God's Purpose for People

A part of what was presented in one of our classes the other day was an explanation of what the Bible mentions as far as different periods, different periods of time, where God tests people in a certain way. Sometimes these are called administrations, or they could be called dispensations. Many Bible scholars and people who write about the Bible go through a discussion of dispensations of the Bible. And actually, much of what is presented is not always very clear. Because sometimes they will say, well, there's three dispensations, and sometimes they'll say there's nine, and sometimes they'll say there's 23.

And yet I want to go over what seems to be very clear as far as seven dispensations that are very clear from Genesis to the book of Revelation. And what it does, it's not perhaps the only, but it is at least one clear overview of God's revelation to man. Whenever you study these administrations or these dispensations, you see that, well, God was working with man in a certain way during this period of time. And then it kind of moves on to another segment of the Bible. Again, segments that we are familiar with.

I would say that most of us are very familiar with all of these. But just to have them in mind, I would hope would be helpful to all of us because we want to keep in mind that God's inspiration, His blessing to us and to mankind, is for us to know what the purpose of God is. See, His purpose is not just to put men on earth and have no plan. His purpose is to bring many sons and daughters to glory. We talk about being a part of the kingdom. We talk about being a part of God's divine family. We talk about growing in the divine nature.

And that truly is what God is doing. But here in Hebrews 2, you see in verse 10 a summarization of what God is doing with humans. It says it is fitting, or it was fitting, that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, that's His purpose. That's His desire for you and for me. It's His desire for people who are yet to even know that that's what God is doing.

But it says in bringing many sons and daughters to glory that He should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. Of course, that's talking about Jesus Christ. The fact that He would be the pattern. He would be the example. He would be the one we would follow into the Kingdom of God. But I want to look in Ephesians. There are two verses here in Ephesians chapter 3 to begin with.

And then in chapter 1 where it mentions dispensations. And this word, when you look it up and study what the meaning of it is, it could mean administration or could just mean a period of time or a given direction that God has given. Here in Ephesians chapter 3, starting in verse 1, Paul has just written in chapter 2 about how it is that the Jews and Gentiles have been drawn together in the Church here in Ephesus.

And how that they are together. They are united through Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus Christ that they are united. And he says in verse 1, for this reason, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles. And so he was directly talking to most who were there who were Gentiles, although there surely were some Jews there as well. He says, if indeed in verse 2 you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you. How that by revelation he made known to me the mystery as I have briefly written already. See, he just mentions the word dispensation. And how it was that God had given him a direct mission.

How he had given him a commission. That's actually the description that I have in the new Revised Standard Version that I usually use. He says, you know, that surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given to me for you. See, that's one way in which the word is used. If we back up a page here in Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1, you see a summary statement of what Paul says that God is doing. He starts that in verse 3, but in verse 7, talking about Jesus Christ, in verse 7, in Him we have redemption through His blood.

The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace that He has lavished on us with all wisdom and insight, having made known to us the mystery of His will. See, this is what Paul was able to tell the members of the church because they had been given understanding. They had had the Scriptures open to them just as we do today. And he goes on to say, having made known to us the mysteries of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

See, now again, Paul is making it kind of an expansive statement, but he mentions in this case the dispensation of the fullness of time, meaning that in the end of time, in the end of the age, perhaps in the end, and this is what we'll see this refers to, in the book of Revelation, in the final chapters of the book of Revelation, you have everything, ultimately being brought into a unison and a union with Jesus Christ and with God the Father, but that's always going to be through Jesus.

There is no other way that anyone will ever be a part of the divine family of God without going through Jesus Christ. But here, you know, the word dispensation is used, and like I said, I want to cover for us today seven distinct dispensations that actually tie together the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation. And as we go through these, I think you'll see, as you are, I know, familiar with the Bible. You're familiar not only with the New Testament, but with the Old Testament, because there is so, so much. So much to learn out of the book of Genesis, out of the book of beginnings.

In essence, we really need to truly understand it. But it actually covers a great part. We believe, as you look back into history, that man has been here on earth for 6,000 years. Now, that's a fairly long period of time when some of us have lived. You know, 50, 60, 80, 90 years. That's a relatively short time, whenever you think about how long has man been on earth. But I want to go through these seven dispensations. And again, these are things that church writers do write about. Biblical scholars write about them, but they often break them down in many different ways. And these are certainly ways that seem to make very good sense, as far as what God is truly doing, because that often is not understood by people who write about the Bible.

Let me just give you the seven. I'll just give you the names of them, and then we'll go back and discuss them. The first one is the dispensation of innocence.

Innocency is the first one. The second one is the dispensation of conscience.

The third one is the dispensation of human government or civil governments.

The fourth one is the dispensation of promise.

The fifth one is the dispensation of law, or the law covenant.

The sixth one is the dispensation of grace, or the church age.

And then the final one, the one we read about here in Ephesians 1 verse 10.

The final dispensation we see revealed is the fullness of time. Whenever God completes the plan, whenever He completes the project, the human project, that He is working out over these 6,000 years. And we see that this begins with Genesis 1 and 2 with Adam and Eve, and we'll end with a new heaven and a new earth, because that, of course, is what ends in Revelation 21 and 22.

So those seven dispensations, if we get those in mind, then we have an overview of the Bible that helps us have a, whenever you read in some places, it kind of laboriously goes through a listing of genealogies, or a begetting, begetting, begetting, or reading some history that it's got dating in it, and you don't know exactly what the dating is. Well, this can help to have an understanding of these dispensations. So the first one obviously begins with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We read in Genesis 1 and 2 about God reshaping the earth. You see God forming and shaping the earth so that man can exist. And in chapter 2 or chapter 1 and also chapter 2, you see God causing man to come out of the dust of the ground and to breathe into Adam the breath of life. And he became a living soul. He was not an immortal soul, but he was a living soul. He was created, and he was far different than the cats and dogs, as Mr. Welburn was talking about. We have a similar type of a life. You can see how that even the same description as a living soul is given to a whale. A living soul, but not a living soul with the breath of life that involves a spirit in man. A spirit that God has given us that differentiates us makes us completely different than all of the animals. And yet with the capacity to be united with the spirit of God, which of course is coming on later. But here in Genesis chapter 2, you see the description of what it is that Adam and Eve had been created. They had been placed on the earth. They had been able to walk with God. You don't know how long this took. You don't have really defining dates and times. It would appear to be a very short period of time. And they had been created what you could call a neutral state. They only knew God. They only knew what God had told them. They only knew how God described to them their responsibility. It's a way in which God was working with them at the very beginning. And you see in chapter 2 verse 15, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat of it. You shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat thereof you shall die. You are not an immortal soul. You are to respect my words. You are to show respect for my instruction, my law, in a sense.

And I want you to relate to me. I want you to appreciate the closeness you have with the Creator, with your Designer, with your Creator. I don't know that we can't really identify with that because we all have been born into this world as little children. We may start off somewhat neutral, but it doesn't take very long to be adversely affected by the Prince of the Power of the Air, by the attitudes and the attributes that are so widely spread here in this world.

And yet what we find in regard to this dispensation of innocency that, you know, here in chapter 3 we know that Satan is introduced. Clearly God had to allow that.

God, and I'm sure Adam and Eve did not understand, God clearly did, Adam and Eve didn't understand the Force, that they were being intercepted by. They didn't comprehend. Eve didn't comprehend. When the snake tells her, you know, go ahead and eat that apple or whatever it is, pomegranate or grapefruit, or, you know, maybe grapefruit would be more like it. It's kind of sour, bitter. And yet, you know, she readily took that. She was deceived by a lie, as he of course told her, and Satan is the author of lies. He's the one who loves deception. He loves to deceive. He loves to be covert. He loves to be hidden. And of course he deceived her rather readily. And then of course we know that Adam also ate of the tree. Now in description of what you see here, if we turn back to 1 Peter, you see what God reveals here regarding the fact that Eve was deceived. And then Adam just simply followed that deception. Here in 1 Timothy 2, verse 13, Adam was formed first, and then he, 1 Timothy 2 verse 13, Adam was formed first, and then even Adam was not deceived. But the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Of course, that's only a... it's talking about something else as far as Paul is discussing other things, but he's simply pointing out that Eve was deceived and Adam followed suit. And actually what you could say was he was deceived, but Adam deliberately disobeyed. And perhaps that's a greater sin. A greater sin to just simply ignore the instruction that God had given and go ahead and, of course, sin. And of course, God viewed that in a very negative way. He viewed that in a sad way. I think it surely had to sat in the heart of God to see these beautiful children he had just created and who were impressionable, but to see that they easily looked like and almost quickly followed a deception.

And yet it's good for us to keep in mind how they were created in a neutral state, and then sin was introduced. And again, we're only dealing with a chapter or two here in the beginning of the book, so it's going to take a long time to get to the end. But I want to point out here in chapter 3 verse 24, the judgment on Adam and Eve was in verse 24, he drove out the man at the east of the Garden of Eden. He placed the carobim in a sword, flaming and turning to guard the way to the Tree of Life. See, they were, in essence, cut off from the Tree of Life. And so that's the first dispensation. Now, there are a lot of more things we could talk about in that area, but I just want to point that out to begin with, because the second dispensation, which is called just conscience, also involves Adam and Eve, and it involves Cain, and it involves Abel, because at this point they were now relying on their own conscience, on their own ability to decide what they thought would be good, what they thought would be good or bad, good or evil. But primarily, it's better to understand this, that men then, from this point on, once sin was introduced, men had taken to themselves the determination of what is right and wrong, instead of relying on the one who told them what right is, they would decide whether or not whatever they do seems to hurt anybody else. See, that's very common today, that, well, I can do whatever I want, I'm not hurting anyone. Well, you're not depending on God to tell you that. You're deciding that for yourself. And of course, that's a deception. Here in chapter 3, verse 22, God said, See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now he might reach out his hand and take the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden till the ground with which it was taken. See here, you know, you see the description of how it was that men were going to be living. They were going to decide what's right. And what do we find in chapter 4? Well, Cain decides that it's right to hate Abel.

He decides that it's right to be angry with God. He decides that he wants to do away with Abel. And of course, you find the first act of violence, the first murder recorded. And yet, you know, it also is interesting here in Genesis chapter 4. Actually, this dispensation of consciences in chapter 4 and 5 and kind of down to the first part of 6, where you see God starting to work with Noah. Because in this age or this dispensation between Adam and Eve and Noah, you know, you find actually 1,500 years occurring. I don't have all of the dating, and you can look at different charts, and some of them are pretty good as far as making it pretty clear how long different people lived. But it essentially covered the next 1,500 years, and men were simply choosing what seemed right to them. And of course, that continues to today. But clearly, it's what was happening back at that time. And I think it's interesting to see that God introduced how it was that they could relate to God. Now, how was that? Well, actually, when you read about what happened in verse 3 and the Course, this is chapter 4, verse 3, in the Course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. And Abel, for his part, brought her the firstlings of his flock. And of course, we know the outcome. The Lord had regard for Abel in his offspring, but for Cain and his offspring, he had no regard. Now, what does that tell us? Well, it tells us that God accepted Abel's offering and not Cain's. And yet, what it also tells us is that the way that they were to relate to God, the way that they could have some type of relationship with God was through offering, through sacrifice. Both of them knew that, apparently. One of them either did it right, and the other did it wrong, or he did it with a right attitude, a right heart, which is all you can really see about Abel. You don't see a lot of information, and apparently he didn't live too long.

You only see, between here and Noah, in these few chapters, Abel and Enoch, being noted as people who approached God in an acceptable way. Everyone else made decisions following their conscience. And, of course, the result is here in chapter 6, verse 5. God saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually. See, 1500-1600 years after the birth, or the, I guess you could say, birth creation of Adam and Eve, you find God fully upset, fully saddened to see how the men, following their own way, not simply following the deception, but deciding for themselves what they think would be right and what they think would be wrong, the outcome was a world that needed to be destroyed. And yet, in verse 8, it says, Noah found grace or favor in the sight of the Lord. Now, this is another, this is the beginning of another dispensation, because, of course, Noah and his sons and daughters, or sons and daughter-in-laws, his wife, eight of them, were going to live through the flood. Everyone else was going to die. And, whenever you see the beginning here in chapter 9 of what it is that God reveals, starting with Noah, and from Noah down to chapter 12, and so in chapter 9 and 10 and 11, you see a dispensation of civil or human government that is designated. And, of course, you see the outcome of that is the tower of Babel in chapter 11. And you see it with that tower of Babel and with the wickedness that was involved, you know, God is going to, you know, completely stop that. He didn't do a flood again. He did scatter the people. And yet, what I want to point out is that here in chapter 9, where God was giving instruction to Noah, I want you to go, verse 1, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. And he talked about how it is that he was to operate. And down in verse 5, it says, For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning. From every animal I will require it, and from every human being, each one, for the blood of another I will require a reckoning for human life, whoever, in verse 6, whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person's blood be shed. See, this is the beginning of a designation of human government and capital punishment that God was going to allow. But the reason why he was going to allow that was because, verse 6, whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person's blood be shed. And so again, giving a governmental structure to it, for in his own image, God had made mankind.

See, there was a significant reason why God would begin to work with humans and add additional information here. And he would add the topic of capital punishment here under this particular segment. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in chapter 11, the Tower of Babel would be, in essence, the result of this. And in verse 8 of chapter 11, it says, See, again, this was taking several hundred years from the time of Noah after he went through the flood began to repopulate the earth to the time we read in Genesis 12, which again is the beginning of the fourth timeframe that begins, this dispensation begins, with a very special man.

A special man, not even revealed up to this point, except in the very latter part of chapter 11, where Abraham, or Abram, as he was known at that point, he was to be born.

And see, from the time of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and then Jacob's sons and their families, the significance of Abraham was going to be great. Because, again, in this dispensation of promise, you see in chapter 12, verse 1, the Lord said to Abram, I want you to go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I'm going to show you. See, he worked with Abraham in a unique way. I don't think any of us want to go through the type of things that Abraham went through. Abraham lived at a time, and he was tested in such a way that none of us would probably want to have to, in some way, go through what he did with Isaac. Go through what he was told to do with Isaac.

And yet, he says in verse 2, God said, I will make to you or of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse and in you. A promise is made from God that through Abraham all of the families of the earth shall be blessed. So within this promise that God was making, he was going to direct a nation to be developed, a great nation, a family that would be expansive, but ultimately not only that family in the genealogy of Abraham, but ultimately all mankind. All mankind would be blessed, and that's what the last part of verse 3 is referring to, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. That was speaking of the fact that Jesus Christ, the word at that time, the Lord of the Old Testament at that time, would come to the earth, and he would be a sacrifice for sin. You read this in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, Paul is speaking in Galatians chapter 2, again talking about the Jews and the Gentiles and how they would be given salvation. And in chapter 3, let's see if I can find this verse. It says in verse 14, we won't try to read through all of this, but in verse 14 chapter 3, 14, it says, in order that in Jesus Christ, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. So here he's talking about how God's purpose and God's promise and God's plan would be worked through Jesus Christ. And that, as he would say here in Galatians, talking to the church, the church would be made up of Israelites and non-Israelites, and all of them would have in common the headship of Jesus Christ. They would all have in common the receipt of the Holy Spirit, and they would have a commission to become united, to be in unison, to be in harmony.

And so here in Genesis 12, and of course this runs through a better part of the book of Genesis, activity with Abraham, the birth of Isaac, activity with Isaac, with Jacob, with Jacob and his sons eventually getting into Egypt. That's where you are at the end of Genesis. So that appears to cover a long period of time. It wasn't quite as long as the earlier period before the flood. It was actually a shorter period of time, but it brings us to the fifth dispensation, which is that of the law or of the covenant that God would begin to make with the people of Abraham, the people of Israel that he chose to work through. And what we find, of course, is the bulk of the rest of the Old Testament is going to deal with the story of the people of Abraham, the people of Israel, and how it was that they had been brought into a relationship with God, not as we read about with Cain and Abel by simply offering offerings, giving sacrifices, or by being a part of a human government, but they would be brought into a relationship of God through the law. Exodus is, of course, the account of Egypt and Israel coming out of Egypt and Moses.

And what I want to go to here is in Exodus chapter 19. You see, before the recording here in chapter 20 of the book of the Ten Commandments and the law, that was going to be a part of the basis of the relationship of how Israel was to relate to God and how they were to be, in essence, they were to enter into a marriage covenant. They would enter into an agreement with God, and we will agree to follow you. Here in chapter 19, and this is in the fifth dispensation, the law dispensation, which ran from the time of the Exodus until the sacrifice that Jesus gave.

See, that would run for a long period of time, or at least over 1500 years to the time when Jesus would come on to the scene. But here in Exodus 19, it says in verse 4, you have seen. God is talking to Moses. It says, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.

And now, therefore, if you obey my voice, and if you keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the people on earth. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. See, this is what God was telling Moses to relay to the people. And of course, in verse 7, it says, Moses summoned the elders and set before them all the words that the Lord had commanded, and the people all answered in verse 8 as one. They all said, I do. They all said, I agree, everything that the Lord has spoken, we will do. See, this again was God working with a group of people. He was going to relate to them through the law. They would come to understand the love of God through the Ten Commandments, which feature, of course, love toward God and love toward the fellow man. And yet, as we all know, and you read this in Hebrews, you read it in Hebrews about how it is that even though the people agreed to do this, you know, they didn't really have the heart. They didn't have the ability to follow up. They didn't have the motivation. They didn't have the Spirit of God. But again, God was laying a foundation for what He would later do. And so, the way that the Israelites presented this, they entered into this agreement with God, but of course they were faithless.

They were not faithful. They were not obedient. They were not responsive. And ultimately, as we all read, if you read through the rest of the history in the Old Testament, you know that they went into captivity. First Israel, later Judah. They went into captivity and ultimately were able to only come back and partially function around the town of Jerusalem and the temple area.

And so, we come then to the sixth one, the dispensation of grace or the church age, which actually takes up the entirety of the Old New Testament. It takes up a big part, I guess we could say, from the death of Jesus, from His resurrection, or maybe even more specific, it could be the beginning of the book of Acts, Acts 1 and 2, where the church is going to be begun with the coming of the Holy Spirit. Peter and those who are united there in Acts 2, they begin, you know, this church age, they begin with the direction of Jesus Christ, an age where people have at that point the Holy Spirit given. The Holy Spirit given to those that the Father draws to Jesus Christ. And of course, we read through the entirety of this. Actually, we read part of this here in Ephesians 3. Let's go back there again. And it was a matter that in this dispensation of grace from God, mercy and grace that God is extended, where He has drawn us to Himself. Here in chapter 3 of Ephesians in verse 4, Paul is talking about, you know, how it is that God had given Him this mission in verse 2.

And in verse 3, how the mystery, the mystery of what? Well, the mystery of what God's doing with man. A mystery of what is God's purpose for human life. A mystery of understanding that God wants people to be glorified. He wants them to be a part of the divine family of God. But he says, how this mystery was made known to me by revelation. And then I wrote above in a few words of reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.

In former generations, this mystery was not made known to mankind, as it has now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit. And that is, in verse 6, that Gentiles have become fellow heirs and members of the same body and sharers in the promise in Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel, through the gospel of the kingdom of God. A gospel of looking forward to the time of Christ's return. And of course, that's where we are today. Of course, as I mentioned, at least initially there, many of these carry over. You know, the whole concept, you know, we're not carrying over the innocence period, but certainly following our conscience, doing what seems right to us, following certain civil governments that don't work, following the law, which would work if it obeyed, but people won't obey it. And now you've come to a time when people are able to receive the Spirit of God and may be the greatest miracle that God could perform. Now God can perform all kinds of miracles, but when you think about the fact, the Holy Spirit is the essence of God through which He does works of power. One of those could easily be seen as, well, that's what happened with Jesus. He was born and became a human being. It shows how the Spirit of God was involved. Another one would be at the time in John 11, when Jesus tells Lazarus, rise from the dead. You know, a power that was done through the Spirit of God occurred back up to John 9. And you see, a man who had been blind his whole life was healed in order to show the great power that God is able to do, anything that he would choose or is able to do. And yet, as I mentioned, may be one of the greatest miracles of all, may be one of the greatest of the works of power that the Holy Spirit does is to transform the human heart. To transform man's heart, our hearts, again, when we yield in complete submission to Him, then we are able to be changed. We don't have to stay the way we are. We can change.

And that's by the power of the Holy Spirit. And if we're going to manifest the fruit of the Holy Spirit, then that's also going to be through that power that comes from God. But see, that's where we are today. And of course, we all understand in Romans 6 that the law was not done away with and ignored now that we are in a time when the Holy Spirit is available.

Romans 6 verse 1, what should we say? Should we continue in sin?

In order that grace may abound. And of course, Paul answers that by saying absolutely not.

By no means. What can we who have died to sin go on living in it? And so he gives a whole discussion of how that an understanding of sin, that the law shows us what that is.

Now, that's clearly a part of our growth, of our development, of our transformation.

And we're all yearning, yearning for the last few chapters of the book of Revelation to come to pass. We're yearning for Revelation 19 to occur. We desire the Holy Spirit directing God and Christ and the Holy Spirit directing us toward that kingdom that will be established.

You know, the power of God is going to bring about the end of this age. It's going to bring about the world to come. And the seventh one, as I mentioned, is simply what we read there in Ephesians, the dispensation of the fullness of time. That actually begins whenever we see Christ returning. Whenever Christ returns, well, then everyone's going to learn or start to learn that they've got to relate to God through Him. And then, of course, through Revelation 20, you know, we see the Millennial Rule of Christ. We see the White Throne Judgment. We see in chapter 21 and 22 the new heavens and the new earth. Again, when you're describing the end of what the outcome is going to be, well, the divine family of God is going to be glorified.

That family is going to be in complete harmony and complete unity, and they are going to be growing together in the love of God. And so, whenever you read Revelation, and we often do this, read Revelation 11. This ties together with what Paul says there in Ephesians 1. Revelation 11, verse 15, the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign forever and ever. We can go to numerous other verses that show how it is that everyone is going to be in unison. Everyone is going to be in a unison with God the Father and with Jesus Christ, and all of it is going to be under the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this fullness of time, beginning at Christ's return and then beyond, is exactly what we all look forward to, and yet, in essence, it's a completion. A completion of what it is that God wants to do. As I mentioned, He wants to bring many sons to glory. That's what we actually find here in Romans chapter 8.

See, here in Romans 8, I hope in going through this, this helps us to be able to put kind of a wrapper around the entirety of what we see revealed in the Bible.

Now, you can go through these different eras, and some of them are longer, and some of them are shorter. And, of course, the church age has been 2,000 years, but we know it's going to come to an end here soon. And we know then even another 1,000 years, and beyond that additional time, whether it's 100 years or more, is going to go into a new heavens and a new earth. That's going to be the fullness of time. But what we see in Romans chapter 8 is simply what it is that we yearn for, and what it is really that this entire earth yearns for. Here in Romans chapter 8 and verse 18, Paul is speaking. He says, I consider that the suffering of this present time is not worthy to be compared with the glory of which we are about to be revealed. For in verse 19, the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. See, this entire earth, having been shaped and fashioned and molded for Adam and Eve to live on, this entire earth is awaiting what we see read about here when the children of God are going to be glorified. And he said, the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. And we know that this whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now, and not only the creation, but we ourselves, we who have the firstfruits of the Spirit. We've grown inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. We look forward to that in hope. But see, the whole world, the whole creation looks forward to that time as well. And so, in a sense, God really is going to bring about a great miracle as He allows us to be a part of His divine family through the power of His Spirit. He's going to cause that to happen, and then He is going to create a celebration unlike anything that has ever occurred. But I hope that, in going through this, here in Romans 8, that we can again see the multiple ways in which the Bible is united, and which the books of the Old and the books of the New Testament come together, and how God had worked in different times, in different ways, throughout different dispensations of time. And yet, they all are going to produce the outcome, the outcome of the fruit that will be the children of God being glorified.