Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, we're reading
verse 24 through verse 27. The Scripture says, for we are
saved by hope, or rather in hope. We are saved in hope. But hope
that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercessions
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he
maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. titled the message is the patient
waiting in hope. Patient waiting in hope. The scripture says we are saved
in hope. Remember that this is one of
the graces of God. One of the three graces that
are mentioned by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. He said
there remaineth in faith, hope, and love. This matter of hope
is not what men consider today to be hope. We know this. The modern conversation of hope
is, gee, I hope or gee, I wish this would happen. But this is
not the language of Scripture. When we read the word hope, it means confidence. We who are
saved, listen to me, you are saved in great confidence. You and I who believe on Jesus
Christ, listen, you have a good hope, a good solid confidence. The scriptures call it even the
sure mercies of David. David said, Though my house be
not so with God, yet he had made a covenant with me. Sure, it
is a sure and certain covenant. And the hope of every believer
is in Jesus Christ, our confidence. The confidence that we have in
our certain salvation rests solely in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Now, you who are believers in
Christ, this morning I want us to consider our confidence that
we have, our hope that we have in Christ. Consider this, believer
in Christ, that our salvation was decreed by God. The scripture declares to us
that God says, I am God and there is none else, there is none beside
me, declaring the end. When? When did God declare the
end of things? From the beginning. From the
beginning. God hath declared all things
from the beginning. saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My pleasure. This is God who has decreed our
salvation according to His own sovereign grace. The Apostle tells us in Ephesians
1 He said, Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Where? In Christ. According as
he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. This is why according to the
good pleasure of His will. This is our hope. This is our
confidence that our salvation is decreed. God's Word that cannot be thwarted. His Word was that you should
be holy. That you should be without blame
before Him. And in love He predestinated
you to be His sons. according to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved." Consider that, that
His immutable, unchangeable love, He chose you to salvation. predestinated us to be sons and
holy, completely justified before His throne. This is God's will. And not only this, but the Father
also predestinated all things to accomplish this salvation. He didn't just decree it, He
decreed everything that should bring it. He decreed all that should be
to accomplish this salvation. He purposed and predestinated
our salvation by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. This is important. The Father willed that the Son
should be this complete surety. The guarantee for all His elect. that all the salvation, all of
the justification, the sanctification, the wisdom, the redemption, that
all of this should be by Jesus Christ. Not you. That's great news. That's great
news. It's not by us. God did not predestinate
us to be sons and then put the bulk or put any of the work upon
us. Any of the responsibility of
our salvations, it did not rest upon us. It was by Jesus Christ. He was the surety of all our
salvation. And our salvation would from
eternity absolutely rest upon Him alone. Over in Hebrews chapter
2, look at this with me, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 10. For it became Him. For whom are
all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect, how? Through suffering. For both he
that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise unto
thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
hath the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage." Our Father willed that Jesus
Christ should be made flesh and be the captain of our salvation,
the champion. Do you realize that we who are
the elect of God, that there was one elect before us? It was Christ. He is the elect
of God, and only are the elected in Him. Child of God, consider our blessed
Redeemer, who being the Son of God, was God and was with God,
who created all things, and by whom all things consist. The Father has chosen Him to
be the faithful servant in whom His soul delights that He should
be our Savior. How should He be our Savior?
How did God determine that this should take place? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? This is the wisdom of God. This
is the mystery to the world. But to us He has revealed this
mystery. That Jesus Christ should become
flesh. That He should conquer sin and
death through suffering. Through suffering. Consider God
could not suffer. Therefore Christ must be made
a partaker of flesh and blood to deliver us from the bondage
of death. This same Jesus who is God the
Son The elect of the Father was purposed to come and accomplish
our perfect salvation by his righteousness and blood. This
is the substance of the gospel. This is the basis of our foundation
of our souls. It is the righteousness and blood
of the Son. That Jesus by perfect obedience
to the law as a man honored the law and brought in everlasting
righteousness. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, you and I were made sinners. You and
I were made sinners by the disobedience of another. I don't care how men feel about
that. I don't care how angry men are
about that. But I tell you, you and I were
made sinners by a representative man. Adam was our representative. And when our father died, every
one of us died in him by the disobedience of one. Many were made sinners. How then
can you and I expect to be made righteous? How then can we be
made righteous? By the obedience of one. Not by your obedience. You have
never and I have never obeyed the law of God in any measure. In any measure. Some people say,
well, I didn't lie this week. Who cares? What else did you
do? The scripture says that to be guilty in one is to be guilty
of the whole law. Did you love the Lord your God
with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength,
with all your might? Absolutely not. You didn't even
think about Him until you got here probably. You had every
other thought on your mind but God. You have disobeyed God's
law. You're a sinner! A sinner. We were made sinners by one.
How then will we be made righteous? By the obedience of another. By the obedience of Jesus Christ. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. By the sin of Adam, all of his
race were made sinners, for he was our representative. In him
did all his race die, so that even the elect were no different
than any other. You and I who have hope and confidence
in Christ, we recognize this, that we by nature did not differ
from anyone else. We were all children of wrath,
even as others. We weren't children of God's
wrath. We were children as wrath against God. We were haters of
God, even as others. The salvation of the elect was
never based on anything they would do or could do. May God the Holy Spirit teach
you that, because I can't teach you that. I can tell you, and
you, if you are taught of God, you identify with that, you know
what that is. But may God be our teacher to
realize that there's nothing that we can do or ever would
do or even might do, that our salvation is not based on that,
not even our faith. Our salvation, our hope, our
confidence is not resting in our faith, but rather in the
object of our faith, even Christ the Lord is our hope, our confidence. The salvation of the elect is
grounded only in Jesus Christ. In Romans 3 it says, for by the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. He says that in
verse 20, Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God by faith of Jesus Christ. I'm glad that my name is not
there. Because I tell you, I'd have
no hope of that, no confidence in that. If the righteousness
of God is by my faith, I have no hope in it. How's your faith? You suppose
your faith is strong enough to obtain merit before God? No. Only His faith Only His faith. The faith of Jesus Christ. And notice, it's unto all and
upon all. These words are imputed and imparted. Unto all who believe. Now there's our faith. It's given
to us who believe. But I'll tell you, it does not
rest upon our faith. It rests upon His. It rests upon
His faith. imputed and imparted to them
that believe, for there is no difference for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be the propitiation through faith in His blood. So then not only did Jesus by
obedience honor the law of God, he also satisfied the justice
of God. Both were necessary. Listen,
you must have the righteousness of God, but that alone would
not do. That alone would not do. If you were covered in filth, I
remember working with my dad and we would have to, he was
a plumber, and a lot of times we would have to work in sewers.
And the stench, oh the stench! And it was all over us. We just
all had to get down there to fix the plumbing. We had to get
down in there. And our clothes were covered
in filth and stench. Do you suppose then I would just
take new clothes and put them over the old stench? No! We cannot take the robe of Christ's
righteousness and put it over the stench of our own nature. You see, the stench must be done
away with. It must be washed. And this is
by the blood of Jesus Christ. Christ who is our righteousness
must also be our atonement. for sin. He must pay for sin. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
Therefore, because of our sin we had violated the law, righteousness
of Christ alone would not do. There must have been a sacrifice.
This is why the apostle says in Romans 3 that he is a propitiation
for our sins. The word is mercy-seeked. Mercy-seeked. Consider, believer, for your
hope, for your confidence, Jesus Christ as your mercy seat. Oh,
that mercy seat is so beautiful. It was the lid. That's all it
was. It was a gold. It was made out
of solid gold. And what it did is it covered
the Ark of the Covenant. And that's where God dwelt. God came down and dwelt on that
mercy seat. in the Old Testament picture.
It was pure gold to show us the value of Christ and His offering. Remember, the mercy seat was
the only seat in the whole place. Isn't that something? Think about
that. In that tabernacle, in that place
where they worshiped God, there were no chairs. No chairs. The only seat in the whole place
was where God sat. Everybody else had to be working.
There was no time for rest. The only place to sit was the
mercy seat and God was the only one that could sit there. And
as the blood was shed on the brazen altar and it was carried
by the high priest into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the
mercy seat. Even so was Jesus' blood shed
outside the camp, and He brought His blood into the Holy of Holies,
into the presence of God. And you know what He did? He
sprinkled the seat, His throne, with His own blood. And you know
who sits on the throne of glory now? It is Jesus Christ. Why? Because His offering was
accepted. Accepted! He brought His blood
into the presence of God and God accepted it. Over in Hebrews chapter 9 and
verse 11 it says this, But Christ, being come in high, priest of
good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats or of calves, but by His own
blood He entered in," listen to me, once. That is an important
word in Hebrews chapter 9 and 10, once. How many times did
the Lord offer Himself? Once. He entered into the holy place
having obtained. I like that. Obtained. He grabbed
it. He laid hold of it. He laid hold
of eternal redemption. He obtained it. You remember
that picture in Revelation when the lamb He said, Who is worthy
to open the book? And John was laying there weeping. He said, Why are you crying?
Behold, the line of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open
the book. And he said, I saw a lamb as it was slain. And he
took the book from the hands of God. Took it because he had
a right to it. He obtained it. He earned it.
He merited it. Therefore Jesus by His blood
obtained, not made it possible, He obtained redemption. Redemption
not dependent on the work or the will of man but He obtained
the eternal redemption for us by His blood. See that God then
has raised Him from the dead and now what is Christ doing?
He is seated. What does that say? The work
is done. Do you need confidence? You need hope? Well, don't look in yourself.
You won't find any there. There's no confidence in you.
The confidence is in Christ, who's accomplished our redemption.
Jesus, our Savior, the Savior of the elect, sat down and accomplished
His redemption. Who did He accomplish it for?
Listen to me. All who are in Christ. I don't know how many that is.
I don't know. What does that song say? One or all the earth? I don't
know. Would to God that this whole generation would be His
elect. who are in Christ Jesus. Consider that mercy seat again
of that ark. You know that that was measured
precisely to fit on top of that ark? That the mercy seat was
not too short, but it wasn't too big either. It fit precisely
over the mercy seat, over the ark. The mercy seat fit. It was
a perfect covering. I like that. It's a perfect covering. It fit just right. So then all who are in Christ
are covered by the blood of Christ. But all those who are outside
of Christ will be cut off. You got that? All who are in
Christ are safe. but all who are outside of Christ
will be forever cast out. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath life. He that believeth not on the
Son of God shall not see life. over in Isaiah chapter 28 it
talks about people who are under a refuge of lies. There are a lot of people who
are confident. They're sure. They have a lot of assurances.
They think that everything is going to be just well with them. They are under a refuge of works. They say, ah, my works are above
me. I've done well. I'm doing my
best. Surely God will accept me. That
is a refuge of lies. Well, I just haven't had a good
life. You know, surely God's going to consider my circumstances
that I just didn't have everything that everybody else had. So,
you know, that's a refuge of lies. There's no hope in that. But I tell you, you are in Christ,
you have a sure refuge. Sure refuge. You see, the justice
of God has already fallen on Christ. And it will not fall on you. Is that not something? Is that
not security? Friends, you who are in Christ,
you are safe because the blood has been sprinkled on the mercy
seat. And you are in the ark of the
covenant of God. And God, when He looks on you,
He must look at you through His Son. Therefore, He delights in you. lights in you. Is that not hope?
Is that not confidence? You should have confidence in
that. Cast off your thoughts of self-righteousness
and cast off all the ways you think you can make it to God and believe on Jesus Christ. Isn't that our constant desire,
believers, to cast off all thoughts of self-righteousness? It is
our constant desire to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. but the righteousness of Christ.
That's my hope. That's my desire. That's my confidence. Come to Christ as you are. Come
dead. Come depraved. Come helpless.
Come hopeless. And lay hold on Him. And don't
let go. The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence and the violent take it by force. We say with Jacob,
I will not let you go until you bless me. I must have Him or
I die. He is everything, and the world
is counted to me as nothing." If that's you, you've got a good
hope. You have a good hope. Oh, sinner, come as Mephibosheth.
Remember him? Come as Mephibosheth before David. How did he come? Well, first
of all, he was fetched, wasn't he? He was arrested. Have you
been arrested? Have you been arrested by the
justice of God? Have you been arrested so that
your soul knows its guilt and worth of death? That it's your
only worthy of death? Have you come and bowed down
to Christ as Mephibosheth and said, Behold thy servant, Lord. Do with me as you please, your
sovereign. And I'm worthy of nothing but
death. And all who come to God that
way will find the sure mercies of David when he said to Mephibosheth,
Fear not, for I will surely show you kindness. Surely show you
kindness. Surely show you kindness. For
your sake? No. For Jonathan's sake. I'll
show you kindness, God said, because of Christ. I'll show
you kindness because of Christ, not because of you. Stop looking
at yourself. You won't find any comfort there.
No hope there. I'll have mercy on you for Jonathan's
sake and I'll restore your whole household. I'll restore everything
your father lost. Everything Adam lost, Christ
restored. Everything. Consider my soul
that thou hast a beloved Consider thy beloved Jesus Christ,
that on Christ and because of Christ, God the Father will show
kindness. I tell you, I come to him because
he arrested me. And if you ever come, he must
arrest you. Faith in Christ is a simple thing
to understand, but an impossible thing for men to do. I never expect anyone to come
to Christ on their own. But you know what? I do expect
the Holy Spirit to arrest His people and bring them in. I expect
that. I expect that. And glory to God
for I was lost and dead and hopeless to myself, to save myself. I was unable and unwilling to
come to God through faith in Christ alone, but God chose me,
God redeemed me, and the Spirit arrested me and called me before
Christ, and I bowed before Him as a sinner. And you know what
I found? His kindness. I found His mercy. It was He who opened our eyes
to see Jesus as our complete salvation. Now then, you who
have been saved by the Spirit of God, born again, what is your hope? I tell you, you have a good hope.
You have a good hope, for you are saved in hope. In hope of
what? In hope of receiving the fullness
of what you got as a down payment. You and I have only received
these things that I've mentioned to you in a measure, haven't
you? Faith, love, joy, peace, meekness,
temperance. All of these things we have in
the new nature that God created in us. But this, it doth not
yet appear what we shall be, does it? And one thing about this new
nature that God has given us is that it's never going to be
better or worse because it's perfect. Do you realize, you who have
hope, that God has given you a perfect nature? That you are,
as the Scripture says, created after God in true holiness. that this nature of righteousness
is as righteous as God's Son is righteous. Do you realize
that the nature you have now is when you die that that same
nature will be delivered to glory. There will be no transformation
in this. You see, what needs to be transformed
is the old body. The body needs to be transformed,
not the inner man. The inner man is as perfect as
God. And so when you die, that righteous
nature will ascend to God. And we spend so much time in trouble because We are expecting
that this old man should be like the new. This old man is never going to
be like the new. I tell you, because of the new man, our lives
have changed, haven't they? We desire to live holy lives. We desire to live righteously,
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Yet, because
of the old man, we cannot. We cannot do the things we would
do. So daily and constantly there
are trouble and turmoil. And the scripture says in our
text that we've grown within ourselves because of this. We've
grown within ourselves because of the old man, the old nature.
But friends, we are saved in hope. In hope of what? In hope
of the revelation of the fullness of our salvation. You see, the
world is looking for the best life now. We're not looking for
the best life now. We're looking for the best life
to come. The best for us is yet to come. Therefore, as you live in confidence
of your salvation, let us then wait patiently for
it. Wait patiently. In other words,
suffer patiently. Endure the sufferings now, because
our salvation is ready to be revealed. It's not yet fully revealed,
is it? I know this, Christ is all my
salvation, but I've not yet seen Him. I'm going to. You're going to see Him soon. And when we do, we have this
hope and confidence that we shall be like Him. Believer, let us have boldness
then to enter into the presence of God in prayer. Boldness to
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us have boldness even in
the face of death. For herein is love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. Because
as he is, so are we in this present world. As He is. Did you hear what He
said? As He is, you are. Now. Now. But I tell you what, one day
I have confidence that I'll see it. I don't see it now. I can
only see this by faith. I can't see this by my actions.
Can you? I can't see it by my actions. I can't see it by yours.
But I know this. I have confidence that it shall
be exactly the way He says it is. Therefore He has sent His Spirit
to help our infirmities. Who doesn't need help? Who doesn't
need help to pray? Who doesn't need help to witness?
Who doesn't need help to read the scriptures and understand
these things? We need help! Well, you can have hope in this.
He sent His Spirit to help you. You don't know what to pray for
as you are. Isn't that something? We think we know what we should
pray for. And man, when we think we know, we go after it. We're
after it. Lord, deliver me from this. Just
like Paul said, Lord, take this thorn of my flesh. Take it out
of me. Paul didn't know what to pray for as he ought. And so the Lord gives us answer.
And he said, my grace is sufficient for thee. Spirit knows what to
pray for because he's going to pray the will of God. And so when all your prayers
are lifted up, all that garbage is taken away, and all God hears
is, Thy will be done. Thy will be done! And you know
what? You have exactly what you asked for. His will will be done. His will will be done. May God give us a heart to truly
mean that. Isn't that so? Don't we need
that? When we're sick, and suffering, dying, and we say, Lord, please save
us, please deliver us from this sickness. And what if the will
of the Lord is not to? Don't we need grace to accept
that, to be confident in the face of all our troubles? You
bet. I pray God blesses to your hearts.