Scripture: Topics: Romans Bible Study
The book of Romans, this is going to be fun tonight. We're studying chapter eight, verses 15 through 39. This is episode 15 in our study on Romans. You are at The Door and I am Michael Pearl teaching the word of God tonight. The Bible is our book. We're not sermonizing. We're not trying to motivate you to live better or fuss at you about your sins. We're teaching exactly what the Bible says the way it says it, verse by verse, word by word.
Psalm 12:6-7 "The words of the Lord are pure words. As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shall keep them, oh Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever." Notice it says not the word of God, but words, plural. "The words of the Lord are pure words." There are a number of words that the Holy Spirit inspired and those words are pure and they will be preserved in multiple languages from this generation forever.
Romans eight, 15 through 39, is a celebration of what we have studied from Romans chapter one, all the way through eight, 14, the doctrine has been presented and the case is complete and has been closed out. And now what he's going to do is reflect on what is the meaning of what we've learned in the book of Romans, and he's going to repeatedly celebrate our great victory and position in Christ, so it's going to be fun.
We're going to read about the spirit of adoption, I'm excited about that already. And we're going to read about our coming adoption, we've not yet been adopted, but we are going to be. He's going to talk about the spirit bears witness with our spirit, we're heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, going to talk about our suffering with Christ. And he talks about animals anticipating our adoption, that is your dog and your cat and your mouse and your snake is an anticipation of your eventual adoption.
And we are saved by hope. He's going to talk about assistance in prayer from Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. "All things work for our good," he said. We're going to tell us that we've been predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son. That we're more than conquerors. That we are right now in a state of glorification in God's matrix. And we are as sheep for slaughter. And then he's going to tell us that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.
Now, we're going to open the Bible and begin in verse 15. How you like that? Wasn't that fun?
Romans 8:15, "For..." Uh-oh, when it says for we have to go back and find out what's it there for. The for is going to give us further explanation of what he just said and tell us about the ramifications of it.
Romans 8:12 "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors," just going back three verses. "We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh." And then he says, "For ye have not received the spirit of again to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, father.” So he says, "We are debtors, not to live after the flesh. For..." Why are we debtors? "For we've not received the spirit of again, under fear." In other words, we are now advantaged as a believing Christian. Before we came to Christ, we had the law, but Paul tells us that there's been total failure, in Roman seven, to keep that law. We were under what he said was bondage under the law because it condemned us, but it didn't help us to do right.
So he said, now we've received not the spirit of again, as we once had, which results in fear. Why? Because when you cannot please God under the law, but you seek two. It creates fear, fear of consequences, fear of judgment. But instead you've received the, "Spirit of adoption." So you could write that, "Spirit of bondage," and underneath it write, "Spirit of adoption, whereby," because we have this new spirit, the spirit of adoption, "We cry Abba father."
When I was in Israel, back in 95, I was shocked to hear, when I visited in an Arab family, Christian Arab family at night, I was shocked to hear the young people refer to their father as Abba. It just amazing. I'd read that in my Bible all my life, but suddenly I'm sitting in the very place where all this took place. And I find out that after 2000 years, they still call daddy Abba. They do in Hebrew as well. So we've not received the spirit of bondage, but we've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father. So there's no fear because we now say daddy, father, to our God in heaven.
Now the spirit of a bondage to fear set against the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba a father, which do you have? Are you under a religious mandate that creates fear? Are you under bondage to laws and rules that you cannot keep? Or that you do keep and there's no joy or victory in keeping them? What you need is a new spirit, not like the Amish say, but you need a new spirit, a spirit from God to dwell inside of you. A spirit of adoption whereby you will cry instead of cry, "This do, and thou shall live," you will cry, "Daddy," to God, the father.
So let's open the Holy Bible again and go through that. Galatians 2:4, "And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily, to spy out our liberty." Right into the Galatians, he said there were false Christians, professing Christians, who were fakes. Is there such a thing? He said there was. He said, "They came into our midst to spy out our liberty," that is to put their glasses on and say, "I see what you're doing. You're failing to keep the law. I see how you're dressing and acting and what you're doing." So they're spying out their liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, "That they might bring us into bondage." So their goal, they saw a vacuum in the church and they wanted to go in and tell the women, "You need to wear a head covering all the time on your head," and bring them into bondage and take them away from the liberty they have in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 4:3, "Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." So we find that term again, "Adoption of sons and the law."
Galatians 4:24, "which things are in allegory," he's talking about the law and grace, "Which things are an allegory for these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in with her children."
So he says that was an allegory. Agar, which produced Ishmael, the Arabic race, was Mount Sinai, which was actually the area in which they dwelled, and they still do now. Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, as the law, as Mount Sinai, gendered to bondage, as the 10 commandments gendered to bondage, that include the Sabbath commandment in the 10 commandments, it gendered to bondage. "For this Agar is Mount Sinai” in Arabia, “and answereth to Jerusalem," this is set apart in contrast to Jerusalem, "Which now is, and is in bondage with her children." So he said Jerusalem was still in bondage at that time, "But Jerusalem which is above," that's a different Jerusalem, "Is free, which is the mother of us all," that includes Gentiles as well as Jews.
Back to Romans 8:16, "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God."
Now I've had people say to me, "How do I know that I'm saved?" You need someone to bear witness to you that you are a believer. And the only one that can do that is the Holy Spirit himself. Any other assurance you'll get from manipulating your own thought patterns is nothing but manmade assurance. I've had people say when someone questions their salvation, "Well, did you ask Jesus in your heart? Yes I did. Is God a liar? No, he's not. Are you going to call God a liar? No, I'm not. Then you must be a Christian? Okay, I am. I'm not going to call God a liar." And then five years later, they get born again. And they say, "I never did know I was saved, I always doubted. I tried to believe I was. And sometimes I thought I was because I knew I asked Jesus in my heart and God's not a liar."
If the Holy Spirit doesn't give you assurance, you'll never get it from any of the manipulations that evangelicals offer you. Now, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." So he's celebrating here this new relationship we have not to the law, but to Christ.
So there's a body of flesh, we saw this earlier and beneath that body of flesh or inside that body of flesh is a soul. And the soul ,that nonmaterial self, is composed of three parts, mind, will, and emotions.
And then there is the human spirit, so now we have a tri-part being, a trinity made in the image of God, the spirit in the image of the Holy Spirit, the soul and the image of God, the father, and the body in the image of Jesus Christ, who took a body of flesh. And so regeneration is when the spirit of God comes into our spirit. And so he said, "The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit." So it is the spirit of God inside that gives you confidence.
1 Corinthians 6:17 "But he that is joined under the Lord is one spirit." So just as the man and a woman become one while still being two. So we've become one with God's Holy Spirit, but yet there's still two spirits, my spirit and his spirit, and my spirit still needs sanctification while his spirit dwells in it. And we read that the, "Spirit bears witness," with our spirit, that we are "The children of God."
Back to the Holy Bible, and there's only one in the English language that's the Holy Bible, and that is the authorized version, the king James version, the one that's easier to read than all the others. The one that's based on the best and majority of Greek manuscripts, the one whose words have been available down through the ages in multiple languages, which is attested to by archeology and all of the spirit filled scholars.
2 Corinthians 1:21, "Who also has sealed us and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." The earnest is like earnest money, where you get a down payment. When God gave us the spirit, it showed his earnestness to see this thing all the way through, to not only born us again, but sanctify us and glorify us. God is earnest as demonstrated by the fact that his spirit dwells within.
1 John 4:13, "Hereby we know that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit."
So again, that's how you know that you know, is through the presence of the spirit of God.
1 John 5:10, "He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself." So you see, after you believe it's no longer just a matter of you having intellectual faith in what the Bible says, something else happens, subjective. The spirit of God comes in and that spirit gives you confidence.
Romans 9:1, "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." So I'm just picking out a few verses on the spirit dwelling within, but Paul was aware of God's spirit so much so that when he said something, he knew if he's telling the truth or not, by the presence of the spirit of God dwelling inside.
There are times that I start to say something that the spirit of God, "That's not quite right." And it's not me saying it. It's not me telling myself that it's the spirit of God telling me that. So yes, he's working through my conscience, through my spirit, but it is the presence of God's spirit that rebukes me and bears witness so that I tell the truth.
Romans 8:16, "The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs," Why? Because the children are the heirs, only a very mean fella, or somebody's who's got some awful terrible kids leaves his fortune to someone other than his children. "And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ," what is he saying?
He's saying that we are adopted into God's family. So now I am a Son of God right next to Jesus Christ, a Son of God, the Son of God. And so Jesus Christ is God's heir and now that I am a son, I am an heir with Jesus Christ. So that he's going to leave his kingdom to two, to his natural Son, Jesus Christ, and his adopted son, me.
Now here is a little bit on heirs in Matthew 21:36. "Again, he sent other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise. And last of all, he sent under them his son," that's his God sending his son to Jerusalem, "Saying, they will reverence my son." And what he's saying is that he sent prophets, but they killed them. "But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir, come, let us kill him and seize on his inheritance.'"
Much of the Bible, in fact, the theme of the Bible is a kingdom theme. It's about heirship. It's about who's going to inherit the throne. "Sieze on the inheritance.”
Romans 4:13 “For the promise, that he should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise of none effect." It says if the heirs end up being the people under the law, then the promise God made to Abraham wouldn't count.
Galatians 3:29 "And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. 4:1 Now I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all. But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the fathers."
So what he's saying there is that if you are Abraham's seed and you are a believer in Christ, then you're an heir of the promise God gave to Abraham. And he said that heir, as long as he's a child, doesn't differ from a servant. What he's assuring you of is that though God declares you to be an heir of this world, an heir of heaven, a joint heir with Christ. You look around, you say, "Well, I don't have anything in my pocket. I don't have a throne to sit on and don't have any subjects to command. I seem to be Lord of nothing, except bills."
He said, "Well, just because your air doesn't mean..." Because you're just a child. And so the child is under tutors, he never gets to spend a dime, "And it will be that way until the time appointed." In other words, you're an heir, but you won't see the results of it until you get the glory.
Galatians 4:3-5 "Even so we, when we were children were in under the elements of the world. But now when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons."
Have you noticed how that multiple New Testament of epistles have the same theme, much of the same words in terminology that are in the book of Romans? Why? Because what we're giving you out of the book of Romans is in fact, the only message in the New Testament, in the Epistles. It's what the Bible is. It's not a little part of it or something on the side, this is the heart and soul of what it means to be a Christian. And I could teach most of the same things I'm teaching from Romans out of Ephesians, Galatians, Corinthians, Colossians, some out of Timothy, Titus, some out first John. These books contain the Thessalonians, they contain all that you find in the book of Romans spread out through these multiple books.
Galatians 4:6-7 "And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your heart's crying Abba father. Therefore, thou art no more servant, but a son, and if a son then heir of God through Christ," he said.
Now back to our Romans 8:17, "And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him." In other words, we are children and heirs if we suffer with him.
Now I've known people that have fell in the church years and years ago, who read this passage and then met someone who told him that Christians needed to suffer in order to reign with Christ. And so he sought suffering, he really did. I couldn't believe it. And so he started teaching a doctrine that Christians needed to suffer. One of the ways was by fasting and denying yourself and that was suffering. Other ways was by giving up different forms of pleasure and self denial. Other ways was by coming up on extreme hardship, whereby there was true pain and suffering.
And so the church got together and rebuked him for it and he left the church. And it wasn't too long before his suffering began as he continued to teach that doctrine. I was there when his 10 year old son gurgled his last bloody breath with a 22 bullet in his belly that came up through his lungs and out through his heart. And I was not too far away when other tragedies struck him, and today that man's life has been a series of tragedies. He has suffered and suffered and suffered. His children have suffered and they've all gone the way of the world. And he was a good and godly man at one time, who understood these doctrines that I'm teaching you here, but he got off on the doctrine that you needed to suffer.
Now, if you look up the word suffer, by the way you notice the way I have defined hope and faith and glory and tribulation is by going to the multiple places in the Bible, that those words appeared. And I read the context of all the usages to get the definition. That's what you do with suffer. You take a concordance and you find every time the word suffer appears, and you read it. Now, let me give you a little contrast here. The Bible says, Jesus said, "Suffer the little children to come into mean forbid them not." (Matthew 19:14) Does that have anything to do with having pain a little bit? When you got a whole lot of kids and they're crowding around.
The word suffer is the word that it has to do with allowing something to happen that does cost you a little something to do. So in other words, it vexes you or it tries you, or it pains you in some way, but it's not about getting cancer or being run over or getting your hand crushed. That's not what it means when it uses suffer here.
If we suffer with him, he's saying, if we, along with Christ, experience the things that a Christian experiences, that Christ experienced. If we share that life of commitment, self denial, and sacrifice, and the things that come up on us for being a Christian, then we'll be glorified together.
Romans 8:18 "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time," that's all the things that you go through, "Are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which shall be revealed in us." So he's comparing the trials, sufferings and tribulations that come upon you precisely because you're a Christian and said, they're not worthy to be compared with the glory that's going to be revealed in us.
Now here's here is the Greek word [foreign language], which the Greek scholars tell us it means to suffer persecutions, evils, or troubles together. That's what they say it means. So if you are going to translate this into English, which we're going to have to do here so we can understand the Bible, [foreign language], the Greek says, "To suffer persecutions, evils, or troubles together." So how would you translate that? How about, "Suffer with him?"
Would that work? Hey, that's what's in the king James Bible. What's in all the others. I won't take time to do that, I've embarrassed those guys enough. The difficulties that arise out of being a Christian are the things that you suffer with him. It's not about getting a cold. It may be about getting malaria if you go to a place to preach the gospel in Africa or South America, and you contract leprosy and you're sick and nearly dead, that's suffering with Christ. But the things that you get yourself into and the trouble you get yourself into and your mental stress that you have because of lack of faith is not suffering with Christ.
Now when you get born again as a high school boy and try to tell somebody about it and they reject you, that's suffering with Christ.
When you get put in jail for your faith, that's suffering with Christ. I read just yesterday that there's a Black man down in Atlanta or Georgia, maybe not Atlanta, in Georgia, that is a lay preacher, part-time preacher, and he had a job with the government, a government job. So his employers approached him and said, "We want copies of your sermons that you preach." He said, "Why?" And they said, "We want to know if it's in compliance with and not offensive to anyone." He said, "No," they said, "We can put you in jail and will, if you don't comply and turn over your sermons." So several organizations have been assisting him for months now, trying to fight this. He's in danger of going to jail because this preacher won't turn over his sermons to the government.
Now it may be that two months from now, there won't be any question. Every preacher may have to turn over their sermons, two months or two years. In fact, I'm quite sure within four years that will be the case, that Christians and preachers will be put in jail for putting online some of the things that I've put online in the last two or three days. So we may end up a lot of us suffering with Christ for our faith if our government and system continues to go in the way it's definitely aimed. The arrow's has been fired and it's progressing toward that end, it would take something supernatural to turn it around.
So back to the Bible, I love that opening of the Bible there,
1 Peter 4:12 "Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you." He's warning these Christians, "You're going to have a fiery trial, and it's going to try you, it's going to test you, you're going to want to give up and quit, seek some other way of getting out of it. “As though some strange thing is happening to you." He said, "What in the world's going on now? This is a mess we're in, where'd this come from?” “But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings."
So, "The fiery trials," and if you'd look up fiery trials, it's about the persecutions that come as a Christian, "The fiery trials," he said are making you, "Partakers of Christ's suffering." So for that reason, you ought to rejoice. "That when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy," exceeding joy, that's a real high right there. So he said, when you start suffering with Christ, you go through fire trials, just rejoice. It doesn't feel good now, but it's going to feel real good later on when you get in God's presence. So notice the fiery trials corresponds to Christ's sufferings.
1 Peter 4:14 "If you be reproached for the name of Christ," this is the next verse, so he's amplifying and explaining what he means by fiery trials, "If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye." You see how we understand what sufferings means without just jumping off into some spirit. I prayed about it. I don't trust the prayers of anybody, not anybody. When they start telling me what the Bible means through their prayers. The Bible means what it means, whether you prayed or not, what you need to do is read it and find out what it says. Now you ask God to help you understand it, but when you come away with an understanding different what it says, then you are lying prophet.
So he says, "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye," this is the sufferings of Christ, "For the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." Do you want the spirit of glory and of God to rest on you? "On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part, he is glorified." So they're evilly speaking of Christ and of Christians and home schoolers, but he said, "Rejoice, because it's God they're speaking against and you are walking in the path of Christ, bearing his sufferings."
Romans 8:17 "If so be that we suffer with him, we may be glorified together. For I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." So Paul, having concluded his doctrinal statements up through eight 14 is now telling the believers that, "Don't think it's strange when these fire trials hit you, because I reckon," a good Southern word, "That the sufferings of this present time," notice the word reckon, it's the same word, impute, account, same word where God reckons us to be dead., we reckon ourselves to be dead. "For I reckon," so that's a spiritual act, that's an act of faith, "That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."
Now, down here on the earth in the flesh, though we don't walk after the flesh, you will come up on difficulties and trials and sufferings, and you'll get your head underwater and you don't see anything except bubbles and darkness and you're choking. And your spirituality's gone, your faith is gone and you start complaining, what you need to do then is reckon, say, "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed." This is going to be amplified more as we go through the text.
Now here's a few verses on this Romans 1:23 You remember we read, "And they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four footed beasts, and creeping things." Glory starts with God, you see. Now everyone aspires to glory.
I went to a world championship knife throwing contest this past week and I came away with a place, just third place, in the tomahawk, but I was throwing against a lot of very, very good throwers and I did get in the money though. So I got a nice award and got into the money. Now, that wasn't as glorious as winning first place, which I've done 10 times before, but it was glorious seeing who I was throwing against. There was 65 throwers, eight from Russia, one from Mongolia, one from some of the Baltic states and somebody from Canada, places like that. And they were all really good throwers.
So I felt the glory. It make you think about it and go back again next year to feel the glory. You know what I mean? So everybody seeks glory, football players, people who work, artists, musicians, wives, wives will work all day cleaning the house up, fixing it up real pretty so their husband come in and say, "My, you've really done that," she just loves the glory. And kids, they love the glory, that's why they bring you a little picture, something they drew, and want you to look at it, so your glory in what they've drawn. And all of life is seeking glory, that's what we do.
Romans 1:23 "They changed the glory of the God, into an image made like to corruptible man.”
Romans 2:7 “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory." That's a human activity, seeking for glory. And honor and imortality.
Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." So all of our seeking, we end up falling short of the glory of God. Many of us just seek our own glory and forget about the glory of God because it's so hard to achieve, impossible.
Romans 5:2 "By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
In other words, we are not surrounded right now by the glory of God, anything but, but we have a sure hope of living in that glory one day. And so we rejoice in the hope. Now I got to tell you, sometimes I feel the glory, I do, I walk in it, it's thick. And I don't know how, it haven't get much better sometimes, but I know it will. "We rejoice in hope of the glory of God."
John 1:14, "And the word was made flash and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth." Isn't that a beautiful passage mean? If I could sing, I'd sing that four or five different ways in several different keys.
John 17:5, "And now, O father glorify thou me," Jesus prayed, "With thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." So while Jesus was on the earth, he didn't have that glory that he left, he left glory and he left some glory behind. Now he was glorious while on earth, as a human being, but the glory he had as God was far away. You know that glory, you and I have never touched. It's going to be something, I mean something big. It's going to be an endorphin rush, if we still have endorphins back when we get there. Serotonin and everything else, there'll be no cortisol then it'll be all up, all up. It'll be a high.
“And now, O father glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." See Jesus longed to get back into the, wade in the glory.
John, 17:22, "And the glory, which thou gavest me I have given them, that they maybe one, even as we are one," so Jesus, passed off his glory to his disciples before he left. That's the reason I walk in the glory, occasionally.
John 17:24, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me." I like putting all these verses together, man. It's like making a smoothie out of blueberries. It's just really good. He said, he's praying, "That they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me for thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world." So much about glory in the Bible that we miss it, but he wants us, he prayed that we would be with him because he wanted us to see his glory. Isn't that something? He wants to show it off, he wants to shine, and wants us to share in that glory, because he knows we're going to enjoy it, we're going to love it.
Acts 17:5 "But he being full of the Holy Ghost," Stephen being stoned to death, "Looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." That's why it was so easy for him to die. It's because he was looking at the glory of God from down here on earth, he's looking through a space portal, man, a time portal. Straight into heaven, the space between there and the billions and trillions of miles between there and heaven was cut down to just a few feet and he was looking straight at the throne of God. And if they'd have brought him back, he'd have argued with him. If they'd said, "Don't stone him," he'd said, "Please go ahead."
2 Corinthians, 4:17, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." That is the affliction in the scale of things is light, but the glory is a great weight. So the glory far outweighs the affliction. It's an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Isn't that beautiful writing? If you want to be saddened, look in some modern version translation and see what they do with that stuff. I think these people put all the words into some kind of shaker and reach in blindly, draw them out, and put them together, they come up with some of the nonsense they get.
I'm looking at some of the headlines of what the Bible has to say, some verses we didn't cover, but I got the headlines here.
"He was called the Lord of glory. He was the God of glory. The father of glory. Worthy of more glory than Moses. He radiates glory that's contagious." Remember when Moses was in God's presence and when he came back, his face radiated the glory of God, such that the people in flesh couldn't stand to look at it and he had to put a veil on his face and it slowly faded.
Now that's the way it is with us. We get in the glory and it fades, and it has to, we'd think too much of ourself if it didn't, and others would think too much of us or think we was crazy. "He manifested his glory," when he was on the earth. And they, "Beheld the brightness of his glory," in his transfiguration. And then they crucified, we crucified our sins, "Crucified the Lord of glory," but "He was raised in glory, manifested the glory of his power," all these are phrases out of the Bible. He "Received up into glory, seated in glory on a throne of glory," it's called. He's, "Lord over a kingdom of glory, his name is glorious, his countenance is glorious." He, "Appears with glory," at the second coming, "Reigns in glory, crowned with glory and honor, to him be glory and dominion, the new Jerusalem radiates the glory of God. He's surrounded by cheribums of glory, he promises glory to those who have come short of the glory of God." Woo, that's good. That's good right there. That oughta turn you on right there.
And then he, "Brings many sons into glory." We're not through yet. And, "Elders receive a crown of glory. We are called to glory and virtue. He offers us the riches of glory. We have the hope of glory. We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, the half has never yet been told." I'm a spirit-filled singer. I just can't sing. And then, "We will be caught up into glory to whom be glory forever and ever." And I didn't cover them all, that's just a little smidgen of glory. Wow. I love it. Don't you? This is fun.
Jude, 24 - 25, "Now under him that is able to keep you from falling to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy," exceeding joy presence of his glory. “To the only wise God our savior, be glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and forever. Amen." Paul had to amen himself there. You've said something good when you have to amen yourself. And he did because he knew it was good. He was thinking about all the people, he was thinking about me reading that 2000 years later.
2 Peter, 1:17, "For he received from God the father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory." He didn't have to put that adjective there, but he did, "Excellent glory. This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased." That's where the excellent glory is.
2 Corinthians 3:18, "But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord," that's right now, "Are changed into the same image from glory to glory,” to glory, to glory, to glory, “even as by the spirit of the Lord."
So the glory is progressive. We are changed progressively as we behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord now. Why is it in a glass? In other words, it's cloudy. It's not a clear view of the glory of God, or we couldn't stand to see it all as it is, the excellent glory, we couldn't stand that. But as we behold through a glass darkly, the glory of the Lord we're changed from glory to glory.
Revelation, 4:11, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all things, and for that pleasure they are and were created," all glory to God, back to our text.
"If so be we suffer with him, we may be glorified together." In other words, when he's glorified, we're glorified with him. “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." Romans 8:18
Next passage. Romans 8:19 "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” The earnest expectation of the creature, he's talking about the animals and bugs and spiders, snakes and birds, flies, dinosaurs. "The earnest expectation," they're very earnestly expecting what? The manifestation of sons of God. Your dog is waiting on you to get glorified.
Romans 8:20-21 "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope." In other words, in the garden of Eden, the lion, the tiger and the bear, and the coyote and the Fox, the gorilla, and the monkey, so forth, the zebra, they didn't do anything to end up in a fallen race. They didn't, like Adam, will to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They didn't willingly enter into the bondage of corruption, it was forced upon them by the act of humanity. "Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the corruption into the glorious Liberty of the children of God."
You ask if animals go to heaven. Well, at least the live ones will, they'll get raptured because what he said, "They'll be delivered from the bondage of corruption." No more fleas, old dog. No more, what was that they get? Parvo. No more ticks. They will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious Liberty of the children of God.
Romans 8:22-23 "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, but not only so we ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit." What does it mean, "First fruits of the spirit?"
First fruits is a word that denotes not just the order of it taking place, but the order of importance. In other words, we have the first fruits of the spirit in that what we have right now is not the full measure. It's just like the first apple that gets ripe on a tree, not enough to make cider or pie, but you got out and you pick the one apple. So what we've got now is just the first fruits. We are waiting for the fruit to ripen, where we enter in fully. I missed a part there.
Romans 8:23 "Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." So now he's told us what adoption is. The adoption is your body getting redeemed. And we'll come to that more in the moment.
That old hound dog sitting there looking saying, "I'm tired of living in this cursed world."
Duck with oil all over him, bondage of corruption.
"Where's that new creation? I don't think I can wait any longer." Poor thing. Somebody didn't feed it right, it lived in a sin cursed world.
"Hey, get glorified already. I'm getting tired of pushing my face through the grass." That's the bondage of corruption on the creature.
Back to the Bible. Romans 8:22-23"For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption that is, to wit, the redemption of our body." So we long to be in our glorified body and the animals do too. We're awaiting that, "Adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."
Okay. Galatians 4:5, "To redeem them that were under the law that they might receive the adoption of sons." So we are sons of God, but our bodies have not yet been adopted because you are sons, "God hath sent forth the spirit of his son and your heart crying Abba father." There it is again, this is not Romans where we read earlier, this is Galatians using some of the same phraseology, adoption, spirit, Abba, father, heir, all those phrases were there in Romans in a few passages. "Wherefore thou art no more servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ"
Romans 8:24 “For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man seeth, what doth he yet had hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patients wait for it." Now we've already talked about hope. Hope is, I wrote a lot of stuff on this this week that I won't be able to share with you. I'm thinking about taking a whole message sometime talking about faith and hope. Wow, it's good stuff, but I won't have time to go into it, just a verse or two.
"But if we hope for that we see not." See hope, the very nature of hope, means that you can't see what you're hoping for. If you see it, it's no longer hope. Faith is such that the reality is not evident to just anyone that looks, and faith is reaching out based on the word of God, and all you've got is the word of God, just as God said to Abraham, "You're the father of a great nation." And Abraham who against hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of a great nation. Abraham reached out with a hand of faith into the darkness, where the voice of God was, he took hold of the promise and he said, "I'm the father of a great nation." That was hope waiting 25 years to have that child was a hope. And then once he had that child and he was told to sacrifice it and he was willing to do so, he had a hope, a confidence, a belief, that God would raise the child from the dead. And then he later hoped, had a confidence, that child would have many children, who'd have many children who would multiply as the sand on a seashore, innumerable, and inherit the kingdom becoming heir of this planet.
But let's look at the next verse. Romans 4:17, remember this, "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth it those things which be not as though they were." Notice, hope is calling those things, "Which be not as though they were," it's not seeing. "Who against hope believed in hope that he may become the father of many nations. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about 100 years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb," so that was hope.
Romans 5:2-5 talked about hope, "By whom also we have access by faith into his grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works, patience, patience, experience. And experience works hope,” hope is a goal. It's an object. It is the doorway by which we enter God's presence. It is the way by which we're sanctified and made whole. Without hope, we wouldn't grow. "And hope maketh us not ashamed." That is we're not ashamed right now to have what some people would perceive as the empty hope. In other words, people look at us like they'd look at Abraham and say, "Where's your children. I don't have any," but Abraham wasn't ashamed of that fact.
When they said, "Abraham, where is this father of great nation? I don't see the great nation," but Abraham wasn't ashamed. "Hope maketh not ashamed," because there's a down payment, there's a surety, that we have that takes the place of the lack of realization.
Romans 5:5 "Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.” So though I cannot produce heaven, though I cannot show you my glorified body, Though I cannot demonstrate these things that I know and believe, these things on which my hope is fixed. I'm not ashamed of that fact, even though you may ridicule me, laugh at me, mock me, I'm not ashamed of that fact. Why?
Because I got something bubbling inside. It's the love of God, the spirit of God and that's enough for me right now. That keeps me in the faith, keeps me in the hope and I'm having the good life. You say, "Well, you're deluded. Please don't wake me up then, because it's mighty nice. It makes my wife nice. It makes my house nice. It makes my kids nice. And my grandkids nice and my friends nice. And it gives us sort of a paradise here on earth. And so, wow. It really works good to be filled up with the love of God and the grace of God.
Now don't go talking to some of you watching this talking about, "Well, I know a Christian, this or that." Oh yeah. There's more fake Christians than there are real ones, probably 95 out of 100 fake Christians to every five real Christians. Now the five real Christians there are times in their life they don't act like real Christians. And so we're not perfect yet, but we do have a spirit guiding us inside, rebuking us and bringing us along, and we're experiencing the love of God in our hearts.
Now, Hebrews 11:1- 3, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Notice the nature of faith again, as you don't see it. Verse three, "Through faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God, so things are which are seen were not made of things which do appear." That's faith in hope it doesn't appear, but you believe it, you know it based on the words of God.
1 John 3:2-3 “Beloved, now, are we the sons of God?" Look, "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." So I am a son of God right now. I'm not yet adopted, but I'm a God's son. “And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see me as he is. Every man that hath this hope," so he defines that as hope in him, "Purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
So you see, hope purifies us. Having that hope worked something in us that obvious, empirical reality wouldn't work. Hope puts us in a place of relationship and fellowship with God that causes us to grow in character in a way that the disciples couldn't grow walking with Jesus Christ. Because Jesus said to them, "Blessed to you because you see and believe, but more blessed are those who don't see and yet believe." (John 20:29) See, by not seeing and yet believing something deeper and richer takes place in our soul than did in the soul of John and Peter and the apostles as Jesus walked the earth. So much I'd like to say, there's so much in all this. We don't have time. We'll keep doing it week after week, Lord willing, until I'm dead.
Romans 8:26 "Likewise, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities." So not only that, but the spirit helpeth our infirmities for, "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought," in other words we're stupid. We don't know what to pray for, we're ignorant, we don't know what's going on. "What's happening in our spiritual realm? I have no idea. What's the will of God and what's not? I don't know. What should I pray for? I'm not sure." “But the Spirit itself,” the Holy Spirit itself, "Maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." That means the prayer wheel's turning. And you want to ask God to do something, but you don't even know what you want him to do. And so you just kind of groan toward heaven.
Romans 8:27 “And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit,” the spirit dwelling in us. So the Holy Spirit in communication with my spirit, but my brain is dumb and doesn't know what need to pray for. So the Holy Spirit takes the groanings and translates it into heavenly language, and edits it, thank God. He edits it, purifies it. And then the spirit of God takes that prayer to heaven, and I don't even know what I prayed, but I groaned in the right direction. And what happens? God answers it. And when it comes, I know it's the answer that I didn't pray for by name, but I prayed for it by groan.
"Because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." So see, you can't get a prayer answered if you pray in contrary to the will of God. So that doesn't mean you just don't pray, since I don't know what the will of God is, you pray. And God will take that prayer and translate it into a proper prayer based on the will of God.
So here it is, start praying and the prayer wheel starts turning, as they say.
And then the spirit of God takes over, takes that prayer and takes it to heaven. Isn't that nice?
So Romans 8:28, "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Now this is a passage that people stumbled all over. "All things work together for good," a lot of people don't believe that passage because they've had all kind of things happen in their life that didn't feel good at all. They say, "It wasn't good what happened here, what happened there, it wasn't good. People died, people got sick, had a car wreck, got paralyzed from the waist down, that's not good. So how can you say all things work together for good to them that love God, to them are called according to his purpose?" Look at this.
Romans 5:3-4 "Not only so, but we glory in tribulation," glory in tribulation, rejoice, because bad things are happening, "Knowing that tribulation worketh patience." In other words, out of the tribulation comes some patience, and that's good. Why? "Because patience worketh experience and experience worketh hope." So I end up with hope out of the tribulation, I end up with hope, which is where God wants me to go. Faith and hope are together. That's the doorway to God. That's the hand that reaches up and grabs a hold of the divine. That's how you get the glory in through the hope. So you rejoice in tribulation, knowing it's going to produce hope. "And hope maketh not ashamed," not ashamed, again, there it is again, "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is giving to us."
You see how akin many, many passages are in the scripture, same subject over and over again. If you don't study the scriptures carefully, you miss that, you read it all and wonder what in the world it's talking about. You have to sit down and take a concordance and look up every time, hope or love of God or whatever appears and look at it as it flows and then you start seeing the patterns running through the word of God.
2 Corinthians 4:16 "For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which you're seen, but at things which are not seen for the things which you're seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." So hope can look at the things not seen. Abraham looked at things not seen, rather than what was obvious.
2 Corinthians 12:9, "And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest up on me." So Paul saw that through his infirmities more powered rest on him. "Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities," dumb it sounds like, pleasure in infirmities. "In reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then am I strong." While the outward man was made weak, the inward man was made strong. And it's the inward man that is going to get into heaven and live for eternity.
2 Peter 1:6-8 "Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith, being more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and glory, honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." So the trying of your faith will bring glory. "In whom having not seen ye love, whom now you see him not, yet believing you rejoice." With joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Romans 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." Now, do I believe in predestination? Absolutely. Not like the Calvinists teach it, but like the Bible teaches it.
"All things work together for our good. For all things conform us to the image of his Son." So when it says all things are working together for good, it doesn't mean it's going to feel good. Doesn't mean going to make you more wealthy. Doesn't mean there won't be loss, doesn't mean there won't be pain. It just means that out of all those things, something else is happening. The spirit is growing closer to God. The love of God is filling our heart and we're being conformed to the image of God.
Now that throws a whole lot of light on that passage, doesn't it? People run around thinking that only good thing's going to happen to them because they're Christians. Listen, because you're Christian, you might have more bad things happening to you because you might not be learning the lessons you need to learn. If you turn to the grace of God and let the spirit of God flow in, God won't need to keep bombarding with all the trials that come your way.
Romans 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son." You see what God predestinated me to, was not to get saved. God predestinated me to be conformed to the image of his son. In other words, God predetermined that those who come to him and are saved, will all be conformed to the image of his Son. That's why this process of is going on of tribulation, working patience, patients, hope, hope, experience, and the love of God filling our hearts. That's why all things work together because they're working so that we'll be conformed to the image of his Son. Are you following it? I Hope so.
Romans 8:29-30 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
So the first thing in this five list equation is foreknow.
Now, I wonder what the word foreknow means? We could look it up in the Greek and guess what we're going to come up with? It means to know beforehand. And so in the English, we'd probably translate that foreknow, is better than know beforehand, because it's one word and it takes place of the Greek one word foreknew.
So what did God foreknow? He foreknew some people. How did he foreknow him? Because he knows the end from the beginning. That means he knew you before you came to him. He foreknew you.
He also predestinated you to be conformed to the image of his Son, because he foreknew that you would be his child, and so in that process, he predestinated you to be conformed to the image of his Son.
And then he called you. The call goes out to everyone in the world who hears it. And many people respond, many don't, but you in particular were called.
And then you were justified and then glorified, he's speaking past tense, you are already glorified in God's matrix, in God's reckoning. You are all these things in God's reckoning. So that's the new matrix in Jesus Christ, you are a glorified individual.
Romans 8:31 "What shall we say then to these things?" So he's asked a question and he'll finish up this chapter answering this question, "What should we say to these things? What do we say to all these wonderful things he's told us? What kind of response have you got?" That response is this, "If God be for us, who can be against us," that's a pretty good response.
Romans 8:32 "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" If God was willing to go so far as to let his son die, don't you think he'd go the rest to the way, stick with us, with his spirit and sanctify us, bring us back, steer us on the path, lead us when we get off?
2 Peter 1 "According his divine power, given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”
Romans 8:33 "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" he asked? "It is God that justifieth." In other words, I don't care what anybody else has got to say, God justifieth me and that's the last word?
Romans 8:34"Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died." So I'm a bad person, so what, Jesus died from me. He took away my sins, so I'm okay now. I'm forgiven. Say, but I remember what you would... Don't remember what you remember. It's all been washed away in the blood of Christ. Boy, we're petty judges of people, aren't we?
“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yeah rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." “Also” means, you remember the Holy Spirit made intercession, so does Jesus. You got two people praying for you. You got the Holy Spirit praying through you and you got Jesus in heaven taking that prayer on the other end, receiving it and interceding with the father. Folks, that's a pretty good setup. Think about it. Holy Spirit down here gets that prayer, sends it up to heaven, Jesus gets a hold of it, touches it up a little more presents it to the father. I mean, that's some praying right there.
Romans 8:35-36 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" What should we say to this? "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?” Uh-uh. “or distress” No way. “Or Persecution” Nah. “Or Famine” Mm-mm. “or Nakedness, or peril, or sword?” No, none of that's going to separate me. "As it is written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long." We accept that fact that being Christians, we may suffer for it, we may be killed, sooner than you think some of you. "For we are killed all the day long. We're accounted as sheep for the slaughter." Now our government sees us as stupid sheep that need to be controlled and led and they get closer every day. There's places all over this country, stories all over this country, where the government is taking over families, churches, homes, individuals, children, simply because they're Christian and that's considered to be mentally ill in our present system.
Romans 8:37"Nay, in all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Now, how could we be more than conquerors? Because not only do we overcome temptations and get victory over Satan, but we are strengthened and enlarged by the experience. So remember he said, "It works a far more exceeding weight of glory" ? So here a trial comes and victory would be just to overcome that trial. But he says, "Not only do we not just overcome the trial, but it works an exceeding weight of glory in our favor." So we're more than conquerors, we're made new, we breathe heaven's air we're made closer to the father. Our sonship is dearer and gets closer every day, so we're more than conquerors. I'm not looking just to survive the world, I'm looking to be raptured out of it. I want to be in such a way that if the rapture doesn't happen, I go anyhow, just get caught up.
Romans 8:38-39 "For I'm persuaded that neither death in nor life," in other words, dying, won't take it away and living won't either, "Nor angels," You mean some angels might try to take me out of the love of God? Yeah, there are some fallen angels try to do that, "Nor principalities," that's the structure of fallen angels, "Nor powers, nor things present." Look at this, "Nor things to come," he was into science fiction. In other words, there's nothing you can think of or that'll happen to this earth, that'll come on it strange and exotic and weird, or that scientists will invent in a test tube or nothing that they're going to do nothing that's going to come. "Nor Heights," that's getting on the moon or up to Mars or somewhere beyond. "Nor depth," going down in the earth. "Nor any other creature," that's little green men or tall blue ones or whatever. No creature “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” That's what he's got to say. He said, "What do we got to say?" This is what we got to say, nothing will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So I told you this was a celebration. Can you see it is? Can you see he's celebrating all that he's told us up to this point?
So I enjoyed putting this together. While I was on my trip I started writing this out while I was traveling for two weeks. And in fact, while I was writing it out, we were driving through Oklahoma at nighttime, couple old people, 71 years old and 49. And we were driving through Oklahoma and it'd been 20 miles since we'd seen an exit, and just way out there in the boondocks, and the transmission quit completely about four, 500 feet before we came to an exit. We stopped there on the interstate and got on the phone, looked for recker service. And so there was one, I asked him, I said, "Is there any place that I can get a transmission put in?" He said, "Well, it's about 40 miles up the road and then about 80 miles up the road is a big town." And I said, around here is there any place?" He said, "Well, there's a shadetree mechanic out here that puts in rebuilt ones," and said, "He could do it for you." I said, "Well, would you tow it there?"
And he said, "Yeah." And I got his number and I called the mechanic, he said, "Yeah, I can have it for you in five days." It was like Friday night so I had to skip Saturday, Sunday, so he was saying he'd have it ready by Wednesday. And so he dropped us off at the... I said, "What's the best motel in town?" He says, "Not but one is run by the Hindis." And so he dropped us off at the motel and we had to keep the bathroom fan on the whole time because it the pulled the urine smell out, stunk in there terrible. And so the next morning we went no place to except McDonald's right close by and a Mexican restaurant. So we went over to McDonald's, got some eggs and a biscuit, and we're sitting there eating, notice a young couple that was traveling through just drinking coffee.
And then that morning we went this Sunday, I guess it was the day after Saturday, it was Sunday, we went to a local Baptist church about a mile mile and a half way, walked to it. First Baptist church in town, full of old people, smell bad. And so went in there and here came this young couple in that we'd seen there at the restaurant. And so we had had the sense of the divine presence and divine guidance. And we just knew that God had us there for a reason at that spot at that time. So we went up to the couple introduced ourself and said, "Would yo like to go out to eat afterwards?" They said, "Yeah." I took them mile and a half, walk backed to the motel, across the street was a Mexican restaurant, and so we bought them a meal. That guy could eat, man. He was shoveling it in, I could tell it'd been a while since he ate.
And so after we got through eating, I said, "Come over here and let's walk across the street and sit down." It's an empty gas station, 70% of the buildings in that town were empty. So we walked over and sat down on the curb of that gas station. And I said, "Let me tell you about Jesus." And so I just told him a story, just the sweet story. I didn't talk to him about you need to get saved or need to get born again. I talked to him about Jesus. I told him, I started in Genesis. I told him about the fall. I went through the prophets. I went through God's promise of a coming Messiah. I went and hit the highlights of basically the good and evil. I went through something like the good evil with him. And then I told him about what Jesus done and how he saved and tears began to run down his cheek, his face lit up, he started smiling. And by the time I got through, he was saved. He believed that story. He believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was just thrilling. Now the girl said she was already a Christian, but when my wife had asked him at the church, said, "Are you a Christian?" He said, "No, I'm not." And she said, "But I am." And so sure enough, he got born again.
And so we had a good time there at the motel, we had a honeymoon and walked in the park, they had a nice little park. And walked all around town, looked at all the empty buildings and stuff like that, and shopped at the empty buildings, the old stuff left laying around. And then we went on the rest of our trip and just had a glorious, great time. So it was a time of relaxation and refreshment. Deb, but got so relaxed she started remembering her phone number again. All right, I'll stop here while I'm behind. That's all folks.
