Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Bible study. Glad you have joined us here on Thursday night as we come to session 20. We should have a party or something. Session 20 of Romans, verse by verse, rightly divided. There is an outline available for you. You can grab that at RWM connect or it's right below. If you are on Randywhiteministries.org or you're watching on Worship I those of you on YouTube, sorry, we don't have a way to put the outline right below there so you could switch to worship. I'm glad you're here. I got lots to teach tonight, so I should get right into it. I'll save a few minor announcements for the end of the hour and I would love to say hello to you as well. Go ahead and put in your howdy do and I'll see who's here, where you are, where are you from? Like Lenny in London. I already saw that. And good to see you, Lenny, and the rest of you also. But let's just jump into Bible study tonight and get started on Romans, rightly divided and verse by verse and look into it. You know, I have had a number of people say to me or by text, by email, by chat, by social media, by in person say, okay, you balded preacher, you are taking Romans as being to Roman Jews. Where do you get that idea? I decided today to check, just to see where that idea could come from. Now obviously in 20 sessions I've given you some, but I found some really interesting. See if I can find them here really interesting quotes. Here's one from the life application bible. This stuff is all evangelical or Catholic garbage, but nonetheless, I want to show you what they say. Here's the life application Bible. It says the church in Rome was probably founded by Jewish Christians who had come to Rome from Jerusalem shortly after Pentecost in Ad. 30. Whoa, are you telling me it's full of Jewish Christians? Now? They use the term Christian, and Christian was the term that was used of those who were in the sect of the Nazarenes, the Way, the Peter's group. But he's saying, okay, these guys got started at Pentecost. You and I as right dividers life Application Bible is not a right division Bible, but study Bible. But you and I know that if they came from Pentecost and they're holding Pentecost ideas, that would be like kingdom stuff, right? Which is what I've been saying. Here's one from the NIV study Bible. Almost gives me the EBGBS to have to say it, but they say the church in Rome seems to have been founded by Jewish Christians who were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Seems like people under Peter. Here's one from the New Oxford Annotated Bible. The church in Rome was probably founded by Jewish Christians who had come to Rome from Jerusalem, perhaps after the events of Pentecost in jerusalem. First of all, I wonder if all these guys are just like copying each other. But nonetheless they are all saying Jewish Christians, Pentecost Christians, those from the kingdom, not the mystery side. And here's the Catholics. The Catholic Study Bible. It's most likely that the Christian community in Rome was founded by Jewish Christians who were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Well, how about that? That, ladies and gentlemen, is what I have been saying. Where are we? It's what I have been saying about this very thing right here. You know, it just dawned on me but Nathan's going to fix it right now as I come over here to talk. He's going to go to the computer and set up biblify because I didn't set it up on Romans chapter one and we could just do the one screen tonight rather than three. My bad, I got to Russian at the end and didn't realize I didn't do my job. But that's okay because we're going to keep on talking. So we've got the issue going on that even the Catholics and the evangelical garbage people say Rome probably has a lot of Jewish stuff in it. Well indeed, I think Rome probably has a lot of Jewish stuff in it and that's the way we've been taking it. Now we come along and we have been at least one session, maybe two, I think we've been two sessions. This is now the third in Revelation, chapter eight. And in the broader chapter 512 through 839, he has been giving a testimony of the validity of the mystery, speaking to Jews, saying, hey, this mystery thing really can be good. But in chapter eight he's been talking about the struggle and the survival of God's elect. And down to chapter eight, verses twelve through 1512 through 17 that we're going to talk about tonight. In twelve through 17, he first talks about being debtors to the Spirit and then he gives a word to Israel, a specific word to Israel and that's what we're going to talk about. Now the supplemental charts are available to you. You can take those and look at those. I've given the page numbers on the outline, but we are how about that? It turned off just as soon as I walked over here. I think it's coming back. I think it's coming back. It's coming back. There we go. We are going to just dive right into the verse by verse of the Scripture tonight. Normally we would have all three you ah, screens there. We'll just leave it at the King James version right here tonight in Romans chapter eight, verse twelve. First of all we begin. He says, therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. Okay, we are debtors. Let's talk about being debtors. He's given, I would say, a pretty practical message. Go back to session 19 if you need that. A pretty practical session to the jews in Rome about not being led by the flesh, but being led by the Spirit. I took that as practical. I talked a little bit about how I think the commentaries get it wrong on this. Surprising coming from me, isn't it? Seems like I talk every week about the commentaries getting it wrong. We'll do that tonight, too. I think the commentaries on the previous verses go way too much into the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And I think the verses were very practical, just saying, hey, if you're going to live either a Jewish life or a Christian life in the body of Christ, it's going to have to be a spiritual life. Spiritual even with a small s. You can't just focus on the flesh to do that. So he's given this very practical message here and now. He says, therefore, since we're going to be spiritual beings, therefore, brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. Okay, we're debtors. We owe a debt. Now, I might add that the previous verse also speaks about being our mortal bodies being raised from the dead. I should say the mortal bodies of the Jews living in Rome being raised from the dead. We talked about how I don't think Paul was expecting the Rapture during that time. He says, you're going to die, but your mortal bodies will be raised from the dead at the time of the Second Coming. And because your mortal bodies are going to be raised from the dead, we are debtors we. Now, he has been in verse eleven, he was using the ye. Now he's using the we in verse 13, he's going to go back to the ye. So I think the we here, it could just be the Apostolic Brethren, as we've talked about all along. But I think here you've got ye, we, ye here, he's just including the Apostolic Brethren in the whole group. So all of us together, although all of us together does not include those of us in the body of Christ, you Romans, we Apostolic Jews, we together are debtors. We have a debt, we owe something. We are indebted to this thing, but it's not the flesh to live after the flesh. Now, almost again, almost all the commentaries here, take this to be and all the sermons, take this to be. Don't sin. Don't sin because you are a debtor not to the flesh to live after the flesh. And somehow that is taken to be. Thou shalt not sin since Christ has come and given his Spirit within you. Don't bow to the flesh, don't give in to the flesh, don't pay. The flesh is the way that it is taken to be. However, I again wouldn't put it exactly that way. They are debtors to the fact that their mortal bodies, their fleshly bodies, are going to be raised again. But remember, it's not the work in the mortal body that is going to bring about that resurrection now? I think so. So Paul takes a broader view of do not be a debtor to the flesh. A broader view than the commentaries out there, I think that Paul says works are necessary. Remember, you guys came from Pentecost. Remember what Peter said at Pentecost? Peter said, Repent and be baptized. Okay? Works are going to come into play in the Judgment but works don't come into play in the mortal resurrection. In verse eleven, there we are debtors to the Spirit. It is the Spirit that is going to raise the body from the dead, not our works. And so again, he's speaking to those in the kingdom group. So I don't want you to get confused thinking he's talking about grace here. I don't think he is. I think he's talking to those in the Jews. Now, God spiritually is going to physically raise us. There's the point. But the preachers take it to say now, Tom, Dick, and Harry, I don't want you to sin. Don't be paying the flesh. That's not what you're supposed to do. Let me give you a few examples, see if I can find it. Yeah, here. Just happened to be right here. Good. Here, I'm going to enlarge this if I can. This is just the printed outline. But here is John MacArthur. You've heard of him, of course. Verse twelve is a continuation of Paul's exhortation that we should live not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. By doing so, we will put to death the deeds of the body and live. Okay? He puts it putting to death the deeds of the body. That's what it means in his idea. Notice we will put to death the deeds of the body. What? And live. Now, live here absolutely is talking about living physically. It's not talking about living spiritually. I'll show you here. If I can back up a verse here. Let's see, where are we verse? I need to go to verse. Let's say ten. If Christ being you, the body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken bring to life your mortal bodies by His Spirit. Therefore, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. He's talking about the resurrection of the mortal body, the physical body. He is not talking about some kind of spiritual life here. I suspect John MacArthur knows what mortal body and the life of the mortal body is. And so he says by doing so by doing what putting to death the deeds of the body, we will live. That, my friend, is absolutely works based salvation which, if you want a good testimony on works based salvation read John MacArthur's stuff. It's all he's got. Over and over and over and over again. It's works based salvation. And I suppose one of the reasons people like John MacArthur so much is because they like works based salvation. It's kind of nice. I can check things off, feel good about it. So here John MacArthur says, by doing so, that is putting to death the deeds of the body, we will live. Now let's do another john. How about John Piper? Remember him? He's kind of a woke calvinist Baptist. Paul is saying, don't let sin boss you around. You don't owe anything to the flesh. You're done with it. Okay. Does Paul want sin to boss you around? No, but we are debtors not to the flesh. Does that mean don't let sin boss you around? That is such a narrow view of these words. I think that we can take these words, we're debtors not to the flesh and broaden them out, even in a more positive way, and look at it and say, Wait, if he's writing to Jewish Christians, I wonder if Paul could be writing to Jewish Christians. Could he be? No. Who would have such an idea? Well, if Paul is writing to Jewish Christians and a Jew is hearing, we're debtors not to the flesh, is he hearing that as saying don't sin? No. The Jews hearing that as saying, your flesh in which you bring the sacrifices, in which you carry out the law, in which you provide a worthy offering unto God, don't trust in it. It could be the negative side of sin. But I think here, probably more looking at the audience, he's more talking about saying, hey, quit trusting in the deeds of the flesh. It's not going to help you any in terms of the mortal resurrection. The quick and the dead are going to be raised again. So we go on then into verse 13. For if ye live after the flesh, you shall die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. Okay, as we come here, Paul is telling them again, I want you to remove all the dependence that you might have on the mortal body, because let's look at it this way. If all of your dependence is after the flesh, you will die. But if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, put that aside, you shall live. Now, here he's got to be speaking in a more spiritual sense than the mortal body, because he had already said, you're going to die. Your mortal bodies are going to be dead. Now, how are you going to live? And is it going to be after the deeds of the flesh? No. Now, this is awful. I mean, this fits in a way to the grace message, but I don't think he's given the grace message yet. I think this is a message that is given to Jews, and he is speaking about living and that which is going to happen there in the living. It's interesting. Ironic would be the word. Let's get twelve and 13 on the screen here. So the commentaries almost exclusively take twelve and 13. Don't be a debtor to the flesh, don't live after the flesh. They almost exclusively take that to be don't sin. Again, if you ever want a good bet with great odds, just go into a preacher's library and say, I think if we pull all the commentaries off the shelf on Romans chapter twelve, they are all going to say in Romans 812 and 13, that means don't sin. Paul is saying, don't let sin be your boss. I'll put money on it, it's a good bet. So they're saying all don't sin. Isn't that ironic? Because isn't don't sin what's the flip side of don't sin must be like live righteous. I want you to live righteous, not sin. So the message of the preachers, like John MacArthur and John Piper is depend on the flesh, I want you to depend on the flesh. Now that's ironic because he's got two verses about not depending on the flesh. And all the preachers are saying, you better clean up your act in the flesh. One wonders how they get away with all this. Why do we just sit and let it go in one ear and out the other? Or we just listen to it. Or we say amen. Maybe it's, I don't know, groupthink. What is it? I don't know it's group. But it is ironic that again, twelve and 13, by and large, the application of verses twelve and 13 is fleshly has to do with your works of righteousness rather than your works of sin. And so from there, let's go ahead and move on to verse 14. Now, verse 14, I have put in blue for as many as are led of the Spirit of God. They are the sons of God. I put this in blue because of the rule I'm using for my interpretation of the pronouns. And we've had this from the beginning, that I as Paul, we as the apostolic band, in most cases, you are the Roman Jews and they is everybody else. And you and I are included in the they. Well, here he comes and just says as many, as many as that's kind of a they, you could argue here. No, it's as many of you Jews as but I'm just going to go ahead and take it more broadly. And so I put this in the blue. And if you want that color coding, by the way, you can get it@dispensationalpublishing.com and the Romans graphically presented. When you get that, you get the color coding free. So as many as that would be me and you and the Roman Jews and Paul and Tom, Dick and Harry, whoever it is, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And so we've got this use of the word sons. Now when he uses the word sons right here, the sons of God. This is the Greek word, the techn of God. Techn of God. And that particular word that he chose, he didn't have to choose that word, the tecna of God, because there are at least three other words that he could have used, as a matter of fact. And I think I've given you some references. Yes, I have some references on the outline. There are other words that he did use when he talked about being sons of God or children of God. But here he chooses the word tecna to speak to this. I think that tecna is well, first of all, let me say all four. There's three plus another one that doesn't mean children. The three options for the children of God, those particular words in and of themselves, all of them could be used either of someone who is literally your child, or it could be used of someone who is in your camp, so to speak. You know, we're we're well, you know, I don't know. Old man like me might look somebody who's totally unrelated, but a younger man say, well, hey, son, you need to not my son. But you'd use that in that sort of nice closeness kind of sense to bring that about. Now, they can all four be used that way. Tecna is the more feeling oriented, intimate word here for being sons of God. It is the word that is close. We're family. The techn of God. As many as are led by the Spirit of God. They are the techno of God he's been talking about. Hey, I want you to walk in the Spirit. I would take a lowercase S there. I want you to walk in the Spirit. And then if we're led by the Spirit here, I'd probably go with the capital S with the Spirit of God. If you're led I mean, he's got it there. If you're led by the Spirit of God, I'd take that as the third person of the Trinity, but however you want to take it, I want you to be spiritual. If you're led by the Spirit of God, you're sons of God. Very practical and uses that word again, he could have used the word huiyas. That word would relate more to a responsibility. Hey, sons, sons, you got to take care of the house while I'm gone. Padilla, that's the word it would be more often children of God could be sons. It could be daughters, but little children. Here's the padilla out here, Sarapon. The servants of God could have been used. But anyway, he chooses this word. That, again, is somewhat of an intimate word. So he says, the mortal resurrection is not the deeds of the flesh. Now, again, see if I can find it here. Yeah, we'll go with it right here. That's the chart I was looking for, and I didn't have it up tonight. He's been giving testimony to the validity of the mystery. You mean we're doing something by grace through faith, not of works separated from the law of Moses. How crazy. And Paul's being saying, hey, wait, you got grace in this aspect you got grace in that aspect of things God's doing before. Why can't he do it here? He's been giving validity to the testimony, and in that then he comes along and he says, your mortal resurrection, that was never based upon your works in the flesh. So to be raised again at the last day, we're going to talk about the works later. But that's just been a spiritual thing that happens. You know that. And then, well, hey, when it does come time for the judgment, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. So this fits into supporting his argument that we are now justified in the dispensation of grace. We're now justified by grace through faith, and as many as are led by the Spirit of God. There they are now in verses 1516 and 17. We are going to give what I take as a message to Israel. I think 1516 and 17 are completely to Israel. I put them in black letters in my own outline and teaching. And here again, one of the reasons I do this is the pronoun ye, ye Roman Jews, ye have not received the spirit notice the lowercase s, the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That, of course, is oft repeated verse. I suspect it would be maybe in the top ten of the Book of Romans of verses. People know you've not received a spirit of bondage, but a spirit of adoption, saying, Abba, Father. This is one that you could drop into the average church and get it started, and people would be able to complete it with a group. On your own, you might have stroke, but to give two or three people, yeah, they would get this out and be able to put it. But I don't think it's to me and you, I don't think that you and I have adoption, nor the spirit of adoption. That's a topic for another day for us to talk about. But I do want to talk about what I think Paul here is saying. You Roman Jews have not received the spirit of a bondage. Again to fear, okay? The spirit of bondage, the word spirit of bondage could literally be taken as spiritual bondage as opposed to physical bondage. Now, there are people who are in physical bondage, and there are people who are in spiritual bondage even within the Christian life, outside of the Christian life. Let's just take it completely lowercase. For example, I don't know someone who has a tremendous amount of fear. We might say they are in bondage. They're afraid of their shadow. This fear keeps them from being set free. They have a spirit of bondage. They're in a spiritual bondage. Now, that's the way that he uses this. You don't have a spiritual bondage again, but you have received the spirit of adoption. Now, it might or may not be surprising for you to know that if we were to open up the Greek here and look in the Greek spirit of bondage, in fact, let's include the definite article, the spirit of bondage, the spirit of adoption. They are exactly the same grammatically. So the only difference would be this one says bondage, this one says adoption. So it is completely and this is virtually always true. It is completely interpretation to use the capital S here. I happen to believe that the King James Bible is the preserved word of God. And being the preserved word of God, how in the world can you say, oh, this might not be the Holy Spirit? I don't think the King James translators ever intended that. What is definitely interpretation here on the capital S must be taken as if it were in the text. I believe completely in the preservation of God's word. We've got the text, and I also know that we take the word of God as having no error whatsoever. But we also know that the Word of God doesn't have capital letters, so that's a matter of interpretation. So we look at this. It's just like the italicized words, like, you got him right there. I believe, hey, if there's an italicized word there, we should look at it. If there's a capitalized word, we should look at it. We should figure this out. So you haven't received a spiritual bondage. You received a spiritual adoption. I think what this means is you haven't literally been adopted, but spiritually you have. Have you ever heard someone you meet and maybe they got two kids, but then there's the neighbor kid who's always at their house, and they might say sometime, this is our two sons, Billy and Johnny, and this is our adopted son Bubba. And if you know them at all, you don't even have to ask. In fact, even if you don't know them, you might pick up on it. You don't say, oh, when did you adopt him? Was he a baby? How long has this been? Tell me about the adoption process. Did you use an agency? You never bring that up because, you know they're talking in a spiritual way. We adopted him. He's got the spirit of adoption as if he were our very own. Now, I think that's what you've got here. I don't think that this is the Holy Spirit. Now, we could talk about sons of God, and that was the we the previous verse, you know, led by the Spirit. You are the the sons of God. But I think that's used in a spiritual way, because let me give you another example. If I were to come and say tonight, I want to talk to you about Jesus Christ being the Son of God. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. And then I were to combine that with I am a Son of God and you are a son of God, you would begin to get a little uncomfortable saying, oh, wait a minute. I'm not really a Son of God like Jesus is a son of God, so I'm a son and yet haven't literally been adopted. Now, here what you've got in in that case, I would have a spirit of adoption. Treats me like a son, talks to me like a son, loves me like a son. I'm in the family, got a place at the table. Son of God. I think that's what we're talking about here. So you've not received a spiritual bondage, not a physical bondage, but a spiritual bondage. You have received a spirit of adoption, not a physical adoption. You've received a spiritual adoption. I think that you have to take this adoption right here, really in this spirit matter, because adoption does have a meaning and you weren't in the family, and you were taken into the family. So not talking about a physical adoption. I'm talking about a spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, let's continue and dig in on this a little bit. Let's go back here we go back on the notes. I've given some quotes here. I don't know if you can see it right here. I said some translations go so far in making the spirit of adoption to be the Holy Ghost. They go so far in making it to be the Holy Ghost that there is simply no way for the student to make their own interpretation. Want to stop right there? The King James there we go uses a capital S to say we the King James. Translators think it's a capital S, but those of us who know things know that you can question the assumptions on that and you can interpret that. So we've got this open to interpretation, and we know it's open to interpretation. But some translations have gone so far in making this the Holy Ghost that if that's what you were reading, you wouldn't even know. You could take that as different. I give you some examples. By the way, let me say this has gone beyond scripture to the point of interpretation and such quote translation should be rejected. If what you're reading is not translating what's actually there, get rid of it. You want to know what the Word of God is? So it comes in here. Let's find it. The NIV says, the spirit you received does not make you slave so that you live in fear again. Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. The spirit you received that is different than you have not received the spirit of adoption, but you have received the spirit of bondage, but you have received the spirit of adoption. They've gone. So. Far. Just word order is all. It was here, but the word order made it sound like this is the Spirit that's within you. Let's look at another one. Here's the new living translation. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Okay? There's no way to interpret that other than you received God's spirit. Therefore, it removes that option from you as the student of God. I don't want that. I put my big boy pants on. I say, you just give me the basics, I'll do with it. And if you really want to go out there, here's the message get you a little throw up bowl beside you before I read this. This resurrection life you received resurrection life this resurrection life you received we'll go on. This resurrection life you receive from God is not a timid, grave tending life. It's an adventurously expectant. Greeting. Greeting. God with a childlike. What's next, Papa? I told you. I warned you. Do you know you can go to big established churches and they use the message, like, with a straight face, even big box seminaries. Unbelievable. My point on verse 15, it's a message to Israel, and he says, hey, Israel, believing Israel especially, you're not in a spirit of bondage, you're in a spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now, let's take that abba. Father. Of course, we've heard that before, and, you know, abba is kind of the intimate way of saying father. The Hebrew word AB is father. Abba is more intimate, like dad and Daddy. So abba, father. So there is some intimacy here. I think that's why he uses tecna earlier in that same intimacy that's given. Now, if we believed that I shouldn't have said if believing that the Spirit of God was given on the day of Pentecost, and the indwelling of the Spirit let's not even talk about right dividers here a moment. The indwelling of the Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, and that's the point at which those who were there received if you want to take it as capital S, they received the spirit of adoption. And that is the point then that they begin crying out, Abba, Father. So from Pentecost onward, this would be run of the mill dispensationalism. From Pentecost onward, the Jewish people had the spirit of adoption within them, the God spirit of adoption within them, and that Spirit within them. The indwelling of the Spirit caused them to be the sons of God, and caused them to cry out, Abba, Father. If we had that argument, we ran into a problem in 1948, because it was in 1948 that they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. And in the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was a document found that was called the Hode. It it's a it's a book of thanksgiving hymns. It has a prayer in it, and one of those prayers or Thanksgiving hymns ends with this you are my Abba, my father. I am your servant, the Son of your handmaid. And absolutely it's talking. It's a person giving his Thanksgiving to God. Now, this it's believed we could question the assumptions, but it is believed that the holy OT comes from 200 years prior to the giving of the Holy Ghost. And the Jews already were looking to Father, looking to God and saying, you are my Abba, my father. Abba Father. This spirit of adoption that we have, I would propose to you that the Jewish people, the faithful Jewish people, especially from the time of Egypt, they didn't go from a physical bondage to a spiritual bondage. They went to a spiritual freedom. They didn't receive a spirit of bondage, they received a spirit of adoption. This is why for hundreds and hundreds of years, the Jewish people have been crying out, Abba, Father, by the time you come here. I think he's talking very Jewish. I think that this Abba Father probably would have been almost even a familiar hymn if I were to say something like, I don't know, boy, what a wonderful day to hear the words of the Lord. Why don't you tell me the story of Jesus? Now, for someone who's totally uninitiated, they would think, oh, he wants someone to tell them the story of Jesus. But to people who have been who grew up in church, they think, oh, you know, boy, yeah, I love stay. Let me weep while you whisper. Love paid the ransom for me. And it would bring a complete aura with it. So here this whereby we cry, Abba, Father. They'd been crying that we know verifiably. They've been crying that for 200 years prior to the giving of the Holy Ghost. So what the Jewish nation has is not a spiritual bondage, but a spiritual adoption. God came, adopted this nation, he made us his. We're the children of God. We got a spiritual bondage, abba, Father. Now, we continue in verse what was that, verse 15. Let's go on to verse 16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God. Now, here, I dropped my pointer. I got to reach down and get it. There we go. Here, it's open to interpretation, but he adds the word itself, the Spirit itself. Well, let me back up here. What if we take a lowercase S here? Let's just call it a spiritual adoption. You got a spiritual adoption. If that spiritual adoption bears witness with our Spirit, it doesn't make any sense. I think when you get to verse 16 that's correct. With the capital S, I think this is let's call it the Holy Ghost, the third person of the Trinity. So we got a spiritual adoption. As a matter of fact, speaking of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost itself, beareth witness with our spirit. Lowercase. Our spirit lowercase. Yeah. That we are the children of God. Now, I want you to think about this. Who are we talking to? We're talking to let me see if I can get there. We are talking to Jewish Christians who had come to Rome from Jerusalem shortly after Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost? The spirit itself came and began to bear witness upon them. That's who we're talking to. It seems like it was founded by Jewish Christians who were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. In fact, it was probably founded by Jewish Christians who came to Rome in Jerusalem perhaps after the events of Pentecost. In fact, it's most likely that the Christian community in Rome was founded by Jewish Christians who were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. So I think there we go. That when we get down here to verse 16. He now comes in and says the Holy Spirit even comes and bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now, here's the kicker. How does the Holy Spirit bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God? If you apply this to me and you, which everybody does, then virtually the only thing you can say, unless you're a charismatic I'll talk about that in a moment. Virtually the only thing you can say is, I just feel the spirit bearing witness with my spirit. But imagine, have you ever been falsely accused of anything? And somebody out there could have come to your aid by giving a testimony, but they never showed up. They even knew you were in trouble. They just sat there silent. And then afterward, how would you feel if they said my spirit was bearing witness with your spirit? That you are right. We'll forget your spirit bearing witness. Go with your mouth to bear witness. I needed you. Your spirit bearing witness was some sweet little feeling, but that did me no good at all. So if we apply this to, let's just say, the Evangelical Church, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit as evangelicals that we are the children of God. The only thing we can do is make this a feeling. Deep down inside, deep down inside, I really feel God's spirit bearing witness with my spirit. There's nothing manifest, there's nothing verifiable. There's nobody who can argue against it. And let me say again, if I'm in trouble, let's say with a court of law and all of you all know that I'm innocent and you've got the evidence and your spirit bears witness in a way that is totally spiritual. No one can ever see it. I ain't going to be happy, nor would you be if I didn't come to your aid. To bear witness is to give some kind of evidence. The Holy Ghost gives evidence along with our spirit. I mean, we got our spirit whereby we cry, Abba, Father. But now the Holy Ghost comes and says, you are mine. The Holy ghost bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Now go back to the day of Pentecost and what happened. The Holy Spirit bore witness and if you look at what is it? First Corinthians, chapter twelve, verse seven. Let's just go there and look at it. One Corinthians, twelve seven says but the manifestation of the spirit is given to every man. He's speaking about those Jewish believers to profit withal the what the manifestation of the Spirit. The spirit itself beareth witness along with our internal spirit that can't really be shown. But these two come together saying we are the children of God. I think in the same context Paul here and he's talking about what is the manifestation? Manifestation is bearing witness. It's an appearance. It is actually the mouth is moving or there's some display the manifestation of the Spirit and he begins to describe him given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gifts of healing, the gifts, the charisma. And the spirit comes and bears witness. So again, let's back up to Romans eight, verse 16. And the spirit beareth witness with our spirits. Jews ah, you mean what he's been doing since the day of Pentecost? Because since the day of Pentecost when somebody received this spiritual adoption, there was a manifest testimony. They began to have every single one of them began to have manifestations. Now I left the Charismatics out because the Charismatics still hold to this. You must not be a believer if you don't have a manifestation of the Spirit because the spirit has to bear witness. At least I would say the Charismatics here, they're taking the Bible literally. The problem is they're not right dividing because that was for Israel, not for the body of Christ. So Romans chapter eight, verse 16 I think is about the manifestation gifts of the Holy Spirit. That's the bearing witness. Now let me give you another example from commentaries. Where is it? Here again, it's too small for you to read, but I can read it. Wayne Grudom, very well known evangelical garbage, calvinist kind of theologian. All the woke people just love him. Wayne Grudom, here's what he says in his systematic theology the Holy Spirit bears witness to our own spirits giving us a deep inner conviction that we are indeed the children of God. So that we cry out to God as father. How does he take it? The only way you can if you apply it to us. The Spirit of God gives us a deep inner conviction that we are the children of God. Can I be blunt? Maybe too blunt. Your deep inner conviction about whether or not you're a child of God is not worth a warm bucket of spit. You and I don't trust on our deep inner conviction. We trust in the word of God. We're now in the age of grace. The word of God has been given to us and we look at the word of God and it talks about this gift that is offered. There it is. You can have it. You receive it by grace, through faith, not of yourselves. Okay, I took it. I trust in the word of God. The word of God bears witness with my spirit. Maybe I do have a deep inner conviction, but it's the word of God that bears witness with it. For these people, it was the spirit of God that gives a manifest testimony. They didn't have the word of God. They were just getting the book of Romans right then. They didn't have all the rest of it. It wasn't complete yet. And so the spirit of God paul even says there's some argument on interpretation. But Paul says when the perfect has come, then these gifts will be done away with. These manifestations will be done away with. I think now the perfect has come. So verse 16, boy, if I pastored a big ol evangelical church, I'd lose half of them on this. Verse 16 is not ours the spirit of God? I don't know. We could have a whole nother session. Whole nother one. How's that? My Texas day is coming up. Whole nother session about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives today and whether or not he gives us a deep inner conviction or he doesn't. But this is not about a deep inner conviction. By the way, while you're out there betting with your pastor on the commentaries, go ahead and throw this verse in for an extra $10. I bet you Romans 816, your commentaries talk about feelings, nothing more than feelings, and that's not so good when it comes time to actually need somebody to bear witness for you. So the Spirit itself literally came and displayed here is manifest testimony that this person is the children of God. You already felt like it. You were crying out abba father. But now the Spirit comes and gives some witness. And let's close then with verse 17. So he says then, okay, that we are the children of God, and if children, I'm going to stop right there. The if right here can be taken as a certainty. The reason is there's grammatical reason that you could look into. We won't go into it. But he's already said we're the children of God, so you could take that. And since children, then heirs, this is Israel. They're children. They're heirs. They're heirs of God. They're joint heirs with messiah. If so, be that we suffer with Him. I actually don't think he's slipping back into works here. I don't think he's saying, as long as you got the gifts of the Spirit and you suffer with Him. He's already said, don't trust in the works of the body. Get away from that. So I'll take this if right here, if so, be that we suffer with Him again, as part of the given chain. We've got this chain and if you got the beginning of the chain, you got the end of the chain. And he says to these Roman Jews, you guys have endured some persecution. It may be that some of these living in Rome, maybe even many, it'd be impossible to know until we get to heaven, I suppose. But maybe even many of them were parts of those in the early books of Acts when they were there at the day of Pentecost and they were following Peter and persecution began to come upon them and they began to scatter all over the place. And some of them went to Rome and they started a church there an assembly there. That's a very likely scenario. As a matter of fact, I'll say it's more likely than absolutely any other scenario because how else did they get there? Paul had never been to Rome. Who's writing them a letter there? Where'd they get this message? Got it from Jerusalem. So this is a chain that goes together. Now, you might look at it and say, if so, be that we suffer for him. That's a requirement that we suffer with him, and that's not a given. But that same word there for if it is used in two thessalonians, chapter one, verse six, I've been meaning to tell my coder that thessalonians never works when you do that. So it's something about second thessalonians you work on that, son. But second thessalonians one six uses this same verse 17. There we are, this same if get out of the way right here. If so, be that we suffer for him. It translates it well. I don't even have the word there, but it's a certainty in that particular passage and a number of other passages. As a matter of fact, I think this particular if right here, which is a little bit unique, it's used about six times. And if I remember right, every one of them is a certainty passage. So they are suffering. And I think what Paul does is he kind of lands this plane a little bit because in verse 18 we're going to go in a little bit different direction. So he says, hey, are we children of God? Amen. We're children of God. Are we heirs? Yes, we're heirs of are we joint heirs with Messiah? Yes, we are. Have we suffered with him? Oh, you bet we have. And they begin to tell the stories. And Paul says, I know it. We have suffered. Me too. But we'll also be glorified together in the day of the resurrection. Our mortal bodies will be raised and we will be glorified together with him. That, my friend, is Romans, rightly? Divided verse by verse for tonight. And I would love to chat with you all a little bit. Go ahead and put your hellos in there if you haven't already done so. And take care of that. Nathan, go ahead and put or check the chats. Make sure I'm getting the YouTube chats there. Before I say hello, a couple of announcements let's give Sunday. We have been at the 945 hours. The first hour we have been looking at we've been taking a virtual tour of Israel. This Sunday we're going to be on the Sea of Galilee and we're going to look around. Last week we went up on Mount Arbell and took a look down on the Sea of Galilee. But this time we're going to get out on the sea and we're going to see some of the wonderful places around the sea, right on the coast of the sea, save Tiberius, which we already looked at. It's been kind of a fun tour. If you want to learn a little bit about the land and about the word of God as we do so that'll be 945 1045. We've been doing this unlearn it series unlearn it deprogramming our mind of evangelicalism. And this Sunday, I tell you what we're going to unlearn. We're going to unlearn the idea of the Boneheaded Apostles. Do you know that evangelicalism basically puts out the idea that the apostles just never did get it. Country bumpkins to the core. Uneducated. They need to go to the seminary to get their theology right. That's what we're going to look at. How bad were they? Nathan, you got sympathies coming in for you. Poor coder Nathan, what would we do without you? We'd go to second thessalonians yeah, I do like to pick on them. It's the way it should be, right. And we do appreciate him. Let me say hi to you. Oh, now I got one more announcement. I almost hesitate to even give you this announcement. Next week again, I won't be in I will be out of the office doing both some preparation for Branson and a couple of days of some software learning for some things we use in the printing and ministry business that I need to get up to speed on. And so I know I just took a week of vacation and then I'm back a week and then I got to go a week. Very sorry about that. I think this will probably be it for maybe the rest of the summer till Branson. I'll be with you. But next week we will be off. My deepest apologies. But I'll be Sunday. Sunday the 30th. Be there twice. Wednesday night. Madison's new fiance Trent Jandarin is going to be giving his very first sermon in the Taos Theological Seminary. And so you can tune into that. We'll have a Wednesday night broadcast. Will not have the Thursday broadcast and then I'll be back in the pulpit on the next Sunday. So my deepest apologies there. Let's say hello. Like to the binners in Inkerman, Pennsylvania. Good to see you. Dr. Mike and Lorna and Sholo, arizona. The branch campus out there. Thank you. Everett and Debbie. Everett has been doing some typesetting work for me. I appreciate he's going to do some more. I twisted his arm today. Thank you, Everett. Appreciate that. Help us get some books out. Merles Inlet, South Carolina. Good to see you. Donald, always. Darryl and Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Good to see you. Wabashaw, Minnesota. Roger and Maryland. Thank you very much. And we got the halls on in Auburn, Kentucky. And they are glad tax season is over. Lisa and Darryl in Moundridge, Kansas. Thanks for being here. You know, Lisa and Darryl, I've been thinking about you a lot lately and the Bears and others. Because I have been watching the old 1950s television series the Legend of Wyatt ERP. Of course, it took place in Wichita. So I just think about Kansas. I know it's not where you are in Kansas but I think about Wyatt ERP and Kansas and all those kind of things. So comes on. It's not a bad show. It's not as good as The Rifleman, but it's not a bad show. Jerry and rainey southwest Georgia. Sorry it's rainy, but glad you're here. Scott. The Texas Hill Country. Always good to see you. I suppose the Blue Bonnets are blooming now, aren't they? Crystal Springs. Debbie. Good to see you. And Mississippi One and Mississippi Two both accounted for. We got Neil and Vulcan. Alberta, Canada. Spring hit up there yet? Is spring there like it is here? Random raining in South Carolina, too. Piedmont. Jim, good to see you. Tupalo, Mississippi. Bill. Glad you're here with us. Made the drive east, didn't you, out in the Ozarks. Got deb. Good to see you. Jack and Teresa in Houston, Texas. Thank you. Weatherford, Oklahoma was here. Had a spectacular weather day. Only get a dozen or so a year, so we appreciate them. Yeah, it's hot or it's cold or it's windy in weatherford, right? Glad you're here. Oh, I like that. Deb. I've been meaning to use that word more deb. Says we should have a hootin. Annie. Yeah. Amen. Amen. Amen. Rainy West Plains, Missouri. Also, I guess there's a big rainstorm. It was beautiful. Sunny day here. I was inside most of the day, but it really was a very nice day. Jody and Rich. Good to see you. I assume you're in West Virginia, but I'm not totally sure there because sometimes I go to Florida. Good to see you. Trinidad, Colorado. Pastor Jeff Crossing. Good to see you. Ed and Nancy and Forest. Good to see you. Pueblo West Colorado yesterday, Pueblo broke its daily record for rain since 1895. Wow. What'd you have? Inch and a half. Goodness. That's impressive. I don't know what they had, but that's a long time record. We've got Nicholas in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Thanks for being here. Eric in Ohio. Welcome. Good to see you. Roger and Carol in what I think is hot. Fresno, California today. Linny in London mentioned him at the beginning. Greetings to you. Steven in Idaho Falls. Thanks for being here. Herb and Sherry. Oh. Greetings from Kentucky. Finishing up version of visits to the Ark encounter in the Creation Museum. I bet you had a good time. I got that on my list. I'm going to get there someday. I haven't done it. Urban share. Rodney and Denise in Memphis, Tennessee. Thanks. You missed last night. What up with that? I have enjoyed the Jerry Bohem study. I don't know about you all, but I've enjoyed it. Gerard, good to see you. In the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Welcome. Glad you're here. Cliff in the kingdom of the Canadians up in Ontario ridgecrest, California. Shirley, thanks for your presence. John in West Virginia, God bless. We've got roger, I just got a question. I'm gonna I'm gonna come back to that question here in just a moment. Mike and Smithville, good to see you. Oh, wow. I've missed here and there so I went back and listened to all the sessions in Romans. You must have been driving a truck or something. Glad it didn't cause an accident. Thanks for doing that. I appreciate it. There's a lot of you binge. Watchers out there. I've discovered Alex. Also in London. Good to see you. Tell your family hi. We've already said hi to Lenny, but good to see everybody. Tara, good to see you. In almost snow less Montana. That's how it is for us too. I woke up one morning this week and looked out and I thought, oh my goodness, there's snow on the ground. Fortunately, this time of year it warms up pretty quick and melts it off. Wichita Falls, Texas. Sympathetic for poor Coder Nathan. I do. And Nathan may or may not know this I get a decent number of calls and cards and letters from people I don't even know saying, be nice to Nathan. Be nice to him. We need him. I don't know. I'll think about it. He does a great job. I don't know what I'd do without him. Hamilton, Ontario. Good to see you, Ivan. Is that how you pronounce it? Thanks for being here. Another Ontarioite. Sharon Russ up in Ellendale, Minnesota. I get my M states mixed up. I want to go Michigan, Montana, all that. Minnesota. So I have to stop and think. Sarasota, Florida. Glad you're here. Thank you very much. Eric in Minnesota also. You anywhere near Ellendale? I don't think so. I think you're northwest. A little bit of Ellendale, if I'm not mistaken. Glad everybody's here. Oh, yeah. You got the reference, Eric. Like a rhinestone cowboy. We must be the same age. Sharon says our snow is gone in Minnesota. And that's a big glory to God. It's gone here in town and it's mostly gone at the house just in the shady areas. And when you wake up and find an inch on the ground, suddenly but mostly gone. This too shall pass. Time for summertime, isn't it? Time to quit. Thank you so much. If I miss saying hi to you, I am sorry about that. Oh, yeah. Okay. So Eric's 52. Exactly. We're the same age, Eric. That's what I was thinking, the same age. I had a guy the other day said, this one I'm still dealing with. He's like 66. He said, you and I are about the same age. I thought my goodness, I'm not either. But I guess that's about as close as I am to Eric at 52. I don't know. I'm 57. Soon to be 58. Thank you, everybody reading comment. I got to quit reading. I'll read comments after I close. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for the blessings that we've got as we gather around our great big electronic table again tonight and just enjoy the fellowship and the study in the Word. And it is indeed a rich blessing. And thank you for Nathan that makes it happen technologically and for all of these individuals out Here who participate and help It to take care of, to make it happen financially. And those behind the scenes that do so much work, like Madison. And so grateful, dear Heavenly Father, for each and everyone and Everett doing typesetting and whatever. There are just so many people doing so many things and in this we're so grateful. But we're especially grateful that we can come into the word of God and have it make a little more sense when we get the audience right and put it where it ought to be. And for this, we are eternally grateful. Help us as we continue to learn and unlearn. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Again, thanks, everybody. I look forward to seeing you either tomorrow morning for Ask the Theologian or on Sunday for our program there. You know, I just remembered I had a couple of questions come in tonight that I was going to take and I'm saving you for in the morning, ask the Theologian. Sorry about that. We'll see you all soon and very soon. It's been a pleasure. Thanks and God bless.