Why Were You Born? Part 2

Okay, we have just about everyone back, so we will continue here. As we begin, let me, again, put some thoughts into your mind as we did at the end of the first session. Again, remember, Christ isn't done with creation until after He returns to earth and He establishes His kingdom. I mentioned the earth burning up. That happens at the end of God's purpose for mankind, at the end of God's purpose for earth. When Jesus Christ returns, He will establish His kingdom on earth. And for a thousand years, Jesus Christ will reign on earth, and mankind will live by God's law, those Ten Commandments, the way of life that we talked about. Satan, who influences this world and who is the source of evil in this world, will be put away. And mankind, living by God's law, living by His way of life in that thousand-year period after Jesus Christ returns, will see that what the Bible said and what God said all along really does work. That there is a way to a world that is marked by love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, mercy, goodness, self-control, faith. At the end of that millennium, that thousand-year rule, then there will be the white throne judgment period when all the rest of mankind is resurrected. And then when that period is done, when every man, woman and child who has ever lived has had an opportunity to know God's will, then it will be done and the earth will be burned up. Remember that mankind was created in the image of God, not in the form of God. He is physical and not spirit. He doesn't have an immoral soul. He can cease to exist forever. And God has a purpose in mind for man that transcends the physical state.

Okay. Here's a picture. I'll have you guess what that picture is. It's an artist's rendering of another very famous story in the Bible that, whether people call themselves Christian or not, they've all heard of the story of the two trees in Genesis. God created all the physical things on earth. He created mankind.

He created a Sabbath day on the seventh day. He made that part of His standard and part of the week, a time where we would do the physical work for six days, but on His Sabbath day, the one that He created, the one that He rested on, He expected man to take that time to give to God on that very same day. Just as Jesus Christ did, who is the only man who's been resurrected to eternal life, who lived a life as a perfect example to us, just as the apostles in the early New Testament Church did, just as the law of God specifically states in the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

In that same chapter in Genesis, or in chapter two of Genesis, there's another thing that God created. In Genesis 2, He created choice. He created choice. And those trees represent the creation of choice. You know, animals, when they were created, have instinct. They just know what to do.

They know how to build their nests and build their dens and everything they do. We have to learn all that stuff. We don't have instinct to know just what to do automatically. But God put something in us that animals don't have the opportunity to do, and that's to choose our way of life.

They go about and they live their lives exactly as God has programmed them to do it. But mankind has a choice, and in those two trees in the Garden of Eden, it's a beautiful story, fascinates people, but God in those trees was revealing part of His purpose for mankind. Genesis 2, verses 8 and 17 says, The tree of life was in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life represented eternal life, God's Holy Spirit, what we need to have in order to have eternal life.

That was the tree that we see in the next verse below that God said to eat. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on the other hand, was the tree that defines life in this world today. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God said down in verse 17, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.

For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. These trees represent two ways of life. Two ways of life. One leads to life. Very appropriately named, the tree of life. And God said, take of that tree. Take of that tree. Choose the way that leads to life. But this other tree that you have a choice, that you can make a decision to follow, is the knowledge of good and evil. And today we live in a world that's marked by good and evil, don't we?

A world that has been designed by man, a man, a world that is designed by man's own ideas, his own government, not following the way of God. A world that has good in it. We can look around and we see people who do good things, but boy do we see an awfully lot of evil in this world, don't we? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God says, stay away from that tree. It represents following your own ways, your own ideas, you making the choices rather than God making the choices. You making the choices that are going to lead to, as he says, death.

Where if you choose the tree of life, Adam and Eve, if you choose the tree of life, all of mankind, it leads to life. There's only one way to life, that's through God's way.

Only one name by which salvation comes, that's through Jesus Christ, who lived the same way of life he asks us to lead if we want eternal life. Two trees, and they represent choice. Only mankind has that choice. Mankind has a choice to choose, do I take the way of life? Or do I take the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and I determine what's right.

I set up my own laws. I reason and say, well, this just doesn't seem to be that bad, so we'll say that in our government and in our way of life, that's okay. Even though it may contrast significantly from the way of life that God records for us in the Bible, the way that leads to eternal life.

Two ways of life. Sin, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, where God told Adam and Eve, if you take of this tree, you will surely die. And they surely did die. Now, when God told them that they would die, I'm sure He taught them about the way of life that they should lead. And when they were faced with a choice, when the serpent came and said, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't pay attention to that. That way's too hard. God's not going to let you die. And they believed the lie. They believed that they couldn't die. And they chose their own way. Sin and its consequences reread in Romans 6.23, New Testament. The wages of sin is death. Sin is the transgression of the law, the same law that Jesus Christ said, not one shot or one tittle passes as long as heaven and earth exist in its physical state. And it still exists in that way. God's way was taught to Adam and Eve. God's way was taught on the earth, as you read through the Bible. You see that Abel followed God's way, yielded to him. Seth, Noah, the men of the Bible that were familiar with, Abraham, Moses, Isaac, Jacob. God's way was known. They followed it. They chose the tree of life. And their names are recorded in the faith chapter in Hebrews 11 as ones who were looking for the better world, the better country that God was establishing. God's way of life, the tree of life known in the Bible as God's law, spoken of and lived by Christ and the apostles. He set the example for us. The apostles followed his example implicitly, obeying every word of the law and not going around preaching that one shot or one tittle had passed from it. Man's way leads to death. Proverbs 14, 12, and again in Proverbs 16, 25, it says, There is a way that seems right to a man. That word seems. We can see it all around us in the world today. Things that are contrary to just standard morals. There's a way that seems right to a man. But God says that way, taking those matters to yourself leads to death.

But following God's way leads to life. The second part of Romans 6, 23, says the gift of eternal life is in Christ. So those who follow Him, those who yield to Him. Two ways of life. A choice you and I make, a choice that all mankind is going to have to make. A choice that God set up right there in the Garden of Eden when He created choice as part of the principle and part of the answer to the question, Why were you born? Why were you born? Why are you here today? Deuteronomy 13, a moving verse, as Moses speaks to God's people back then, words that have been recorded for us. He says, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you. I have set before you life and death, two ways of life. I have set before you blessing and cursing. Therefore, it seems like such a simple thing to say, choose life that you and your descendants may live. But God had to take the time to say, I've set before you these two trees. I've set before you these two ways of life. I've made it known to you. I've given you the Word that talks about exactly the way of life that leads to life and what the way of life is that leads to death. And He says, choose life. And yet, the vast majority of mankind, including Adam and Eve, who walked with God in the Garden, chose death. God is looking to see. The animals don't have that choice. Mankind has that choice.

For that reason, God made man physical. God made man physical because He wants to see, and He wants to know what we will do with our life. What will we do with the command He gives us? What will we do with the knowledge He gives us? And so He created man physical. Adam and Eve, when they had the choice, they chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And so we have a world today that's got some good, a lot of evil. If they had chosen the tree of life, and if we choose the tree of life, it would be far different than the world we live in today. Romans 8-7. When they made that choice for us, I remember we're in a physical state. Romans 8-7 is clear. Because the carnal mind says it means natural, because the natural mind is enmity against God. In our natural state, we resist God. Isn't that what Adam and Eve did? Didn't they just resist God? Even though they saw what had happened, He walked with them, He talked with them, they knew He created them. And yet they chose the serpent's way, Satan's way, over God. The natural mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

Those are tough words, aren't they? The natural mind resists God. They may even talk about God. But then when it comes to the words in the Bible, the book that He gave us, the only source of truth, even people who say they know God. Do they live by this way? Or do they find their own ways to live and say, as long as they know God, that's all that matters? Oh, it matters. It matters which way we choose, and it matters which way is really the right way, and not just which way that seems the right way. Because God is crystal clear. Jesus Christ is crystal clear. Before the foundation of the earth, a plan was put in place. Before the foundation of the earth, this way of life that leads to life, that leads to everything man says was put in place and given to mankind, is still probably on every bookshelf in America. And yet, how many people live the way Jesus Christ did? How many people choose this life as opposed to the way that seems right? The way the world and many of the religions around them say it's okay to live because it just doesn't matter in this age. And they say, when Jesus Christ came, we don't have to do those things anymore. But that's not what the Bible says.

When God created man, He created him physical, in a mortal state. A man was created incomplete. He had the potential for what God knows, the reason we were born, but not everything was given to them at that time. The Holy Spirit of God was not given to man at the time of creation. Adam and Eve had that choice. They could have chosen that way, and God would have given them the Spirit to live by His way. They rejected it. But mankind wasn't created with God's Holy Spirit in him. He was created with the Spirit in him, but not God's Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Bible says, is given after certain things happen. In John 6, verse 44, it says that no man can come to Christ unless God, who sent Christ, calls him. So there is a time in our lives that God opens our minds to understand the truth of the Bible, to understand what it is that His way of life is. He hasn't opened the minds of all of mankind today. Most of mankind is an enmity against God. There is a time coming when He will open minds. It talks about that in Revelation, but that's the subject for another time. When God calls and He opens our minds, then He expects that we repent. When we understand that we've been following the way of life that leads to death, and that there's a way that leads to life, He expects that we're going to turn from our old way, reject it, and begin following Him. The process that the Bible says is repentance. That literally means a change of one's mind and heart. Not just a simple prayer that we say, sorry, forgive me. We need to say, and ask God to forgive, but repentance is a whole change of attitude that's different. A whole change of mind and heart, realizing that what we lived before God opened our minds, that we were called, is the way that leads to death. But He's opened our minds to the way of life, that we need to turn toward it and reject the old way and begin to live the new way. And God's watching to see what choice we make when He opens our minds. What decision do we make? Do we make the right decision, or do we follow the same path of Adam and Eve? And finally, when we repent and we are ready to commit to God our lives, to follow Him implicitly for eternity. Then, as it says in Acts 2, verse 38, we're baptized, hands are laid on us, and at that time and in that condition, God gives His Holy Spirit. Then man is a complete being. Then man can follow the way of life that God has prescribed.

Of course, it's all made possible by the life and the death of Jesus Christ who died for our sins. God resurrected Him as the firstborn among many brethren, the Bible says, to eternal life, the first man that has received eternal life. So, just like there's a physical creation, and as God told man when He created them, you have dominion over the earth. And man has done well with the earth and the physical state. We look around, we have magnificent buildings, we have magnificent modes of transportation, means of communication. We live in a world where, you know, what mankind has had dominion over the earth. He's done well in the physical element. It's in the other side of earth, the other side of civilization, that we have a problem. How man gets along with man, how a group of men get along with a group of men. We have a contrast that you probably heard before of amazing technological advances on one end, but then we have a world that's in a mess. On a national level, on a world level, on personal levels, as people can't get along together, divorce is rampant, friends hate friends, and there's just an absence of. There's just an absence of the spiritual side of man. The physical's there, but the spiritual side of man is missing. That leads to all the discord, disruption, and suffering in the world today. So, in 1 Corinthians 2, Paul talks about how man was created. He says, For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him? When God breathed into the nostrils of man, life, he breathed into him the spirit of man, the ability to think, the ability to make choices, the ability to have logic, the ability to build, the ability to learn things, to do things beyond what the animals can do that just do the same things marvelously over and over again. That man has the capacity to do things that no other being on earth did. Just like God. He was made in his image, and God can do all those things. He can build, he can grow, he can fashion new worlds, and God gave mankind that ability to, on the physical state, in the physical world that he lived. What does man know except the spirit of man which is in him? You take that spirit that is in all of mankind, every single one of us, and take that away, we would be no different than the animals. We'd be living in bins, caves, whatever it is.

Even so, Paul goes on to say, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Remember Romans 8-7? The natural mind, the physical mind with the spirit in man is in the teeth against God. Isn't the subject of law of God? It can't be. But with the spirit of God, we can know the things of God. Now we have received, he says, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. With the spirit of God, man becomes a more complete being. Now he makes choices with his eyes wide open. Now he's got the speed in him that will lead to eternal life when he takes to that tree of life and tells God, I see your message. I repent and reject my own way. I will be baptized and commit myself to you. And God puts that seed of the spirit in us that leads to eternal life. It's the only way that it happens. Without the spirit of God, it doesn't happen. And the spirit of God is given upon repentance and upon baptism.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's repented, he's been baptized. Now he has the Holy Spirit, the thing that God has given us freely when we choose him. He is a new creation. We may be 30, 40, 50 years old when that happens, but at that time he becomes a new creation. God completed physical creation. He set the world in motion and put mankind in motion back in Genesis 1.

But today God is still working. Today when we respond to him, today when we repent and are baptized and he puts the spirit in us, he sees us as a new creation.

Today creation goes on. God is still working. He's working in the spiritual realm. He's working with us on that part of us that we didn't have before. And that leads us into getting closer to the answer of why we were born. Creation was completed, the physical creation, back in Genesis. God created a self-sustaining world, but creation is still going on today. In you and me and everyone that God calls, who responds, who baptizes and who he puts his Holy Spirit into. I'm going to leave that verse up there for a while. And if you've got a Bible, I'm going to turn to some other verses here. But I want to keep that verse. God is working in you and me. A new creation. You know, Adam and Eve had the chance at eternal life. They rejected it. He gave them two ways of life to follow. And back in Galatians 5, he tells us exactly what the results of the choice that they would make would be. So if you have a Bible turned there, you didn't bring a Bible. There may be one right in the pocket in front of you. Or you can just listen. In Galatians 5 and verse 22, God tells us, If we choose the tree of life, if we choose the way of life that He prescribed, here's what society, what our lives, what the millennium when Jesus Christ returns, and He establishes this as the law of the land and the world at that time, this is what our lives and what a life of people that choose the tree of life would be like. In Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, meekness, self-control. Now, just imagine if those were the elements that we lived in in the world. If love, joy, peace, the others we mentioned, if that was what defined our society, it'd be a pretty good place to live, wouldn't it? Now, we may see some love in this world. We may see some joy. We may see some peace, fleeting peace. But just imagine if the whole world, that's what marked it. That's what the tree of life leads to. That's what choosing the tree of life leads to. That's what Christ will establish when He returns to earth. That's what eternal life is based on. That way of life, those fruits, that's what it's like in the kingdom of God. But just back a few verses in verse 19, we find what choosing the other way of life, what it results in. Verse 19, The works of the flesh, or that way of life that comes from choosing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, are evident. They are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresy, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like.

Now, what is the world that we live in today? It's defined by verses 19 through 21 that we read there, isn't it? Because that's the way of life that the world has chosen and that lives by today. That's the world you and I exist in every single day. Not always a pleasant place will increasingly become an unpleasant place as we move closer and closer to the time of the end when mankind, by his decisions, brings the world to its virtual knees only to be saved alive by the returning Jesus Christ. Which way of life would you choose? Which way of life would you choose? God is working in the lives of those who choose Him through His Spirit today, who are rejecting the old way of life and who are following Him implicitly, allowing Him to live in their minds and their hearts, obeying His commands. Creation is still going on. Let's go back to Job. Job 14.

When we read the book of Job, we usually just think of the character of Job, but there's so much more in the book of Job that shows that he understood the plan of God as well. The beginning of the book talks about Job being a blameless man. And at the end of the book, Job repents of the self-righteousness that he didn't even know was part of him, and he turns to God with all his heart and all his mind. Job 14, verse 14 says this, Verse 15, God was working with Job. God is working with you. God is working with me. When we commit to Him, He is continually building who it is that He wants in His Kingdom, the being that you need to be to receive eternal life. He's working day in and day out. He provides everything that we need. He prompts us. He guides us. He picks us up when we fall, and He encourages us to go on. But He's working every day. We're a new creation in Christ. And He's creating something and people that will receive eternal life if they yield to Him. Over in Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64, verse 8. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the time that he was alive in Israel. He spoke and recorded prophecies about the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. And he has prophecies in here for the millennium as well. When Jesus Christ returns and sets up His Kingdom. But in Isaiah 64, verse 8, He says, Now, O eternal, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are Potter. All we are the work of your hand. All we are the work of your hand. We're the clay. I haven't worked with clay since I was in grade school, I guess. But you know that clay? When I worked with it, it never did come out looking like I wanted it to. But it never fought back. I could make it into any form that I wanted it to. It just didn't look the way I wanted it to look. We're the clay. When we yield to God, He's molding us into who He wants us to be. Looking like He wants us to look. Behaving like He wants us to behave. Thinking like He wants us to think. We're the work of His hands, day in and day out. Because we're a new creation in His hands. The physical man was there. We have had the spirit in man since the time we were born. When we make the choice to follow God, when we understand what His purpose is, which we'll get to in a little bit here, He works with us. Creation is ongoing. As He works with us, it makes us who He wants us to be. Over in the New Testament, Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, verse 8. Ephesians 2, verse 8.

We will call every man. He will open their minds. Everyone will have a chance. But in this day and age, He calls who He purposes He will. Not because of anything we know. Not because He needed us, but because He's been gracious to us and because He's been merciful to us to let us know these things. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and not that night of yourself is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship.

We are His workmanship. Molding, fashioning, growing, making us more like Him, preparing us for the time when He will do what He has in ultimate mind for mankind. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, meaning that we will do good things. The changes in our lives will be evident. People will see the change in our behavior and the way we think and the way we do things.

Created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Walking in His way. Adopting what He, His purpose for us is. While we are in Ephesians, let's go over to one chapter here, or a couple of chapters, to chapter 4. Chapter 4, verse 23. Breaking into the sentence here, but the meaning is obvious. It says, Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Now you have the Holy Spirit. Now you see things differently. The way you did things all your life before, some of them in the physical realm are okay, but there's a lot of learning that has to be done.

A lot of clearing of our minds and unlearning the way that leads to death and replacing it with the way that leads to life. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Put on that new man that was created in God, created when you made the choice and yielded yourself to Him.

The thing is, salvation is a process. Salvation is a process that lasts from the time that we commit to God to follow Him until the day we die. It doesn't stop after one year, it doesn't stop after ten years, it continues until the day we die in this physical life. God didn't snap His fingers on day one. It wasn't the first instance in His mind, let's just create an earth. There was a plan that was put in motion before the earth was.

A purpose for man and a purpose for the earth that the man would live on. When God calls us, the creation that He's doing in us goes on for the rest of our lives. And if we live and if we follow and if we yield to Him, then it will culminate in the creation or the birth of a new man that was already in the image of God, but now also will be in the Spirit of God, fashioned of the same thing that He is.

But you know, so many of the world's religions will say, well, all it takes is just be baptized. Just say a few simple words about repentance, be baptized, and once you are, you can do whatever you want within reason, once they've always saved. Not the case. The Bible is clear on that and can give you a number of verses, but let's look at just one that Jesus Christ Himself said back in the Olivet prophecy, the chapter that we opened today with back in Matthew 24. Matthew 24, verse 13. This was the chapter where Christ said, there will be a time of tribulation, and if it wasn't for Christ's return, there would be no flesh saved alive.

In the same chapter in verse 13, He says, as He's warning His disciples here as you read the context, He who endures to the end will be saved. He who endures and keeps living that life and let God work with Him right until the time of the end. If we ever stop letting God work, if we're the clay that says, I'm not going in that direction, you're not molding me that way. That's not enduring to the end. Enduring to the end is following God to the end, showing that the rest of your life you're committed to Him and yielding to Him and letting Him weed out all the false ideas, the false notions, the weaknesses, the sins, the transgression of His way of life that leads to life.

All those things, if we don't endure to the end, we won't be saved.

Many other verses that show the same thing. It's a lifelong process that Jesus Christ has called us to. He began it when He called us. He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we yield to Him when we choose Him. And He works with us from now until the day we die. Philippians 1, verse 6. Philippians 1, verse 6. Be confident, says of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you, which He did when we were baptized, which we did when we chose Him and He put His Holy Spirit in us. Be confident in this very thing that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ, until the time that He returns. He will keep working. He will finish what He began in you if you let Him, if you yield to Him, if you aren't the clay that fights back, but the clay that lets God mold you. Be confident, Paul says, that this will happen. Hebrews 2.

When we talked about creation, we quoted David who wrote, What is man that you are mindful of Him? And in Hebrews 2, the author quotes those same verses. Hebrews 2, verse 6.

What is man that you are mindful of Him? Or the Son of man that you take care of Him? And then he says, You've made Him a little lower than the angels. Now we are lower than the angels. The angels are in spirit form. The angels have eternal life. We are a little lower than the angels. We are physical. We are mortal. We die. When we die, we go into the earth, not into heaven. Waiting for Jesus Christ, you've made Him a little lower than the angels. You've crowned Him with glory and honor. And you have set Him over the works of your hands. You put Him over dominion of the earth. You put all things and subjection under His feet. And indeed God has done that when He put man on earth. For in that He put all and subjection under Him, He left nothing that's not put under Him. All the physical earth is under man's dominion. But now, now we do not yet see all things put under Him. Well, in the physical sense, we do see all things that are put under Him. We live it every day. But the Bible says, but as of now, we don't see all things put under Him. But we see Jesus, who was also, I'll add also, was made a little lower than the angels. He gave up in God. He was born in flesh and blood, just like you and me. He became a mortal man who could die who did die, but through His life chose the tree of life, chose the way of life that leads to eternal life. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, just like us, for the suffering of death. He died a perfect life that our sins could be forgiven. But we see Him crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. Jesus, the firstborn of many brethren, the Bible says. We see His life. We see that He died. He laid in the tomb for three days and three nights until God resurrected Him. And God resurrected Him to eternal life. And then He ascended into heaven.

And today He sits at the right hand of God. He was made man. He was made the pattern for what God has in mind for mankind. Verse 10, for it was fitting for Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things. He was willing to give up. He's the one who created us. He was back there in Genesis 1.1 doing these things. Gave it all up and He became just like us. It's fitting for Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons. Jesus is the Son of God. He is the firstborn of many brethren. He set the example for us. The pattern that God had in mind for mankind. He was willing to do that. And He lived on earth bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Perfect through sufferings. Jesus Christ suffered? Yes, He did. What choice did He make every single time He suffered? He always chose God. He always chose God's will. He always followed implicitly what God said, not what the Pharisees said, not following their traditions, following what God said. And to put Him in contrast with the people of His time. They didn't want to hear. They wanted to follow their own way. They wanted to believe their own things. They wanted to follow things the way they had always done it. And He said, no, you follow the law of God.

Through many sufferings He was made perfect. Through many sufferings as He chose God time and time and time again and didn't sin, He became perfect. He was resurrected. He was given eternal life. He's now known as the Son of God. He sits at God's right hand.

As we live our lives. Will they all be just peaches and cream? An easy road? Just to become baptized and the rest is done for you? No. God is creating something in us. He's creating character in us. He's creating a mindset that follows Christ at all costs. That follows God at all costs. That's who He wants in His Kingdom. That's who Christ is and He is a Son of God. And it says here He's bringing many sons to glory.

Let's go back to Romans 8.

We read in Romans 8, verse 7, that the natural mind, the natural man, is enmity against God. Not subject to the law of God. He's incomplete. He can't choose the tree of life until God opens His mind and He chooses God. And down in verse 13 of the same chapter, following along the same context here, in Romans 8, verse 13, 13, For if you live according to the flesh, if you live the physical way of life, if you choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the way that leads to death, if you choose the way of life that leads to adultery and heresy and discord and disunity and wars and everything that the world is defined by today, if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Two ways of life. But if you live by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. If you choose the tree of life, if you reject the old way of life, if you let God direct you, you put the death of the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, neither sons of God. For you didn't receive the Spirit of bondage, again, the fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, which, the more accurate translation is, the Spirit of Sonship, by which we cry out, Abba, Father.

What God created in mankind was the potential to become sons of God. Can you even grasp that concept?

But in the Bible, over and over again, it talks about those who believe, those who follow, those who choose, God will make sons.

We don't see that today. We see all things under God's feet that He's put, or under our feet that He's put in dominion over. But we don't see today everything, the potential for mankind and what He's created us to become if we yield, something that didn't exist before.

Higher than the angels. Some people believe people die and they become angels. No. The Bible says to those who overcome, to those who are led by His Spirit, sons of God. Higher than angels in the order. Higher than the archangels. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That's the same thing that God has called us to become if we yield to Him. Let's go on to verse 16. The Spirit itself bears witness with our Spirit, God's Spirit with our Spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Joint heirs with Christ. Our mind doesn't even conceive of that, what God has created us to be, why we were born, why we were created in the first place, why earth was put here in the first place. Because He was creating something that would last forever but was different than the Spirit beings in heaven. To be sons of God and joint heirs with Christ is what the Bible says. Joint heirs with Christ.

But you notice the next word after that. If, if indeed, we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together. If we live just like. If when we're faced with choices, which we will be time and time and time again. If we consistently learn to choose God, just as Jesus Christ did. If in the times when even our very life may be at stake, we choose God. Because He says, don't fear man who can end this life, but who has the power to take away all life. Who has the power to take away all life from you, fear Him. Who has the power to take all away all life, fear Him who has the power to give eternal life.

If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together. And then Paul, you can read on through the next verses there, says, When we see what God has ordained for mankind, can there be any suffering in this age that would trump our desire to follow God when we know what He has planned for us? Let's go back to John 3. John 3 and read a verse that's so well known. I say I hardly watch a football game, now that it's back in season that I don't see this verse on a placard somewhere. He understands. John 3, verse 16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, He did love the world, just think what He has put for mankind. He so loved the world, and when He saw us making the wrong choices when He saw mankind going the other way, choosing the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, He sent Christ to die for our sins. So loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And when you read, believe in these contacts in the New Testament, it just doesn't mean like, yeah, I believe. Yeah, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It means believe, and that belief makes a change in your life, that you follow Him because you believe in Him and you know you need to follow Him. Verse 17, He who believes in Him, remember what believes mean, is not condemned. Those who follow Him choose Him, but He who does not believe is condemned already. Those who reject Him and follow the way of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But He who does not believe is condemned already because He has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. Light came into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light. They had a choice. Light came into the world. They had light and dark, life and death, blessing and cursing. They chose darkness. They chose death. Men loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. And they weren't willing to give up their way to follow God's way. They weren't willing to sacrifice their own will and their own pleasure and their own ideas to follow God. They had no idea, perhaps, what God had in store. And you would hope that everyone that knows the truth of God, what He has in store, what He created man for, why you were born, why I was born, why every single man was born, and why God put us on a physical earth, what He was working. People in whom He would create the spiritual character that would be worthy to be in the position that He would want them in His kingdom. And who through their lives would yield to God? Let His Holy Spirit lead them. Let's look at 1 John. We were in John. 1 John is near the end of the New Testament here. 1 John 3 and verse 1. 1 John 3, 1. Behold, 1 John 3, 1. What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. Probably loved us enough to send His own Son, that our sins may be forgiven. Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. That we should be called children of God. It boggles the mind if you think about it.

Therefore, the world doesn't know us. They don't understand what we're doing because it didn't know Christ. They were willing to put Him to death. Beloved, verse 2, now we are children of God. And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. That will be at the end of our lives when we die, if we endure to the end, if we yield to God to the end, when Jesus Christ returns, when He resurrects people, and He makes the determination, eternal life or eternal death. It has not been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we will be like Him. We will be like Him. Going through the same process that He did. For we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies Himself just as Christ is pure. Let God take them through that creation process of the spiritual man. Philippians 3. Philippians 3, verse 20. Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. We live in a physical body that is corruptible. We live in a physical body that will die. We live as the physical body that wears out. We've seen it as we've watched people, and as we've seen it as we've watched ourselves age. We follow God. If we yield to Him, if we let Him create in us what He wants to create, He will transform our body. When we die, when we're resurrected, we will be given the same spirit body and eternal life that Jesus Christ was given. We will be like Him. We will see Him as He is, going through the same process, the same life, the same creation process that God is working in us now, and you and me, and every single person that responds to His call, who chooses life for the tree of life, but not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What God is doing, what your purpose for being is He wants you to be one of His sons. He wants you in His kingdom, the kingdom that now exists in heaven, that has angels and archangels and 24 elders, and Jesus Christ, the firstborn of men, who are sitting at His right hand, who will always be our elder brother, that's what He wants you to be. That's why He created man, but He wants men and will only give eternal life to people who choose Him, and by the choices they make in their life, that He knows they will choose Him. I don't think words, there aren't human words to describe what God has done, but let Him fill you with that awe of what He has called us to, and what His purpose for us is. What He wants is for every single person who has ever lived to have that eternal life and to be in that status. Sadly, not all will. Let me finish with three verses.

Why were you born? John 3. Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Unless one is born, again, by making the choice to be baptized, receive the Holy Spirit of God and led by His Spirit, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

No other way in. No other way than by following what God has given us. No other alternative. No other way. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And Christ told him to Cadeemus, Don't marvel. But I said, You must be born again. We are born once as physical beings. If we follow God, we will be born again, as Spirit beings at His resurrection, at the time of His return when He resurrects the people who have died with Jesus Christ in Him, who lived their life and endured till their end by following Him and yielding to Him and letting Him create in them the new person that He's looking to create. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 48, As was the man of dust, we're all men of dust, still today. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust. And as is the heavenly man, that's Jesus Christ, who was a man of dust, who died, who was resurrected and given eternal life and made Spirit being. And as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have born the image of the man of dust, created in the image of God, looking like Him but not composed of the same thing that He has created with the ability to choose, as we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.

We will, if we follow Him. Now, this I say, brethren, Paul writes, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

When Christ returns, He will resurrect those who have died in Christ, who have followed Him and by their life, shown God they choose Him, and have allowed Him to create the spiritual man with spiritual character. And just like Christ was made spirit, we'll be made spirit as well. It's all there in the Bible. The truth is amazing. It should inspire, it should energize, it should help us to commit to God even more. And it was all designed before the world ever came into being. This was what God's plan was for creating the earth. This was God's plan for creating man. It's the reason you were born. The King will say, the King of the kingdom, Jesus Christ, come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Well, let me ask if there's any questions that have come in that I can address now. Okay. Any questions from the audience before I sit down here? Certainly, I've never been one to ask questions in a big audience. If you have anything, I'll be around for a while. You have my phone number on the little bulletin or flyer that you were given. Feel free to call or email me any time with any question that you've got. I do appreciate you all coming today, and I hope you'll stick around for some fellowship time and some snacks that'll be held back in the kitchen area after services. This time, I'll turn it back over to Dave Permar, who will conclude for us here today.