Romans – The Play Part 7

I have seen people who are unbelievers confess that they were being led by coincidence. And they, too, need a sense of the stars, you know. I’ve never heard one of them say, “The Lord led me.” I’ve heard them say, “I felt good about it. It looked like a good deal.” Holy Spirit’s picky about who He leads. He only leads this hidden race of gods that no one knows anything about—the sons of God. Legally and genetically, you are as much a son of God as Jesus Christ. You have not yet received the body that He has, or a body like unto the one that He has. Now this is encouraging. Say, “This is encouraging,” and “This is really encouraging.”

The proof you’re a son is that you’re led by the Holy Spirit. The proof that you’re led by the Holy Spirit is that you’re a son. They’re interchangeable. And He is not going to deny His own sons and daughters, even when they have fights with their husbands and their roommates. What are the other things that get you down—really just get you down, make you feel like you’re not a Christian? Can you help me? These are the only ones I ever seem to think about, and I know there must be at least more. A great big old sin, huh? When you’re driving. People are so… oh, yeah. And you don’t react all that Christian. They don’t know what you did, but you know it. Alright, help me here. Some more, huh?

Oh, yeah. That’s the worst of all – when you get mad at your kids. Or when your kids get mad at you. It works both ways. When your kids get older, they can articulate more how they feel toward you. It can get very depressing. Most of you do not know about this experience yet. Wait until your son starts telling you all the mistakes you made raising him. You’re going to have a really great day. Can you think of something else? Yes, dear. So, do you argue with somebody in the world or something that was really stupid? And then you walk away and it’s… all right. Okay, these are things that convince us we are not the children of God. Okay, you got some more?

I think there are other things that each of us has individually that nobody else knows about. You’re driving up the road, and your wife gets on the computer and drives all over the road. Then there are the dark things. The dark things. Each of us has some dark thing.

I was listening to, I don’t know, I can’t tell the voice between Larry Crabb and Dan, whatever his name is, but one of them was just making an observation, and I will probably bring this up again from time to time. 20-25% of us according to his judgment and those and other people who have dealt with Christians, 20–25% of us have tendencies towards sexual perversion. Now, 100% of us have tendencies towards sex and the desire for sex—whether natural, unnatural, lustful, whatever—but a percentage of believers, I didn’t say engage in it, but have tendencies, weaknesses toward these things. And these are things that nobody talks about. And most folks don’t want to be dealt with, but nonetheless, feel that this proves that they are not a child of God. Now, that’s true. There are those dark wolves that lurk after us. There are those hounds that bay constantly at our feet. And the Holy Spirit has been given to you; has dealt with and put away the deeds of the flesh. And you are a son of God.

All right, now then, Paul changes the subject and takes the subject off of you to make a point about you. And it still has to do with these dark moments of hurt. And saints, Paul calls this suffering. And that’s interesting, isn’t it? You and I would call it bouts of guilt. And that these are things that we deserve because we’re so terrible. Paul calls it suffering. A Christian suffering. That this thing of being caught in time and space, attached to a body that is unredeemed, and get it clear: the soul, the spirit are cared for, but the body is not saved. You are two-thirds or one-half saved. And dragging that thing around with you – unredeemed -Paul calls that suffering. Well, praise the Lord. It’s not a bout with guilt. It’s suffering. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

Now, Paul says something to this next. Alright, so you’re suffering because you’re dragging this thing around. So, you’re having all of these problems that you and I just listed. It’s not to be compared with the glory that’s stored up. And you say, “Paul, it’s hurting, and it’s hurting right here, right now.” Nonetheless, it’s to be contrasted, not compared. There is no comparability between what you’re going through now and this suffering of dragging this unredemption, this lack of redemption around with you. It’s not to be compared with the glory that’s ahead. And now he uses the most unusual illustration to make this point, and this is what he says. He says, You see, you can’t remember your past glory. All you have is a hope, and it’s unseen. And there’s no such thing as hope that’s seen if you got it. If you see it, it’s not hope. It’s belief; it’s expectation, but it’s not hope. Hope is for the invisible. And there are things that are invisible, awaiting you – they’re for you.

But you have a companion in suffering. And I got to stop here before I go any further. I wish all the theologians and Bible scholars in the world would take a look at this. Paul should be saying at this point: So, you’re really down on yourself, you psychotically insecure. What you need is to pray and read your Bible, go to church, be good, witness, and take care of the poor, the sick, the lame, and the blind. And Paul of Tarsus never touches anything like that. He gets out in places that you and I would never think of. The Holy Spirit is in you and taking care of your flesh. Whoever talks to you about that? You’re led by the Spirit of God; therefore, you are a son of God. This is an assurance, the fact that you have an operating Spirit within you. And now, he turns not to Bible study or to prayer or going to church, all these outward objective things, but he turns to planet Earth and says, “Yeah, you’ve got a problem. You’re not the only one.” You have a friend who is also suffering. And he remembers his past glory. You don’t. And this is what he says: Creation fell when man fell. When man fell, creation fell. You have shared together in the fall. And right now, you are so put out with the kind of person you are, and you’ve got this big guilt trip you put on yourself. And you do fuss with your husband, you do fuss with your wife, you do lie, you do cheat, and you do steal. You don’t do it habitually. But under pressure, you’re bound to do it every once in a while. Say amen.

And you are in tribulation. You were in the fall, and the creation itself joined in the fall with you. You are now in tribulation. So is creation. Creation remembers its glory. And creation has the eyes to see what you cannot see, and what man cannot see. The creation, the fallen creation, can see and know that there are sons of God on this planet who have not yet been revealed to be sons of God. This world only knows that there are human beings on this earth, and some animals and plants, but creation knows that there are gods here. And creation hurts over its presence. Catastrophe. The catastrophe you drag around with you, it drags around with it too. A catastrophe. It’s the fall. It’s no longer glorious. And you know what it does?

Do you know what it does? What does the creation do to handle its guilt trip? Agonizes. It hurts. Do you identify? Can you identify with the earth, the creation? Do you ever hurt? In fact, it’s what your anxiety is. Your tribulation. You’re hurting over what you see yourself to be and what you feel yourself to be, but what you ain’t really. You’re really alright, in God’s eyes. But it’s okay to hurt. Paul never says, “Stop hurting.” Paul never says, despite all these glorious things he tells us that we are and that we have been cared for, he finally admits here: you’re going to hurt. You’re going to travail. Proof is that the earth travails. I don’t know why the earth travails; I can guess. I don’t know why the earth travails mostly in California, but if I had everything sitting on top of me that the earth has sitting on top of it in the California region, I would complain too.

The earth travails and complains in California, and out in Indonesia, and up in Alaska, and over near Hawaii all the time. Once, back in about 1940, the earth really complained around Tennessee in what was the largest recorded earthquake in the history of man. See, California gripes all the time. Mid-America saves it up for about once every two or three hundred years. The earth groans. And I just want you to remember that.

What does the Earth do when it feels ashamed for what it is now? It agonizes. But it has a hope that cannot be seen. That’s you – when you get revealed. Now you have to also concentrate on that hope, dear saint. Holy child of God, concentrate on this: that you have the hope of that revelation. The day when you will be 100% saved. When you will put away this body of iniquity and get your own body, this one that already belongs to the grave—it has been cast out in the eyes of God. Hope in that. Look forward to it. And when you really pull a big one—remember. And remember that the earth joined with us in the fall, now is one with us in our groanings. And as sure as we are going to be glorified by the Son of God, the earth is going to be glorified by the revealing of the sons of God. We shall get our glory from Him. The earth will get its glory from us.