Alright, for our text tonight,
if you will, open to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. We're going to be looking at
verses 18-25 tonight. But for the sons and daughters
of God, those chosen in eternity before the world was, those bought
by the blood of Christ on the cross, while we were still dead
in our sins, enemies against God, our master being made a
curse that we are. Those given his righteousness
because we had no righteousness of our own. Those given the firstfruits
of hope that we will be with our master in glory, conformed
to his image, made in his likeness. For these children, These children
of God, the true children of God, the true church, living
in this world, there are many times of sorrow. There are many
trials, many afflictions, and so often, way too often, we groan
over what we are and the situation we're in. We groan through our
trials. We complain and murmur and get
frustrated, but we have a hope It doesn't end with our frustration.
We have a hope. And we patiently and confidently
wait on Christ, who is our hope. But we long for that day that
we'll be without sin. Sin won't be a part of us anymore.
And when that sin's gone, the trial's gone. When that sin's
gone, the affliction's gone. The pain is gone when the sin's
gone. And we'll be made perfect, holy,
unapprovable. We don't even know what that
means. And we'll be able to see our Savior face to face. But for the time being, before
that day comes, when the Lord brings His children into His
bosom, brings Him home, makes them perfect, truly, we're still
in this flesh. We still have trials. We still
have hard times. So let's see what Apostle Paul
wrote to the Romans here. Romans 8 verse 18. For I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God. For the creature was made subject
to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected
the same in hope. Because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only
they, not only the creation, but ourselves also, which have
the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body. For we are saved by 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. The title of my message tonight
is Waiting in Hope, Waiting in Hope. And I pray tonight the
Lord will be pleased to give his people some comfort, to wait
on the Lord's providence to come to pass, to have hope that he's
able to keep his promises to his elect children. So let's
look at verse 18 again. Paul writes there in Romans 8
verse 18, for I reckon, that word means account, impute. We hear that a lot, don't we?
Reckons to impute. That means it's there and we
know it's there. We take inventory, that's what
the word means. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. What believers suffer
on this earth through trials, afflictions, physical pain, persecution,
emotional pain, all of it, what we suffer does not hold a candle
to the blessings that are to come. Once this body is shed,
they're not worthy to be compared to the glory of Christ that has
already been revealed in our new hearts. But more especially
in the glory of heaven to come after this race that we're in
has already been run. Once it's finished, what's to
come is not to compare to what we have to suffer now. But why
do we have to suffer? Why do all these trials and afflictions
have to take place? Afflictions and grief, pain and
sorrow are necessary for believers. It tries our faith and it gives
us patience. James wrote to us, said, My brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing
this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. And our faith's tried, it works.
Patience. Let's turn over just a couple
pages to Romans 5. Romans 5, the trial and afflictions
of the saints of God endure and we endure in our earthly bodies
are not to prove to God how much faith we have or how strong our
faith is, but it's to prove to us. that the faith he has given,
that gift of faith, the faith of Christ, does not fail because
Christ did not fail. Remember that. When our faith
is proven, when our faith is tried, it is being proved to
us, not to the Lord. He's revealed Himself to us.
He's revealed His hand, His strength. He knows our faith. He's the
one that gave it to us. If I give you something, I know
what it is that I gave you. That's why I gave it to you.
For His people, He gives them faith. He knows what the faith
is. He's proven it to us. Look here in Romans 5 verse 1.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation work of patience.
Patience, experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us." Hope is the result of the Holy
Ghost shedding His love abroad in our hearts because we know
Him. We have someone to hope in, a person to hope in, the
hope in Christ. Our Lord gives His children all
of these things. He gives us the faith to know
Christ is able. He sends the trial, and through
those trials we learn patience. And this happens over and over
again, and we get some experience. And finally, in this life on
earth, while we're here, our Lord proves Himself to us through
all this. He proves Himself, revealing
Christ in us, and we are given hope to trust in Him alone. Now
back to our text here in Romans 8. Then we say with Paul there
in verse 18, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us. To go through trials and heartaches,
a minor thing, if it reveals the glory of God and His Son,
Christ Jesus, the believer's eternal hope of glory, if that's
revealed to us. Is that your experience, you
who know Christ? Are you thankful for the hard
times He brought you through that culminated, that ended in
you knowing Him? Do you rejoice in a tribulation
that makes you lean on Christ to a surety? I've talked to Brother
Rick and some of the other churches here in California and around
the nation, and right now, through all this, we knew this was going
to happen when this trial came on our nation. The Lord's calling
out His people. He's bringing His sheep to Him.
There was a man in an Armenian church down in Alabama, and they
couldn't meet anymore, so he just started getting on Sermon
Audio and listening to whoever he could listen to. And he came
across a preacher of God, one that the Lord sent. And he called
him and said, I've never heard anything like that. And about
every message for the last couple of months, he calls him. I've
never heard anything like that. That's wonderful. Lord, do you
think that man's happy? that those restrictions put in
Alabama, that the Lord brought a trial to the world, he's real
happy. It's worth it. We recently saw
the Apostle John tell us about this hope, this hope that sinners
are given in Christ. He said, Behold, what manner
of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." We have
this hope. Christ working in us, revealing
Himself and His people, results in us hoping only in Him alone. But we still are in the presence
of sin. We have this hope, but we're
still stuck in this body. It doesn't rule over us. But
it's not fully removed from us because this old man's still
breathing. I'm still alive, so sin's still present with me.
But our new man, our new man hungers for that day. He longs
for the day that that last chosen elect child of God is called
to know Christ. Christ is revealed in him. And
whenever that last one's brought to know him, this world's over.
That's it. It served its purpose. We can
go home. All of us at once. We long for
that day. We'll be with our Redeemer. Look
here at verse 19. For the earnest expectation of
the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. That's a lot of big words for
you young people. That means that the creature, what we're
going to look at here in a minute, It really wants and believes
that all of God's children will be called to Him. And it looks
forward to it. Many different commentators have
remarked on this word. These faithful men that knew
the Lord in old times, and they had a few different views on
this verse. And all of the different views, I can agree with every
one of them. It's a good picture. That word
creature there between verses 19 and 22, that's the same word
as creation. So you could take out creature
and put in the word creation. What could that mean? That creation
waits for the children of God to be called to know Christ. Creation waits for Christ to
call His children to Him. What could that mean? What could
that be talking about? Some of the commentators said that the
creation is what we know of creation. It's this earth we live on. And
this earth is lovely to us. There's so many things I'm in
awe of. We've been to a lot of pretty places, haven't we? There's
so many beautiful things. There's beautiful flowers and
trees and mountains and rivers. Deserts and oceans. All kinds
of things. All the creatures on earth. But
as much as we think that this world has amazing qualities,
how nice we think it is, how pretty all the different things
are, it's nothing in comparison to the heaven and the earth to
come, the new heaven and the new earth. On this earth, since
the fall of Adam, since sin entered into the world, this ground is
cursed. We don't think so because we
grew up here. This is all we know. But it's cursed. And the men living on this ground,
that walk on it, they're cursed. There's thorns and briars. There's
plagues. Diseases. Diseases in men. Animals have diseases. Plants
have diseases, don't they? There's droughts. Sometimes,
sometimes a flood. There's a flood coming. Famine,
all sorts of things we see as evil. We see as bad things. And
it's all the result of the fall of man. The result of sin entering
into the world. But there will be a new earth.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth. This old one is
going to pass away. These elements on that periodic
table, they're going to be burnt. We can't burn gold right now.
The Lord's going to burn it and there won't be nothing left.
Let's look over to 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter 3 and verse 10. But the
day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. In the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also,
and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then
that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness? We know that everything
here that we're striving for, to work for, is going to be gone.
If I don't leave it first, if I'm still here when the Lord
comes, it's going to be burned up. There will be nothing left.
Why is my conversation, why is my citizenship Why am I worried
about the things that happen to you? I need to be worried
about things above, don't I? Look at verse 12. "...looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall
melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, according to His
promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness." That's what I long for. That's what I look for.
that land of righteousness. Sins left this body. That should
be my concern at all times. And I'm so prone to turn back
to myself, to look at me, to look at this world and worry,
fret, and be excited about things I have no business being excited
about. But this cursed creation that we live on and in as a reminder
to the believer that the Lord promises, all of His promises,
will be fulfilled. And we're eager for His will
to be performed. And back in our text here in
Romans 8, we'll look at verse 19 again. Romans 8 and 19. For the earnest expectation of
the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of
God. Now some say that that creature,
that creation Paul is talking about is the angels themselves. Some say they're talking about
the angels, that having to minister to the sinful creatures that
we are, having to serve us, watch after us, perform the Lord's
will and providence around us, that they long for the day that
our Master returns and their race can be completed. They look forward to that last
saint coming home. That's what the commentators
are getting at. But besides the physical earth and creation,
besides the angels, what creature or what thing created earnestly
expects, truly wants and expects and waits on the Lord to bring
his children to know Christ? Christ's sheep. His people. Now I can't speak on behalf of
trees. Do you know that? I can't speak
on behalf of rivers and mountains. I'm not a river, mountain, or
a tree, am I? And I can't speak on behalf of angels. But I can
speak on behalf of a sinner saved by the grace of God in earnest
sincerity. In earnest sincerity, I wait
on the Lord to call His last elect child to repentance and
to reveal Christ in them. And we get to go home. I long
for that day. But I know it'll come in the
Lord's time. But we still look for Him. We look for Him. I've
told people that before and they say, how could you say that?
That's suicidal. Why would you want to be out
of this world? That's not natural. My life is
not in this earth or in the things of this earth. My life is with
Christ. I want to be in His presence.
And I want my brothers and sisters in Him to be in His presence
forever too. This is because I see my sin
and I see the holiness of my Savior. I long to be like Him
and worship Him truly without sin. But in this body of death
that I'm still in right now, I'm subject to the presence of
sin. It's still all around me as long
as the Lord keeps me here. Look at verse 20. Romans 8.20
For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but
by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Now by Adam,
that one man, sin entered into the world. But Adam does not
rule this sinful earth. He doesn't rule the hearts of
sinful men and women. That's not who this is talking
about. The Prince of Darkness does his work. He goes to and
fro, seeking whom he may devour. And when he finds one to devour,
he leads them to their own vanity. When he gives them a similar
hope, what's that mean? He copies He makes a poor copy
of parts of the true gospel, and he twists it to appeal to
men. He twists the Lord's words to
appeal to man's nature. That similar hope, that other
gospel that's not another, as Paul told the church at Galatia,
turns man to his own will and his own worth. Satan's not sitting
on a bar stool at some local bar. He's behind a pulpit. What's he doing? He's encouraging
pride. He's encouraging vanity, just
the same way as he did with Eve in the garden. He's misusing
the Scriptures to persuade men to look to themselves for wisdom,
to look to themselves for salvation, to look to themselves for righteousness,
holiness, sanctification. In our old nature, we are vain.
And we were subjected to our nature through that birth from
Adam as a sinful man. And we're led astray by Satan
himself. But we're led to our own lusts
and desires if we're his. The Lord doesn't do something
for us. And we think what we're doing is right. We're fully convinced
of it. But that verse there, it may
seem a little odd. It may seem a little out of context
if you read through our whole text, doesn't it? But in our older translations,
like in the Syriac version and those translations of the Bible
a long time ago, there was parentheses around verse 20. So let's read
verse 19 and then we'll go right to verse 21. Okay, we'll take
out that parenthetical. verse there. So Romans 8 and
19, "...for the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the
manifestation of the sons of God." Now verse 21, "...because
the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
True blood-bought children of God long for the church, the
body of Christ, to be manifested, come to fruition. They expect
and wait for Christ's sheep to be called to himself because
all believers will be delivered from this human body of corruption
and be brought to heaven's glory, eternal liberty in Christ. We have a want for Christ to
be revealed in each of his children individually and for them that
for them to have those fruits. We want them revealed in them,
but we want them to have the fruits of the Spirit and have liberty
and hope in Christ. I want that for my brethren.
But we only get those fruits in a taste, just in part, on
this earth. A believer's desire for our Lord
to return and the church as a whole to be called home to that eternal
bliss. Praise Him in unity and perfection
forever. We know that on this earth, creation
is defiled by sin. Everything around us. All of
mankind is defiled by sin. And there's pain and suffering.
Look at verse 22. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And it's
not just all the people that groan. It's not just the physical
earth that suffers. It's not just sinful men, people
that don't know Christ that suffer. It's God's elect too. Look here
at verse 23. And not only they, but ourselves
also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption
of our body. Now we'll look briefly at three
things in this verse. And the first one, Paul writes
there, we which have the first fruits. Now, what are first fruits? You children know that we have
tomato plants. Most people, if anybody talks
to me more than five minutes, they know I have a little garden.
But when those tomatoes first started rotting, and we got those
first couple of tomatoes that first day, that's the first fruit. That's a sampling. It's a taste
of what's to come. That's not the harvest. If I
brought in two tomatoes, that ain't much of a harvest anyway.
But if we take that first ear of corn, that first ripe tomato,
that first cucumber, that's the first fruits. That's what comes
first. It's sweet, but it's just a taste.
But the harvest, the bounty, where we got so many tomatoes
we can't even give away, that's to come. The first fruits is
the first one to come. Now, like this year, we had first
fruits of cucumbers, didn't we? They didn't taste good. They
weren't good. What did we do? We got rid of
all the cucumber plants. Why? Because we know all the
other ones are going to be just like those first fruits. We don't
want to waste our time. Burn them. throw them away, get
rid of them. But if those first fruits are
good, if they're acceptable, all the other fruits are going
to be acceptable. Now, we have a taste, a small sample of what's
to come in us. We have a first fruit. Now, let's
turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians 13. And our new man on this earth,
contrary to In many people's opinion, we do not have a full
harvest. We don't come just so perfect
and ripe for heaven that the Lord finally lets us go home. The full bountifulness of things
to come is not in us yet, but we have a sampling of the first
fruits. We have a taste. A taste of the blessing of those
things to come. Those that Christ has revealed
himself in have the fruit of the Spirit. Look here in 1 Corinthians
13. We'll begin in verse 12. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. We see in part, we know
in part, but the day will come for each of his children that
we will know Him as fully as He knows us. Because we'll be
made like Him. We'll see Him as He is. But on
this earth, we have the firstfruits. Now look at verse 13. And now,
abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest
of these is charity. What are the firstfruits of the
believer that we have? We have faith, We believe God's
able. We believe Christ is able to
save his people, that he has. We believe him. We don't believe
in him, we believe him. And we have hope. This is more
than a wish. We don't just wish for salvation. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.
That's not this hope. That's not a wish. We have confidence. We have a confidence that Christ
accomplished salvation for His people fully. We believe in Him
and we have a hope. We have a confidence that He
did it. And charity. That word means love. We have
love. We love our Lord and Savior for
what He did for His people. while we were at enmity with
Him, while we hated Him. When we were dead in our sins,
Christ died for the ungodly. No greater love is there than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And with
such magnificent love bestowed on His sheep, we love Him because
He first loved us. And we love those other sheep
that Christ died for. We love Christ in them. Christ
has been revealed in them. We love them for that. And Paul
tells us that charity, that love, is the greatest of those three.
Faith, hope, and love. He said love's the greatest.
Why is that? Why would love be the greatest?
It never fails. It doesn't change. It'll grow. It'll grow in love. It'll mature. But the source and the substance
of our love will remain the same for eternity. Because it's a
person. He doesn't change. Now back in
our text. Alright, this is the second point
in that verse. Believers have the first fruits.
But we also suffer. Look at Romans 8, 23. And not
only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of
the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves. We groan within ourselves. Now
notice the apostle didn't say, we groan to anyone that will
listen. We groan out loud a whole bunch. But in ourselves, we have that
spiritual war between our old nature and our new nature raging
in us. And we long for that battle to
be over. But the whole time we have these
fruits, and at the same time we're groaning. How's that so? It's said so. We have hope and
charity and faith, and at the same time we mumble and grumble.
We groan. We have pain. The whole time
we're doing that, we're waiting. Let's look at verse 23 again.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Now I've
heard many believers and I've heard many unbelievers speak
about waiting on the Lord. Oh, we've got to wait on the
Lord. But that is not an idle waiting. We don't just sit in
a corner and do nothing. It's a hopeful waiting. It's
a confident waiting. Now what am I talking about?
If somebody drove by the church, and I was sitting out front,
and they saw me sitting out in the sun, and they come by, and
they said, what are you doing? And I said, well, I ran out of
gas. But it's all right. I talked to Kimberly, and she
said she's going to bring me a gas can. I'm going to fill
my car up. I need to move it. I need to go home. She said she'd give me some gas. I would not be waiting without
hope. I wouldn't be waiting in vain.
I would not be waiting without a confidence that she would be
coming. I would be trusting in the Word of the One coming, and
I would be trusting that she's able to do what she said she'd
do. That's why I'd be waiting outside.
I'd be waiting on her to pull up. The child of God waits on
the Lord. We wait because He has given
us His Word. of what is to come for His people.
And we wait on Him knowing that He is fully and completely able
to perform what He promised He'd do. We have a hope and a confidence
while we wait. He promised to save a people.
The Lord is just and the justifier and through sinning His Son for
our sins, For Him sinning Him, our sins
have been removed. As far as the East is from the
West, there's no condemnation now between His people and the
Holy Father, His chosen race and Him. And God Almighty said
He would raise His people from the grave and conform them to
the image of His Son. Christ was risen from the grave. That's our proof that that atonement
was successful. It was accepted. That sacrifice
was accepted because Christ was risen from the grave. He is the
first fruit. Proven the rest of His crop will
be just like Him. Accepted in Himself before that
satisfied Father. If that first fruit was accepted,
I'll be accepted. I'm of the same vine and branch
as Him, aren't I? That's our great hope. Christ satisfied
divine justice on our behalf and will raise us in His likeness.
And we wait for that, don't we? Look here in Romans 8, verse
24. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? It's already there. If he's seeing
something, he doesn't hope he sees it, he's looking at it.
But hope's waiting on something with confidence that hasn't yet
come. Verse 25, but if we hope for that we see not, then do
we with patience wait for it. We know whom we have believed,
and we know that he's able. But we only have a hope for now.
We only have faith for now. That love will remain forever,
but hope and faith's just for now. On that great day that we're
taking home, our hope will no longer be hope. It'll be reality. Our faith will go away. It'll
be sight. We'll see. Until that day comes,
Christ gives His people faith to look to Him, faith to trust
Him, faith to know that He's able, and a hope of salvation
that rests in Him alone. So through our trials, our afflictions,
our struggles, our groaning, we're continually turned to Christ
our Master. We're taught patience, to wait
in assurance and hope that His providence will be fulfilled
in calling all of His elect children to a saving knowledge of Him
through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in His child. Let's turn to Hebrews 11 and
we'll close. I'll wrap this up. Hebrews chapter 11. Now here in Hebrews chapter 11,
the Hebrew writer tells us of the faith of the saints of old. He says, by faith Abel, by faith
Noah, by faith Abraham, by faith Sarah. And then here in verse
13 he says, These all died in faith, not having received the
promises, but having seen them far off, and were persuaded of
them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers
and pilgrims on earth. Thanks be to our God that our
hope is not wishful thinking, but assurance that His promises
are true. And He's able to fulfill them,
every one of them. And we have a great privilege
of seeing His Word executed in every jot and tittle. Those saints
of old that Hebrew writers tell us about, it's said that they've
not yet received the promises of Solomon far off. All the things
the Old Testament promised, they were given a hope. They were
given faith to believe that that was going to happen, but it hadn't
come to pass yet. We see the gospel revealed in the Old Testament,
or concealed in the Old Testament, revealed in the New Testament.
We have proof. We have two witnesses. But I
pray that His children will see the Lord's promises of salvation
for His chosen people, and that the work's already been accomplished.
Not a far-off thing, it's already done. And I pray that they're
persuaded that Christ is able to save them and keep them forever. that His sheep embrace our Savior,
trusting Him only, loving Him, and loving our brethren. And
I pray that we confess that we're only here for a moment. This
life is like a vapor. And our hope for being conformed
to His holy image, robed in His perfect righteousness, is guaranteed. Our hope's guaranteed because
of cross person. and the cost of Christ's work
and Him alone. And that we can wait on Him patiently
until that day He returns. Amen. Let's pray together.