that they're saved
because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, meaning it's saying the truth. It's giving an account.
It's giving testimony to what? The fact that we are His children. That's the Holy Spirit's job.
And so you're not going to just forget about that when you're sealed with the Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit of God isn't going to fall asleep on the job, okay? He's not going to stop doing His job.
He's always going to be bearing witness to the fact that you are His child, that you are His children.
Go to John chapter number 16, John chapter number 16, John chapter number 16.
Look at verse 13, it says this, "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.
For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come.
He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and show it unto you."
Notice, one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to guide you into all truth.
This is a verse I have shown to people out-soulening when they bring up the fact like, "Oh, what if you stop believing?"
Look, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is going to guide you to all truth.
So is the Holy Spirit ever going to guide you into saying that Muhammad is God, if you're saved? Absolutely not.
Is the Holy Spirit going to lead you and guide you into saying that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the Lord? No.
Is the Holy Spirit of God ever going to lead you to say that, "Oh, I just forgot who Jesus Christ was."
It doesn't exist, right? No, of course not.
And obviously there could be some sort of freak accident where someone is on life support in a coma or something like that.
I don't know how the brain works when they're in that type of state.
But I'm talking about 99.99% of people that are saved on this earth, they're alive, they're conscious.
They have the Holy Spirit of God guiding them into all truth.
They're not going to ever lead them into just forgetting about God or no longer believing in Him
in the sense of believing that He's God, believing that He's paid for your sins, believing that salvation is by faith alone.
Obviously we could have different levels of faith in the Lord after we're saved.
Some people have faith to start preaching the Gospel because they believe that opening your mouth boldly is actually going to make a difference.
Other Christians that are saved don't have that faith, but they still have the faith to be saved.
They still have the faith of believing in God. Look at Romans chapter number 8 verse 17. It says this,
So this is cool because it tells us several aspects about being God's son, some of the benefits we get about being God's child.
It says that we are heirs. We get to inherit something with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So what do we get to inherit with the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, number one, we get to inherit eternal life.
That's pretty cool. That's not something we could have ever gotten on our own, right?
That's something that the Lord Jesus Christ gave to us that we're getting to inherit with him by virtue simply of being his child.
That's pretty cool. You know, if you want to talk about white privilege, Christian privilege.
That's what it is because I get to inherit eternal life and all of the filthy faggots in this world don't. It's great.
It's Christian privilege. We get to inherit perfect, sinless, immortal bodies just like the Lord Jesus Christ has.
Not everyone has that blessing and that opportunity. You know, I'm a young man. I'm 25 years old.
But I did have a shoulder surgery. And even at 25 years old, I'm looking forward to a new body.
You know, because I was working out with some dudes at Set Fast the other day and I was showing them the sounds that my shoulder makes.
And it's like bubble wrap when I move this thing. So it's like, I'm looking forward to having a shoulder that can move without cracking.
That's going to be fantastic, right? And I'm sure that the older I get, the more I'm going to be looking forward to this great thing that I get to inherit as a son of God, right?
It's going to be awesome. Here's another thing we get to inherit with the Lord Jesus Christ about the Kingdom of God.
The fact that when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and sets up His millennial reign, He's going to be establishing a real physical kingdom that we get to rule and reign with Him in.
That's an amazing blessing. And the more works for God we do now on this earth, the better of a position I believe that we're going to get in that reign.
But we get to inherit living in the real promised land someday with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We get to inherit living with perfect laws and a perfect government and a perfect leader.
We get to inherit all those things just by being his son.
But notice it says this, it says, "If so be that we suffer with him."
If so be that we suffer with him.
But here's the thing, if you're living godly, you will suffer with Jesus Christ.
Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 3, 2 Timothy chapter number 3.
See this promise of us being heirs and inheriting all these things, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It does have a condition, it says, "If we suffer with him."
So look at 2 Timothy 3, 12, it says this, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
And I've been saved since 2014 and I've read this verse and I've always thought like,
"Okay, okay, but when? When does this actually happen?"
And then it came, and I was like, "Oh, okay, that's what that looks like, alright."
I see it's true, it happens.
And it will happen to every single person that lives godly because that's what the Bible says.
And it could be something as simple as your family just mocking you.
Your family cutting ties with you for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, you know?
It could be people making fun of you for going out soul-winning.
It could be someone, you know, slamming a door, hitting you out soul-winning.
I mean, I know soul-winners that have been struck on the face while soul-winning here in the United States.
That's suffering persecution for being godly.
It could be all sorts of different things, but the Bible does promise that if you live godly,
you will suffer persecution.
And I love that because Romans 8:17 says,
"And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him."
If you're living godly, you will suffer with him.
Second, Timothy chapter number two, let's look at verse number 11, says this,
"It is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him."
Doesn't that sound a lot like Romans 8?
If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.
If we deny him, he also will deny us.
And think about how that could be applied.
Well, if we deny him, if we decide not to live a godly life,
if we decide not to follow any of his commandments,
do you think you're going to be ruling and reigning very highly in the kingdom of God?
He'll probably deny us of that position, right?
Obviously he won't take away your salvation,
but he probably could deny you in that aspect.
Look at where it says this, "If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself."
Well, I thought you just said, Dylan, that we can't stop believing.
Yeah, I'm talking about salvation, but we could all have different levels of faith
when it comes to actually believing that living the Christian life is worth it.
Aren't there plenty of people that are saved right now,
but they don't believe that it's worth it being in church right now?
I mean, how many people have we gotten saved in Houston this year, 263?
A lot of them don't have the faith to be here, obviously, right?
And I guarantee you that it's not 100% of people in church that are out soul winning.
Why? Because some people don't have the faith that soul winning actually works.
They don't have the faith that soul winning is actually a good use of time.
But guess what? The Bible says he still, if we believe not, he abides faithful.
He won't deny himself. You know, he's not going to take away your salvation.
He can't deny his promise. God is always faithful.
Go to Romans chapter number 8 again. Romans chapter number 8.
Romans chapter 8, look at verse 18. It says this.
"For I reckon," he's saying, "I'm making an account of this. I'm coming to a conclusion here.
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."
You have to realize that the man that's writing this is the man that was stoned, shipwrecked, beaten with rods, on the run, being attacked.
I mean just all sorts of horrible persecution, yet the Apostle Paul, he had the correct perspective on his life.
He had the correct perspective on the fact that he's not trying to put a new paint job on a car that's going to be destroyed tomorrow.
He's saying all the sufferings that my little crappy car goes through right now is not even worthy to be compared with the nice one that I'm getting in heaven.
It's basically what he's saying, right?
Hey, all the sufferings that my body right now is taking, all the sufferings right now that my pride is taking,
and all just the sufferings in general that he's taking, it's not even worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
"For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God." What is this talking about?
Well, here when it's talking about the creature, it's talking about all of creation, all of God's creation.
All of God's creation is just waiting for something. What is that? It's the manifestation of the sons of God.
What I believe that's talking about is when we do get our new bodies, it's going to be 100% manifest who is the sons of God.
There's something that's going to change in this world that the creation of God is waiting for when that happens.
I'll get to that in a second, but look at verse number 20. It says for this,
"For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope."
So the creature was made subject to vanity. There's something that changed about creation.
Go to Genesis chapter number three, and keep your place there in Romans.
Genesis chapter number three, look at verse number 17, it says, "And unto Adam he said,
Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree,
of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it."
So Adam had just sent, it says this, "Purse is the ground for thy sake.
In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.
Borns also in thistles shall it bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.
For out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
There was a change in God's creation after mankind's sins, and God cursed the earth because of that.
Before, you know, there were no thorns, there were no thistles, but God cursed the earth and made Adam toil in that all the days of his life.
There also was a change in the animal kingdom as well.
Go to Isaiah chapter 65, I'll read for you. Go to Isaiah chapter number 65.
Let me read for you Romans 821. It says, "Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
You know, the animal kingdom right now, as it's called, it's a very violent thing, right?
I mean, you see these YouTube videos and these animals are just killing each other and they're just ripping their young away from each other and dragging them off and eating them, right?
I mean, one time I was hunting in Idaho and I was hunting these elk.
There was like a herd of elk that was like 800 yards away from us and my dad and I, we were trying to get close enough to make a shot.
And all of a sudden out of nowhere, a pack of giant gray wolves chases all these elk out of the valley and just took them off somewhere and probably just killed them all and ate them all, okay?
Because the animal kingdom is just violent, sudden, but that's not always how this earth was.
That's not how God intended the animal kingdom to be.
Go to Isaiah chapter number 65, let me get myself there.
But when we are in the millennial reign of Christ, or I'm sorry, when we're in the new heaven and new earth,
things are going to change when it comes to God's creation.
Isaiah chapter number 65, look at verse 17, it says, "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth,
and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create.
For behold, I create Jerusalem, a rejoicing, and her people a joy.
And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people.
And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days.
For the child shall die in a hundred years old.
So at this time, if someone dies at a hundred years old, you think like, "Oh, they were a child."
It says this, "But the sinner, being in a hundred years old, shall be a curse.
And they shall build houses and inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat.
For as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble.
For they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them.
And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear."
And then pay attention to verse 25.
"The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock,
and dust shall be the serpent's meat; they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains, saith the Lord."
So this is incredible, because in the New Heaven and New Earth, the Bible says that a wolf,
which is a predator animal, is literally going to be able to just feed together with a lamb.
And in Idaho, wolves are a huge problem, and sheep farmers in Idaho can literally wake up
and have a hundred dead sheep in one night from these wolves. I mean, these are predator animals.
I'm pretty sure that the wolves that I saw chased those elk out of the valley.
I'm pretty sure they weren't there to play patty cake or have a conversation with, right?
But at this time, a wolf and a lamb is literally going to be able to feed together.
And a lion, instead of eating meat like a lion does now, the lion's going to become a vegetarian
and eat straw like a bullock. That's crazy.
I mean, right now, a lion probably couldn't even survive if you try to just feed it nothing but straw.
But see, the Bible's saying that all of creation is groaning, is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God
because they're going to be given liberty, too, at this time.
They're not going to live in the violent world that they live in right now, too.
The Bible's describing that for us. Go back to Romans chapter number 8. We'll keep reading.
It says, "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
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."
You talk to any old person that's saved, and you're going to hear some groaning,
and they're going to talk to you about how they're waiting for the redemption of their body, right?
And all of creation is groaning for this, the Bible says.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
You know, and just like the animals, just like all of creation, us too as God's children,
we are also waiting for that glorious day.
We're looking forward to it, we have expectation for it.
We're earnestly desiring to have that day.
Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
Verse 1 it says, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,"
I believe that's talking about your physical body,
"we have a building of God, and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For in this we groan," does that remind you of Romans 8?
"Earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven."
Heaven. You want to know what house that's talking about?
Talking about your eternal glorified body. That's what it's talking about.
To be clothed upon with your house from heaven.
Now, I hope that there's also physical mansions in heaven.
I think that sounds pretty cool. But obviously God's ways are higher than our ways.
I don't know if there will be or not. We'll find out someday.
I know Pastor Thompson, he really wants like a Goliath-sized bed, he said.
And he wants a water slide going from his room into a pool.
And I hope Pastor Thompson gets that, okay?
But, I don't know if he will, is what I'm saying.
Because think about it, in heaven, you know, we're not going to be sleeping.
You're not going to get tired.
The sun's not going to light upon them, nor any heat, the Bible says.
You're not going to need protection from the elements.
Why would we even need a house in heaven?
I mean, are we just going to be there worshiping God for all of eternity?
I mean, I don't even see a need for a house in heaven.
If there are mansions, I'll be happy, okay?
But I think the mansions are your body, is what I'm saying.
Believe the mansions are your spiritual renewed body.
Romans chapter number 8, go back to Romans chapter 8, verse 24.
"For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.
For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for it?"
We can't see into heaven.
We can't see what our glorified bodies are going to look like.
We can't see what we're going to be doing in heaven, but we are hoping for it.
We are expecting it.
We are looking forward to it, verse 25.
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
And that's what we need to do is we need to continually, patiently work and serve the Lord until that day, until that blessed day.
We just need to be patient and just continue to serve God at that time.
I'll read for you Hebrews 6, 10. It says, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love,
which you have showed toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end,
that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."
God doesn't want us to be lazy while we're waiting for these great promises.
He doesn't want us to be slothful while we're waiting for some day for a glorified body.
Because, hey, praise the Lord, every saved person, even if they don't do anything for God, they're getting a glorified body too someday.
They may not have as great of a position in the millennium and in the kingdom of God and all that.
But look, God doesn't want us to be slothful. Yes, we should be patient. Yes, we should be hopeful.
But we should work while we're patient and hopeful and spend every day that God gives us, which is a gift from God.
Every single day that we have on this earth is a gift from God to do something for him.
We should take that seriously and continue to serve him with all of our might.
Romans 8, look at verse 26. It says this.
"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 searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit,
because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
So notice, as we're patiently waiting for this day, as we're working for the Lord,
waiting for the redemption of our bodies, God hasn't just left us here without any help in this world.
No, the Spirit itself also helps our infirmities while we're on this road.
And the Spirit itself can make intercession to God when we pray.
He can translate those prayers, if you would, to the Father according to God's will.
You know, Brother James could say, "Lord, please give me a red car,"
and then the Holy Spirit could just translate and say, "Lord, just give him a car," right?
Give him what he needs. You know, you pray for something and you think it's what you really want,
and then the Holy Spirit says, "But this is what he really needs," right?
He's helping us through life, through our trials, through our infirmities and our tribulations.
The Holy Spirit of God is helping us all the way.
You know, the Lord is truly leading us all the way until that day we have our glorified bodies.
Romans 8.28 says this, "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."
This is one of the best verses in the entire Bible right here.
This is a great verse, and I know I'm not even going to be able to come close to doing this verse justice, okay?
But this is an awesome verse right here.
But notice, it does not say that everything is going to be good.
This verse does not say that everything is going to be good.
This verse does not say that everything will work together for good for everyone, okay?
This is a conditional verse, but when it says work together for good,
that means that at the end of something, the end of your life,
or at the end of a certain trial you're going through,
or at the end of a church's mission or goal,
that you'll be able to look back and see how God worked everything together for good,
to meet a purpose at the end, for God's will to be accomplished at the end of something.
You know, there's so many stories like this in the Bible.
The man that was born blind, right?
And that man could think, like, how could anything good come of this?
But when you're literally used in the Word of God
as someone that interacted with the Lord Jesus Christ
and was healed of the Lord Jesus Christ
and it's eternally inscribed into the Word of God,
he could look back and say, "Okay, I could see how God used that."
And it worked together for good.
He wouldn't go back and change the fact that he was born blind
when he got to be healed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
I mean, that's an amazing blessing.
And often, we don't, or always,
we can't see what's at the end of our road.
We can't see the end of a tribulation or a trial we're going through.
But you could see Romans 8:28,
and you can know that it will always work together for good for you
if these two things are met.
Number one says that you must love God.
You must love God.
So is this the person that has a carnal mind?
That's an enmity with God?
Is this a person that's the friend of the world?
No, not at all.
This is the person that loves God.
Like Jesus said in John 14, 15,
"If ye love me, keep my commandments."
So this promise applies to the person that's walking in the Spirit,
that's living a godly life,
that's trying to follow God's commandments,
that's who this promise is.
Promise two.
And so if we were smart, we'd worry way less about all of our circumstances,
we'd worry way less about all of our problems,
our battles, our trials, our tribulations,
all of the obstacles that we face,
and we'd worry way more about asking yourself this question,
"Do I love God? Am I obeying His commandments?"
Because if you are, then none of that stuff matters.
None of that stuff stops you.
And everything that happens in your life will work together for good.
Every single thing.
That's an amazing promise that the world does not have access to.
And so, I want as many Christians as possible to have access to this promise
by, number one, loving God.
And this is something that you can't just, like, teach someone.
Just like, "Love God!"
I can't just stand up here and just like, "Love God!"
All right?
This has to be in your own heart.
I can't make my wife do this.
I can't make my kids do this.
I sure can't make any of you do this.
You have to love the Lord for your own self.
Everybody's free will to love the Lord.
Number two, it says this, that you have to be the called according to His purpose.
Now, sometimes we just have to learn that our purpose and God's purpose are not always the same thing.
And sometimes, not always, but sometimes God wants us to lose so that He can win.
I'll give you an example of that.
I'll go to John chapter number three in the story of John the Baptist.
John chapter number three, start reading verse number 25, says this,
So you have these guys that are, you know, trying to play on John the Baptist's pride and saying,
"Hey, all these people that were with you, now they're with Jesus.
Now they're wanting to go get baptized by Jesus."
And notice what he says in verse number 27,
He's saying, "Hey, I never said I was supposed to be the main show here.
I never said this religion was about worshiping John.
I've always said it's been about the Lord Jesus Christ."
Look at verse 29, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom,
which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled."
He must increase, but I must decrease.
And John decreased so much to the point where he was literally beheaded by Herod
for preaching the word of God.
Now, do you think that that was John the Baptist's will?
Probably not, but it was God's will.
And John the Baptist loved God, and he was the called according to God's purpose,
the Lord Jesus Christ's purpose.
Because John the Baptist was a great man. Jesus said that among them that are born of women,
there's risen none greater than John the Baptist.
I mean, that's a stellar review when Jesus Christ is saying this is the best man that's ever been born, right?
It's amazing.
Yet what was God's will for John the Baptist? To be killed. To be killed.
And you say, well, how did that work together for good for John?
Well, what a motivational story this is for us today and for Christians throughout thousands of years who have been persecuted,
who have had the government coming after them, who have had the Catholic Church killing them for translating the Word of God,
to stand faithful unto death by looking at the example of John the Baptist.
You think that worked together for good for John?
You think he might be having some rewards in heaven for standing firm and for preaching the Word of God
and for being a martyr for Jesus Christ?
I guarantee you that right now in heaven, John the Baptist would not say,
"Hey, sign me up for not going through that. I'll do my life over and not go through that."
Absolutely not. He's not regretting anything that he did.
He's not regretting anything that he went through
because all things have worked together for good for John the Baptist.
This is an amazing promise that every single person in here has access to
if you'll just love the Lord, you'll just obey His commandments,
and if you'll just realize that, hey, your will is not always God's will.
Just get on His program, just be okay with what God wants for your life,
and let Him lead you.
Romans 8.29 says this, we're almost done here, we'll go through this a little more quickly,
"For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."
This is not teaching Calvinism, I'm not going to get too deep into Calvinism tonight,
but this is just saying that God simply knows and knew beforehand who would believe and who would not believe.
And He chose that those people that would believe would someday be conformed to the image of Christ.
In what? Glorified body, is what Romans 8 has been talking a lot about, right?
So God, He knows who will believe, and those that believe He chose of those people would have a glorified body, verse 30.
"Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. Whom He called, them He also justified.
Whom He justified, them He also glorified."
So this does not mean that God only called the people that He justified, because He called everyone.
It'd be like this, what if I invited all of you over for dinner tonight and only half of you came?
You all were called, right? You still were all called.
And Jesus said this in John 12, 32, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
All men were invited to the Lord's feast.
All men were invited to the wedding banquet that the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for us.
But not everyone chooses to believe.
But those that do come, of course they're justified.
Those that do believe, of course God predestinated those people to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Those that do believe, of course God foreknew that those people would believe.
He's God.
But that does not mean that God is picking and choosing who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
That's wicked. That's not the God of the Bible.
You've never read the Bible and truly known God if that's what you come away from in this chapter.
Verse 31, "What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?"
You know when you take this great promise that he just talked about,
saying that all things are going to work together for good for you,
if you love God, for those that are the called according to His purpose,
and then he poses this question, if this promise is true,
if this promise is actually true, and if God is for us,
who can be against us?
Who can stop the work of God?
Who can stop God's will from being done?
It's not going to happen.
You know, there's been people that stood against God's people in the past.
When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown in the fiery furnace, right?
But if God was for those people, who could stand against them?
When Daniel was thrown in the lion's den,
there was definitely some people that were against Daniel,
but God was for him and who could stand against him, right?
And we live in a time right now where we're starting to see God's people being persecuted,
being lied about, being threatened.
But here's what you need to understand.
If God be for us, who can be against us?
You know what? No one's going to stop Pastor Jonathan Shelley and Steadfast Baptist Church
because God is for us, period. End of story.
Doesn't matter how many protesters you bring, doesn't matter how many lawsuits you bring,
if God is for us, you cannot be against us, period.
Because our pastor loves God, our pastor is the called according to his purpose,
and so are the church members at Steadfast Baptist Church, and so are these people as well.
And you need to take ownership of that promise and realize what a blessing it is
and not be afraid to serve God, not be afraid of the persecution,
because God is going to be standing with you.
Verse 32, "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?"
You know, if God was able to sacrifice his own precious, dear, sinless son for our salvation,
do you not think that God would also give us whatever we need to get through other problems of life?
I mean, if he fixed our damnation problem by giving us his only son,
do you not think he's going to give you the tools necessary to endure persecution,
to keep preaching the Word of God, to keep getting people saved?
The Bible says, "No, he's going to freely give us all things if we love him
and if we're the called according to his purpose."
Look at verse 33, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifyeth. Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."
So people aren't going to be able to condemn us or lay an accusation against us
because we're not doing this by our own power here.
We're not doing this out of our own mind.
I didn't just write this. Pastor Shelley didn't write this.
We're doing this because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're doing this because of God.
And you want to lay an accusation against us, you want to lay a charge against us,
you're fighting against God, not us, and you're not going to be successful.
You know, not even the devil can accuse us successfully to the Lord
because He's always accusing us to God the Father,
and Jesus Christ is always interceding for us and pleading on our behalf.
So not even the accuser of this world, not even the God of this world can condemn us when God is on our side.
Look at verse 35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"
These are a lot of things that the Apostle Paul went through, literally.
All these things saying, "Can any of these things that I've been through, or could possibly go through,
can any of this separate me from the love of God?"
Verse 36, "As it is written, 'For thy sake we are killed all the day long.'
We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
The Bible says that not even death, not even being slaughtered like a sheep,
is something that can separate us from the love of God.
I've thought about death a little bit lately. There's a couple people that want me dead.
It's been on my mind and on my phone and on my voicemail a lot lately.
And guess what? Not even death can separate me from the love of God.
And not even death can separate you from the love of God.
And not even death can stop the work of God from being done.
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Verse 38, "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."
You know, the people that teach you can lose your salvation,
can just go ahead and wrap these verses up and smoke on them for a while,
because nothing can separate you from God's love.
Not your sin, not persecution, not nakedness, peril, famine, sword,
height, debt, life, angels, principalities, powers, none of it can separate you from the love of God.
And you know, I hope every single person in here is saved, and Romans 8.1 can apply to them,
where there's no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
I think everybody is already there.
But the big takeaway from Romans chapter 8, you should be asking yourself,
you know, if you want these promises applied to you, the question you should be asking yourself,
and the question that I should be asking myself, is do I love God?
I didn't say, "Do you go to church?" I didn't say, "Do you show up to a soul-winning time and go through the motions?"
I said, "Do you love God?" That is a big difference from being saved.
And we as a church, we always hammer the doctrine of salvation and how it's faith alone,
but that is not the same thing as loving God.
I'd be way more concerned about answering that question for myself than worrying about my finances,
than worrying about my health, than worrying about my persecution,
or worrying about all the different problems I have in life.
I need to answer that question first, do I love God?
And all of us, every single person in here, can strive to love the Lord more than we do right now.
And that's only going to be a blessing to you.
That's only going to bring good for you.
That's only going to secure the promises of God in your life that much stronger.
And it's going to increase your faith so that, hey, you can be called according to God's purpose.
And you can be okay with God's will in your life.
And you can be willing to lose so that God can win.
You can be willing to decrease so that Jesus Christ can increase.
Because these promises are not here just so that you can have a great life.
Everything in here is to glorify God.
And your life is not here to please yourself.
You exist to please God.
I exist to please God.
We're created for His pleasure.
And so this chapter is amazing.
These promises are amazing.
We want them to apply to our lives.
So let's, as a church, endeavor to love God more than we did yesterday.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you so much for this day, and thank you for Romans chapter number eight.
Truly, Lord, one of the most powerful chapters in the entire Bible, Lord, I pray that every single person in here would meditate on the things that were preached and read from the word of God.
I pray that you'd help us all to truly love you with all of our hearts.
I pray that every single person in here would be willing to submit themselves to your will to decrease that you can increase.
We love you so much, Lord, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Go ahead and sing one more hymn. You'll take out that red hymnal there.
We're going to sing song 377, "Rescue the Perishing," great song about soul winning.
I was about to change it for "Oh How I Love Jesus" after that message.
We're still going to sing it, 377, "Rescue the Perishing."
Sing it all together on the first. All together.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.
Weep for the harrying ones, lift up the fallen.
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.
Though they are sliding him, still he is waiting.
Waiting the pen and a child to receive.
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently.
He will forgive if they only believe.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.
Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter.
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore.
Touched by a loving heart, waken by kindness.
Chores that are broken will vibrate once more.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.
Rescue the perishing, duty demands it.
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide.
Back to the narrow way, patiently win them.
Tell the poor wanderer, Savior has done.
Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.