Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to our Thursday night Bible study. Delighted that you're here. I'm Randy White with Randy White Ministries, and we come to bring you some solid verse by verse Bible study from a rightly divided perspective. And as we do every Thursday night and have for years, got an outline available for you. Romans, chapter eight, verses 18 through 24. This is session number 21 on our Romans Rightly Divided series, and I look forward to going through these verses for you. Do you notice my nice tie? Well, this week, those of you on Ask the Theologian know this, but this week I started selling ties because I found a good deal on them. And I think every preacher needs a good tie, right? And so here I went to Dispensational Publishing, and then if you click the shop button right there, it is Ties. And you can click Ties and seems like it's a little slow right there, but eventually there they go. The ties came up. There's going to be one added every day. We've only been doing this four days. And the tie of the day, which is this one right here, the tie of the day is on sale. It just happens yesterday. Still on sale, too. See, there's a bonus for you. $7.99 for such a beautiful tie. This is Sunburst Shadow, and you can just go in there and click sunburst Shadow. It's a stunning accessory that's sure to turn heads. There you go. Just in case you want a little tie in your life. Father's Day is coming up, but there's going to be a tie added every day. So since there's going to be a tie added every day, unless you're leaving on a trip or something, don't buy the Father's Day yet because you might have quite a few to look at. Now, that's enough advertising for this evening, isn't it? Let's jump into Bible study tonight. And we do come to Romans Rightly Divided, and we begin again to go verse by verse, as we have been doing for 20 now, our 21st session, and we'll still be in chapter eight by the time we're done tonight. We're not going to finish it. We're going to look at a reasonable portion of the passage. We almost could have gone on maybe, but I knew to go on would keep you late. And some of you on the East Coast especially, it's past your bedtime. And so we're going to take verses 18 through 24 here in just a moment. We'll mostly look at the King James version tonight, but we'll have the Greek right here if we need to. And we've got the Young's Literal translation right here if we need that as well. And we'll look at all of that on Biblify. But first, let's look at the supplemental material in the book Romans graphically presented, available at the same place you buy your ties. And we are in a section of chapter five, verse twelve through 839, and we're in the last of the three parts of that which is giving testimony to the validity of the mystery. So he revealed the mystery in chapters one through five. Now he gives validity or gives testimony to the validity of the mystery in chapters five through eight. And in chapter eight, one through 39, he is giving the struggle and the survival of God's elect. Of course, I believe that God's elect is the nation of Israel. And tonight we're looking at this little section right here, romans, chapter one, verses 18 through 25, which speaks about the future glory of Israel. So that is our subject tonight, the future glory of Israel and how it fits in with the whole. That is page 37 in your book, Romans, graphically presented, if you happen to have that. And so with that, let's begin looking at the future glory of Israel in Romans chapter eight, beginning in verse 18, where Paul says, 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. I bet you a gold dollar that every time you've heard that passage, it was applied to me and you in the terrible sufferings of this present time that you and I have got, whoa, how terrible they are. Doom and gloom and agony on me, deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. The sufferings of this present time always taken to be my sufferings and your sufferings in this passage. If you notice on your outline, I've got this in black. Remember that in my right division, color coding, which is always open to assumption, but in my right division, color coding, black is that's not for us. When I divided the book of Romans into these colors, I did it almost exclusively based upon pronouns. And the US right here, the first person plural is not us, it's not the body of Christ, it is Paul and the kingdom apostles in addition there, because he's speaking to a Jewish audience here, probably I think it includes the Roman Jews as well. But I'm not in that audience at all. That's a kingdom audience, and I think this belongs to the nation of Israel. As we said already right here, we're talking about the future glory of Israel. And so looking at that future glory of Israel, paul again says, I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And I wonder how many times maybe even someone was just struggling through a hard time, and through those struggles in that hard time, we may be brought up. Romans, chapter eight, verse 18. Say, well, remember that Paul told us that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to even be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. It's a way of comforting someone, I suppose. And that's certainly what Paul is doing right here. And yet you kind of want to say, well, how does Paul know that we're going through any sufferings? In fact, you might want to say, Are we going through any sufferings? I realize we have a bad president. I realize we got bad governance all around us. I realize there's so many ways in which the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but still, we got it pretty good, don't we? And I realize there are exceptions out there, that there are believers and have been believers down through the ages who definitely had suffering in their present time. But I think Paul doesn't give this as just sort of some universal truth, universal truth that's applicable to all of Christendom, and that's the way we've taken it. But I think Paul says, Roman Jews, you all have had some sufferings in this present time or have sufferings in this present time. And in addition to the fact that you have sufferings in this present time, I've got sufferings in this present time. And those were real, legitimate, verifiable sufferings here in our Bible study, we have taken this to be the Roman Jews. So if the Roman Jews are in order here, did they have any sufferings in this present time? I would say, yeah, absolutely. The Roman Jews did have sufferings in this present time. Let's speculate a little bit. Maybe these Roman Jews were of the scattered ten tribes. If so, they had kind of had sufferings since the days of the Assyrians. I mean, they had moved from one place to another to another to another, trying to find a place that would take them, a place that they could live and not being in their homeland. Now, that's a possibility. I don't really think that it's probably these Jews. I think more likely and I could be wrong here, we don't really know more likely. However, these Jews maybe only had lived in Rome for 2025 years. Maybe they grew up in Jerusalem. They were at the Day of Pentecost th they received the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost. They began to be followers of the Way or the Nazarenes. And eventually, if you look at Acts, chapter eight, verse one, those people began to be scattered about. And so maybe it's in the last 20 to 25 years that they end up in Rome. Well, that's quite the transition, and I have no doubt about it. If you or I were to immigrate to another country today, 25 years from now, it would still be a big deal. The day I left the United States or left Belgium or left Canada or wherever it was and went to whatever country I moved to, it would be a big deal. 25. We would still not quite be settled after 25 years. So here, maybe they've made that move, and then when they got there, things weren't really any better. They left because of persecution and, you know, that kind of thing. Leaving a country because of persecution really is something that the effects of that goes on a generation or two. But they left for persecution. But what happens when they get there? If we take this more to the immediate context? So maybe you say, hey, Randy, I don't see any connection to the Assyrian invasion in 723 BC. I don't see any connection to the persecution that came on the members of the way, beginning in Acts, chapter eight, those who were there at the day of Pentecost or brought in thereafter. I don't see any of that. Well, okay, this is just a few years after a few years at the most, by the way, after the resolution of Claudius's edict that all Jews had to leave Rome somewhere 50, 52, 54, claudius made an edict, jews, out of here. Now, it didn't last very long, somewhere between six months and two years, we're not exactly sure. So then they had come back, and yet Claudius is still the emperor. How are things going for you? Basically, in the context, the historical context of Romans, chapter eight, his audience has sufferings of this present time. He's not just metaphorically speaking, it's not just a thing that, well, everybody has a bad day someday. And so whenever that bad day comes, just remember, it's not even to be compared with the glory that is yet to come. This is a very specific thing, take it literally. So here he says to the Roman Jews, hey, we've got sufferings at this present time. I got them too. They are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. There's not a period the glory that shall be revealed in us. Now, us, basically here, it's the apostles, it's the Roman Jews, it's the remnant, it's the believing segment. It's those who are going to receive the kingdom. So he's saying, hey, we've had some problems. Those of us who believe Christ is the Messiah, who believe he's coming again to give his kingdom someday, boy, have we ever had some problems. I think you would call them sufferings, sufferings of this present time. But I'm telling you, someday in us there is going to be a glory revealed. Now, let me just say, buckle up, buttercup. I don't think that's talking about you. I don't think there is any glory to be revealed in you. Now, you and I have a great future. If we're believers, if we've accepted the gift of grace, certainly we have a great future. But the glory to be revealed in us, that one I think we have to say that belongs to Israel. And that is one of those that, honestly, we have to leave it for Israel. Let's look at a couple of passages here that speak of the glory which shall be revealed in us. Let's go to, for example, isaiah, chapter 60, verses one, two and three. It says arise. Try that again. Isaiah, chapter 60. It Stayed, verses one, two and three. Arise shine, for that light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the gentiles shall come to thy light, and the kings to the brightness of thy rising. Ah, the glory that is to be revealed in us, in who in the remnant thy light shall come, the Lord shall arise upon thee. This is not talking about the church here, obviously. This is talking about Israel. Let's go to Isaiah, chapter 61, verse seven. For your shame shall have double and your confusion they shall rejoice in their portion, therefore in their land they shall possess the double. Everlasting joy shall be upon them that's talking about the nation of Israel. How the double blessing, so to speak, that they are going to receive? Let's try another one. Let's look at Jeremiah, chapter 30, verse 1818 through 20. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will it just doesn't want to stay there, does it? Jeremiah, chapter 30, verse 18. Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents and have mercy upon his dwelling places. And the city shall be builded up on her own heap. And the palaces shall remain after the manor. And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving. And the voice of them that shall make merry, I will multiply them. They shall not be few. I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. The children also shall be as a four time. Their congregation shall be established before me. I will punish all that oppress them. Again. Check that right there. I will glorify them. Part of the kingdom promise is there is going to be a glory in Israel revealed in Israel. It was very consistent in the promise. Let's go ahead. And since I only have one more, let's look at it, and that would be Zechariah. Zechariah, chapter twelve, verses nine and ten. It shall come to pass in that day it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that are come to Jerusalem. I will pour upon the house of David, upon the inhabitants of Israel, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first born. In that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem. It speaks of it. And the land shall mourn everyone to his family. It goes on in that day. And if we were to read, I'm going to actually stop there, because it's down further in the passage if we were to read, hey, they mourn and guess what? There is going to be a coming glory. Now in fact, okay, I want to do one more. Isaiah, chapter 46, verse 13. I will bring near my I should talk to the Coder about that. Isaiah chapter 46, verse 13. I will bring near My righteousness, it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry. And I will place in Zion for Israel, my glory. So you telling me that let me get back to the Romans passage, romans 818. You telling me that the glory that shall be revealed in us is not talking about in us Christians? Well, where do you want to get your truth from? I shouldn't have said it that way because there's only one truth, doesn't matter where it comes from. What is the source of truth? If the source of truth is commentaries, then there is a glory that's going to be revealed in me and you. If the source of truth is the word of God, then you will find one scripture after another after another after another after another after another that will talk about the glory that will be revealed in Israel. I'm going to go with the Word of God and I'm going to say that there is a suffering in the first century when Paul was writing to Rome, there was a suffering of the present times. Really? I think you could probably say for all kingdom believers there was a suffering in those times, but certainly for those Roman Jews. But that suffering for present times, hey, yeah, it lasts for a little while, but joy comes in the morning. To use another passage of Scripture, it certainly is not easy, it's not good, it's not fun, but it doesn't even compare to the glory that's going to be revealed in the remnant in Israel, my glory. So I'll say dozens of scriptures that interpret this as revealed in Israel. But somebody, again, the standard Evangelicals would say, no, we're the new Israel. It's revealed in us. Show me, show me the passage. The closest I could come to is Ephesians 525. And this is the passage, husbands love your wife. And even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word that he might present to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish. That's a glorious church is the closest I get. And that's it. You look at the cross references on that and you don't really find anything. So once again, we go back to Romans, chapter eight, verse 18, and he says here very clearly the sufferings of this present time. I'm going to say the Roman Jewish sufferings of this time are not worthy to the glory which shall be revealed in us, which is a messianic glory or a kingdom glory. When the kingdom comes, this is what is going to take place. This glory is going to be revealed in us. Now let's go on to verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God, the earnest expectation. I like that. We could just say the expectation, but this is the earnest expectation. This is my heart's desire. Right, okay. The earnest expectation of the creature. I want to talk about the word creature because we're going to come up with it several times here. But the expectation of the creature waits. It waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. We'll come to that for just a moment. Let's talk about the expectation of the creature. Weights. The creature. If you and I today use the word creature, it probably would be like some creepy crawly thing. What is that creature? Put that thing back in the box. I don't know what that is. Creature. In 1611, the word creature did not have that kind of connotation. Today, you probably would not refer to your neighbor as a creature, and yet in the truest sense of the word, you would have to say, yeah, he's a creature. Not even in a bad way would I this Sunday on Mother's Day say, hey, I want to welcome all you female creatures here today, especially those of you who have offspring, those little creatures, too. I could say it, and grammatically, it would be correct, but probably would not win friends and influence people. Right. But in 1611, the word didn't have that connotation. The word creature in Middle English simply meant something that was created. It was not even limited to the living world, the animal world, which we would do it today. So you could come and say, hey, look at this creature right here. 1611. Today we wouldn't call our neighbor a creature, and we wouldn't call the mug a creature. So what we've got here is the truth, that language does develop and language changes and gets some different connotations to it. But we don't need to update every time it changes. We just need to study a little bit. It's getting easier all the time to study a little bit and say, hey, the creature used to have a different connotation to it. Yeah, it's creation. And we could check the strong's word over here, probably a little small for you, but katissis. I'll get it out. Katissis. And as Young's has it over here, the creation, anything created, I think we could use the word the term cosmos here for this, the expectation of the cosmos. So I want to say this is certainly the expectation of the human, but way beyond that, the expectation of life, but way beyond that, it is the expectation of all of all the created order. If it was created, it is a creature. Now you got that? So he kind of personifies creation here because this creature has no expectation. But you could weave a little tail and say, I've got a mug here who's just expecting to have some coffee in it in the morning. Don't disappoint. Make sure it's got some coffee in it. The mug will be sorrowful giving a personification to it. Okay, so the expectation of the creature, the creation waiteth, something's not here yet. As a dispensationalist, let me tell you, I love words like this. They're time words. They say something's going to be different in the future than we've got right now. And so here we see that creation is waiting. Waiting for what? If we were to ask run of the mill dispensationalists, what is creation waiting for? Oh, creation is waiting for the restoration of all things. That would be true. Creation is waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ. That would be true. I don't think they would say creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. What does that mean, creation waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Manifestation. You know what that means? It means the unveiling, the revealing. There they are right before our eyes, the manifestation of the sons of God. So let me use the term unveiling here. All of creation waits for the unveiling of the sons of God to back up a verse, because there is a glory that's going to be revealed in those sons of God. And that glory is what they're looking for, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. So then the question is, who are the sons of God? Well, again, if you're going to let the commentaries be the source of truth, then the sons of God are me and you, all believers and boy, creation is longing for the time when you and I are just going to be set forth in all our glory. I mean, the rocks will cry out. Sounds kind of arrogant. And it is. And the Bible doesn't say anything about that. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture and say, what are the sons of God? Now I know that many of you have, of course, studied Banay Elohim, the Hebrew for the sons of God, and that comes into the Genesis six passage, and it's angelic beings. But are there other sons of God? I am pretty convinced they are, as a matter of fact. Let's look at just a couple of passages of Scripture here. Let's go to first John, chapter three, verse two, to let Scripture interpret Scripture. And it says First John 32. It says, okay, there's verse one, verse two. Behold, now are we the sons of God? We stop right there. You let scripture interpret Scripture, but you let the closest in context determine the meaning. And therefore you've got a New Testament passage. New Testament passage, Romans. First John, look through the New Testament and say, what are the sons of God? You'll find out they're not like the Bana Elohim of Genesis, chapter six. So here is really a definition. We are the sons of God. Now go back to our first John study and guess what? You'll discover that first John's not about us. First John happens to be about the Jewish people as well. In the context, I would say it's got to be the Jews it's talking about. So we come here. We Israel are the sons of God. Now remember, Paul says all creation groans or all creation waits. Excuse me. All creation has an earnest expectation that waits for the manifestation, the revealing, the unveiling of the sons of God. John says we are the sons of God. Israel is the sons of God. Does this mean that all of creation is waiting for Israel, God's glory, to be revealed? Yes, it does. The world longs for the glory of Israel. That's what it means. I think that is embedded in creation itself. Was it always from the beginning? I don't know, but certainly from Genesis chapter twelve it was I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. I think God has just baked this into the cake that the creation itself wants Israel to be displayed in her glory. It's like this is the pinnacle of what creation is for. So we Israel are the sons of God. Now look how this says exactly the same thing as Paul said, it doth not yet appear what shall be. That kind of sounds like all of creation is waiting for the appearance, for the manifestation of the coming glory in us. What shall be? It doth not appear what shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. So there is coming a day, this one tells us, when it is when he shall appear. And then the glory revealed in us, we shall be like Him. This is what Romans chapter eight, verse 19 is referring to, the manifestation of the glory. Now let's take another look, another New Testament passage that speaks to this. I think it doesn't quite give the same wording, but First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Now again, I think the we here is speaking to Israel. It's not about the rapture and the resurrection of the rapture, it's about the second coming. And he comes along and says, hey, right now things are not manifest like they're going to be. There is going to be a glory in us right now. In the previous verse we're just flesh and blood. Not always very good at that either, but in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, same thing as John said, or first John, chapter three said at the last trump. What's going to happen in the next verse at the last trump, what's going to happen? Well, we shall all be changed. And then the glory comes in. Then creation will say, Ah, finally. So once again, let me back up here to Romans, chapter eight, verse 18, where it says I reckon the sufferings this present time aren't worthy to be compared with the glory which shall not right now, but shall someday be revealed. There's another manifestation word in us, Israel, the expectation of the creature, of all the cosmos, all the created order. It waits. It's waiting for a new dispensation. And what it's waiting for is the manifestation of the sons of God, israel being the sons of God. Now you say Israel, really the sons of God? Can that be the sons of God? Again, I think First John, chapter three, defined it for us. We are the sons of God. But I won't go into all the other passages there. But I've given it to you. It's on the on the the bottom line of the first page of the outline, unless you have the large print, and then it'll be on the second page somewhere. But Exodus 422 and 23, Hosea eleven one, Deuteronomy 14, one and two. Romans, chapter nine, verse four. These are places which define the sons of God as Israel. They are his children. They are his sons out of Israel. I called forth my son, the sons of God, for the manifestation of Israel as it should be, israel in her glory. This is what creation is waiting for. Now, let's talk for just a moment about antisemitism. Antisemitism, of course, has been around from the times of Abraham onward. Why, it's illogical the Jews are such a tiny, minuscule portion of humanity. Why antisemitism? Could it be that one of the reasons among many that the creature is tired of waiting. The creature understands Israel is supposed to be something more than Israel is, and rather than being patient with that, sometimes we tend to be we get grumpy about it and we start persecuting the Jewish people because the Jewish people are not manifest in the glory of God. I think it's one of the reasons for anti Semitism. I remember one of my professors in seminary once, I'm sure I've told this story before because I only remember three stories from seminary, but one of my professors from seminary talking about whatever had happened in Israel that day back in the he didn't like whatever it was that Israel had done. And he had this very distinguished voice, and he said something like, you cannot claim to be the people of God when you do not behave like the people of God. He was talking about Israel. He said they did something sinful. It was a subtle anti Semitic attack. Why? Because he was impatient rather than saying, hey, guess what? Israel messed up. By the way. I'm not sure he messed up. I think probably it was just a democrat professor who wanted Israel to go. The line of UN, but who knows? But assuming Israel messed up, why not say, you know what? We're not there yet. We're still under the curse. Someday there's going to be the manifestation of the sons of God, the glory of God revealed in Israel. We'll get there. All of creation groans for it. Until that happens, we're not there. Now, let's go on. Still in 19 through 22 really is in the same idea of the expectation of the creature who waiteth. Okay, four, verse 20 for the creature. I didn't mention, by the way, beginning in verse 1919 and going down through 20, 219 through 22, I put in blue. The reason I put them in blue was because he begins in verse 19, just talking about the creature. Well, you and I are the creature. You and I are part of creation. This includes everybody, and therefore it can be applied directly to everybody. He's not talking about us or you, Romans. He's talking about creation. So the creature creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly. If you need the story, go to Genesis, chapter three. When creation, all of creation, was put under the curse. So the the creature creation was made subject to vanity. The word vanity here is it's empty. There's nothing to it, by the way, just in case. You ever think houses and land and gold and silver? Man, if I had that, I'd have it all. It's empty. Creation is an emptiness, and sometimes some of that emptiness is needful in our day, maybe even nice to have. But is that the answer to it? In fact, we call things of the earth mainly real. Talk about real estate. I want some real estate. I'm tired of the fake estate. I want the real estate. And yet the Bible says it's empty. That one's going away. So creation subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who is subjected the same. So why is all of creation subject to this emptiness? Because God put it under it, that's why. It's not because it was created that way. It's because the Creator subjected his creation to it. And with that creation that then comes about, I think that you see that there is well, it's the world under the curse. Now, something that I want to say, because these words right here can confuse you in hope, because you could read, but by reason of Him who has subjected the same in hope. How do you subject something to vanity in hope that doesn't really go together, but in Greek, what you have, I think the best way to put it is if you are diagramming the sentence, the expectation of the creature waiteth in hope. The creation is waiting hopefully for the manifestation, for the revelation that is coming about in hope because the creature itself shall also be delivered. So there is the hope there. Now, one way to look at it is to take these words right here of verse 20, all of them except for the words in hope. And to take that parenthetically. So let me back up here. The expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God in hope because the creature itself also shall be delivered. Oh, and by the way, the creature was made subject of antity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same. So you've got a little parenthetical right there. You could do it a number of ways. You could also stick a comma right here. He is subjected the same in hope because the creature itself also shall be. So put the words in hope to go with verse 21 as a completion of verse 19. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Okay, couple of things I think we have to do as we look at this. And that is to say, excuse me, I want to check my notes here, make sure I don't miss something here. There we go. Okay, the creature itself, let's take this word right here. The creature itself tells us this is not talking about humanity. If you were to look at this word creature catesis, it's in the feminine. The cosmos is defined grammatically, it's in the feminine, the cosmos. But you would not use the feminine to refer to a group of people that included some men in it. You would use the masculine. If it was only women, you could use the feminine. But if it was a mixed group of individuals, you would have to use the masculine. So here he's not saying the people shall be delivered, but he's saying creation itself. That's the words we would use, creation itself. And so you've got this. Creation itself shall be again, that's time that's dispensation. That's not right now, but it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Now, you and I again, I think we would stop and ask right now, okay, has it yet been delivered? Has creation been delivered from the bondage of corruption, from its emptiness? I think another way to put that, the bondage of corruption is has the second law of thermodynamics been canceled yet? No, things are still degrading. There is a bondage of corruption still under it. So just our eyes can tell us this shall be has not yet come, yet we're not in the kingdom, in other words. So there's still this vanity, this emptiness, this lack of a manifestation of the sons of God, this bondage of corruption. Someday all that's going to be changed. So the creature itself shall be in that day delivered from the bondage of corruption. Let me add one more thing here. Let's talk a little more about this bondage of corruption. Bondage of corruption, vanity, curse. We've used the word here tonight that is a biblical worldview says that creation is under a bondage of corruption. Creation is under a curse. Creation is under vanity. Therefore, for a Christian, that ought to affect our understanding of, say, the physical sciences, physics. As a Christian, I think very much we need some more Christians to go into physics. We need some more Christians to go into the physical sciences, into the study of the cosmos. And a Christian worldview would say, all I can tell, a scientific worldview should tell us, too, but didn't necessarily happen. Christian worldviews should say, all I can tell is what I can tell. And what I can tell is that right now, this is the way that things work. But that doesn't tell me how things used to work. It only tells me how things work right now. And therefore, to use creation, physics, the physical sciences, to tell us how things came to be, that's a fool's errand. And yet the scientists have taken that task, and so they begin to study physics and quantum physics, big thing now, studying quantum physics to try to determine how did we get here? Can't do that, because the quantum physics that they are looking at or the physics that they are looking at, is under the bondage of corruption. So it's been messed up. All I know is this is how it works right now. But this is not how it was created. It was messed up. There's no way through the physical sciences, you can determine how it was before it was messed up. We simply do not know. We can't go back to Eden and do the science there. So the physical sciences, in a biblical sense, have to deal with, here is what we have now. And that can be very helpful to even relieving the suffering of this present time, to know this is the way the world works. And if we know the way the world works, guess what? Hey, boom. I read an article this week you know, I kind of like electricity in the theory of electricity and read an article this week about how photons create a hole that allow electrons to move in and fill that hole. It used a lot of language that I couldn't completely figure out, but I worked through the article long enough to figure out, okay, when the photon comes, the sunlight, somehow it makes a little space there. And then the electron says, I'll fill that space, and that made a little space over there. And another one says, Boom, boom. So basically, sunlight makes electricity. That's what it said. Kind of like solar fields. And the reason that was so interesting is because they're somehow figuring out what the article is about. They're somehow figuring out that this can happen without generating heat, which could be phenomenal for the computing world, because the big pox on computers is when you get those electrons flowing especially fast, it makes heat. And then what do you do with the heat? How is that for diverging? Away from Bible study for a moment. It's the way the world works now, and the more you can discover about the way the world works now helps. But don't try to figure out where we came from or where we're going from. The way the world works now, it's under a bondage of corruption, and we have to deal with that. Now, paul, earlier in chapter one said that the things of I'm going to paraphrase this the things of this world, the things of the created order speak of the invisible attributes of God. So he's preserved certainly enough to have that kind of God fingerprint in the whole thing, which is another reason why we need more Christian physicists. But there is this bondage of corruption, okay? So the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Now, this does not say that the church is coming into the freedom of God's people, the freedom of Israel. That would just be evangelical stupidity. If you find something that's trying to say, hey, we're invited in to have the liberty of the children of God, this is saying in the millennium, the creation will experience the liberty that is brought about with the children of God. Creation is going to be a part of that glorious liberty that will come. And so a couple of words. If you want to write a book on the millennium, maybe you would call it Glorious Liberty, the Wonderful Age Yet to Come, something like that. There is going to be a glorious liberty. It's a glorious liberty of Israel, and all of creation is going to be blessed by that. Verse 22. For we know that the whole creation, by the way, see the word creation right here? Let's come here into the Greek. There it is right there. I don't know if you can see it, but it says catesis. Catesis say, that's the same word he had earlier. Yeah, creation, whole creation. It's actually in the exact same format. Catesis, same native or nominative, it's some form of the noun, the same form all the way through. So I've been saying creation because in 1611 that's what creature meant was creation. And here it is, creation, the whole creation. The cosmos, growth and travaileth in pain together until now. Back up shall be back up a little farther was made subject there's. The Genesis three shall be delivered there's the second coming in the millennial kingdom. And yet it growneth and travaileth until now that says we're still in this period in which physics can't tell us any more than what physics can tell us. And physics groaneth and travaileth in pain, desiring for something else to come. You know, there's there is a sense, I think, in which creation wants to produce. And I can see this. I grow a few plants and sometimes they get wintered, and you think, oh my goodness, that thing is not going to make it. But you get a little water on it and little sunshine on it in the spring, and all of a sudden it begins to put forth and you're like, wow, that thing wanted to live. I think all of creation is kind of like that. It's groaning, it's travailing, it wants to produce. And someday it's going to. Even last Sunday, we sang this song, the trees of the field will clap for joy. Something like that. And there are so many passages in the scripture which speak about the millennium in a physical sense. The mountains and the rivers and the fields and the trees and all this, that the celebration that creation is going to have. So till now, we're not there. We're still stuck, we're still waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. And verse 23 and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Now, notice that they, of course, is inserted on there and it does not refer to a group of people. There has not been a group of people in this context. 19. Here we are at 23, not been a group of people, yet it's the creature, it's the creation. Same word. It's the cosmos. So they, as in all the things of the cosmos, all the things of the physical world, they groan, they travail, not only they, but ourselves also. This goes back to the suffering that he started out with. We the Jewish remnant also, which we, which, by the way, here, we get into the masculine, because he's speaking about people right here which have the first fruits of the Spirit. Now, I think if you look at it biblically, I don't have the first fruits of the Spirit, nor do you. Israel had the first fruits of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit was given to them and began to move in their midst. That was the first fruits of the Spirit. I've got the ceiling of the Spirit. Today we could talk about the other things that we may or may not have with the Spirit, but first fruits is not one of them. So here we Israel, we who are given the kingdom offer. We the Messianic Jews who believed we have the first fruits of the Spirit. And with that, even we ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption. To wit, the redemption of the body. Now, the adoption, waiting for the adoption. He defines what the adoption is. He says, to wit, we don't use that term very often anymore today, but it means wit is a knowledge word waiting for the adoption. Let me explain. To wit, the adoption, biblically, is the redemption of our body. But guess what? That's not talking about me and you. It's not talking about the rapture, when the dead in Christ shall rise first. It's not talking about the redemption of our bodies. The adoption is the redemption of our body, singular, the manifestation of the sons of God. There is the body, the assembly, the group that God has hath wrought. There it is the redemption of our body is the redemption of the body of Israel, the national body, when it shall be finally redeemed and made to be what it was supposed to be. Now, you say, no, that's talking about Paul's body and the other individual Jews there, their body. Peter, Paul and Mary Tom, Dick and Harry. It's talking about their bodies, the redemption of their bodies. There is a redemption of my body and your body. But here that's not what he's talking about here. He uses the singular and say, well, yeah, but it's because I only have one body. Yeah, but look, he just had the plural. We ourselves grown within ourselves. He knows how to use the plural. If he meant bodies, he would have said, we grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption. That is, the redemption of our bodies would have made perfect sense if you're talking about the various physical bodies of each of the individuals. But that's not what he's talking about. The redemption of our body, Israel, the body, the body politic that is to come back up here. The manifestation of the sons of God, same thing. Or the glory which shall be revealed in us. This is back down to verse 23, the redemption of our body, israel last verse. For we are saved by hope. But hope, that seems not hope. What a man seeth, doth he yet hope for? Again, a dispensational comment. We're not there yet, otherwise we wouldn't be hoping for it. We got it. We are saved by hope. This word right here by the preposition by, that could kind of confuse you. By the way, in verses 23 and 24, I went back to black because he's talking about we, not me and you saved by hope. How are you saved by hope? That gives the idea of hope is the instrument which saves you. Sometimes we almost subtly say things like this. We'll say like, don't lose hope, boy. If you lose hope, you're out, man, you're sunk. There's no hope for you if you lose hope. I understand kind of what we mean by that hope is a good thing. But Paul is not saying that for Israel in the kingdom Gospel, which is completely what he's talking about here. He's not saying that hope is the instrument of salvation. The word by, just like the word creature that we had earlier, the word by had a much broader meaning. In fact, if anything, the English language in so many ways has narrowed its usage of words. And by is a word that very much could mean in. So saved in hope in 1611, if you wanted to say, hey, we are saved in hope. That is, we don't have the expectation there, but, man, we're right here in hope. You could say saved in hope. Or saved by hope. And it meant the same thing. And it's true with the Greek preposition as well. And the actual preposition is not used here. It's the format of the verb. But in the Greek preposition, you can take, for example, the Greek preposition in epsilon new and translate it in with or by and a number of other words too. It's kind of a broad word. In with, by. In English, we have in and we have with and we have by and we celebrate that. Earlier, English didn't have that. Greek didn't have that. A lot of languages don't have that. So we're saved in hope. We're saved by hope meant the same thing as we're saved in hope. And here we are. Basically, he says, we're still hopeful, we're still hanging on, we're still waiting. And that, my friends, brings us to the end of verse 25, the future glory of Israel. Next week we'll begin in 826. God's intercessory work for Israel. This is one that again, is very often misinterpreted. And the secure future for Israel and the confidence of Israel as we go through notice this really is all about Israel. There's this creature stuff that we fit in here, but that's about it. This is not really our passage and that'll come into play as we continue as well. Thank you very much for being here. That is Romans, rightly, divided verse by verse, and I am delighted to have spent that time with you here tonight. I would love to say hello, see who's online with us here tonight. You like my sunburst shadow tie? Just wondering. 799. Just saying. Let me say good evening to you here tonight and welcome each one of you and appreciate all of you being here. And before I do that, if you haven't given a comment, you go right ahead and do so and I'll be back tomorrow with Ask the Theologian. 10:00 A.m. Sunday 09:45 a.m. We're going up into the Golan Heights and up north in our virtual tour of Israel. 1045. We are still going to be unlearning even on mother's Day. And hey, ladies, the plan, unless I change my mind, the plan is to talk about proverbs 31. Do a little unlearning of proverbs 31. Stay tuned for that. Neil, first in the room. Thanks for being here in Vulcan, Alberta, Canada. Got the binners. Dr. Mike and Lorna in Incoming, Pennsylvania. Thanks for your presence tonight. Got our Sholo, Arizona branch campus coming in. Everett, good to see you. Roger in Maryland and Wabashaw, thanks for being here. Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Debbie and Darryl, hello to you. Good to see you. Keith and Deb and the Ozarks. And we got the halls in Auburn, Kentucky. Got Darryl and Lisa in Mound Ridge, Kansas. Bill in Cypress, Texas, tonight. Nicholas in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Merles Inlet, South Carolina. Good to see you, Donald. Thank you. Jack and Teresa in Houston, Texas. Edith, good to see you. Hadn't seen you in a few days. West Plains, Missouri. Piedmont, south Carolina is here. Jim, God bless you. Ed, Nancy and Forrest the right dividing dog from rainy Pueblo, west Colorado. Yeah, that'll green up the prairies won't it's amazing how quick it happens. A little bit of rain. Glad you're here. Rich and Jody, good to see you. From POCA, West Virginia. And Chuck, good to see you. In Weatherford, Oklahoma. Thanks for being here. We got John welcome in West Virginia. Also, Alex, good to see you. London. Shirley out in Ridgecrest, California. Eric in Ohio. Welcome. Cliff in Ontario. Glad you're here. Steven in Winston salem, North Carolina. Thanks for being here. And Rodney and Rainy Memphis. A lot of you getting rain here, aren't you? We had a little bit of sprinkle earlier. I think it's sunny out there now, but Smithville, Missouri, good to see you traveling across the country. A trucker so happy that this Roman session 21 is finally got here. Can't wait. Well, that's a nice word for the trucker. Hope you've had a good drive traveling across the country and listening to Romans as you go. God bless. Leesburg, Georgia. Jerry, thanks for coming in on us tonight. And Linda, ask if the red one was licorice red. That's crimson tide, Linda. Crimson tide, not licorice red. Jeff, our friend up in Trinidad, Colorado. Good to see you, neighbor. Herb and Sherry, good to see you. Lafayette, Louisiana. Thanks for being here. Vena, good morning to you in Australia and happy birthday. Vena, I just saw was it today or yesterday? I saw something about that. Hope that you had a great 129. Scott and Georgiana, Jefferson, Texas. Thanks for being here. Gerard, good to see you. Over in Belt. Nope. Sorry, I almost got you mixed up with Rudy over in the Netherlands. Gerard in the Netherlands. Thanks for being here. Well, let's see, gerard, I'll have to see if I can get ties to the Kingdom of the Netherlands for a reasonable cost. He was asking a question there. Valerie in Louisville says, well, I see Randy hasn't sold his tie yet. That's right. I had the same tie this morning. It's not sold. Maybe this should just go down in price until it sells. Do I hear a 699? Is there a 699? How cheap can you go for a tie? People are so cheap. Laz from Lilywap. Welcome. Good to see you. Glad you're here. It's a good question. Chuck, he says, Are ties getting skinnier? This one? It might be a tad skinnier. It's not really a skinny tie, but I have some wider ones. I don't know. Oh, Cliff saying, Nathan, what's the link to the bird feeder out back? He says, It's not ready yet, but it's coming. And I'm excited about the bird cam. Let's see. I don't know if you'll be as excited as I am about the bird cam, but it's pretty good. And I did grab a few screenshots just in case. Anybody wants to stick around here we have our Western Grossbeck, I think, is how you pronounce it. They come through in the summer for a few weeks. They don't stay too long, but they're here a few weeks and got the real pretty, like, orange on them. Sometimes it's yellow. They're nice looking birds. And then I've got, let's see, what else. We had this guy, I meant to look up his name. He's a woodpecker, but kind of a more rare woodpecker. He's not the regular woodpecker that we see all year round. This is, I don't know, a red bellied woodpecker. He'd look nice with that tie. Wouldn't it go well with him? Red Bellied Woodpecker. He's got a name. I used to know the name. I've forgotten the name. He won't be here long. He'll be flying on to somewhere else. There he is again. We just got birds all day long on that thing, so we're getting it up. He's doing all the testing and I'm the only one that gets to see it so far. And I had a bear on the bird feeder last night and it didn't work, so I didn't get to show you the bear. Okay. We could just sit and talk all night, couldn't we? Yeah. I'm excited about the bird cam. You're going to like it 365 days a year. If I put the bird food out there, we get lots of nice birds, but the prettier ones are in the summer sometimes. The winter birds, they're kind of cute, but don't have all that color on them. Okay, thanks for being here. I look forward to tomorrow. Ask the theologian and to having each one of you here. And Sunday, and we'll have just a fantastic time. Let me lead us in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father grateful for this good group of people that joins us on these Thursday nights and we study the Word together. Others who join in the archives and we don't hear the name week after week but they're with us all the time as well, and that's an encouragement. And pray your blessings upon them. And just ask your watch care over our extended family around this great big electronic table and pray that you would bless it and encourage each one here. Whether there is some sort of sufferings at present time or life is grand, whatever it is. Dear Heavenly Father, we know that life on this earth still is under a curse. There still is a vanity of the things of this world. And yet someday, dear Heavenly Father, things are going to be straightened out. There will be the manifestation of the sons of God as we've talked about tonight. There will be the release of the curse and the trees of the field shall clap their hands. For this we rejoice in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks again, ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate your presence here. And thanks for Nathan on the controls and got Madison and Trent in the live studio audience tonight. And you online. The best.