Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, we pray that You may still and quiet our hearts
before the Lord, that we sit in this place this evening ready
to hear a portion of Your Word read to us, and that we might
understand that we might have profit from it, that we might
grow by the things that are here for us today. We ask that You
forgive our sins and direct our lives, that You might look in
upon those who are sick and those who are facing surgery. We ask,
Lord, Your hand to be upon them to guide and to keep them, helping
those who wait anxiously, who love them. For we ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Alright, we're going to
speak about hope and the Christian hope this evening from Romans
8, 23 through 25. First of all, we'll read this
passage of Scripture, sustain our subject, and then we'll be
moving around a bit, coming back here to finish up in this place. Romans 8, 23 through 25. And not only they in italics,
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 sees, why
doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, Also the
Spirit helpeth our infirmities." Now, verse 24 will be the subject
and the point that we want to focus on this evening. We are
saved by hope. You know, I was thinking this
week, because of my own thought, that many Christians may not
realize just exactly how much the New Testament has to say
about this grace of hope. We may not have really stopped
And it really have dawned upon us how many times the New Testament
mentions this very thing to us. And so I counted in the concordance
and found that there are over, at least and over, 50 references
to hope in the New Testament Scripture. And that's enough
to get our attention that we might consider the matter very
closely. And also, consider a few questions
concerning what this I'll call a grace, so often mentioned in
our Holy Scripture. For example, what is the nature
of Christian hope? When we think of the Christian
having hope, and hope, as Paul said, being eloquent and influential
upon our salvation. Then what is the object of our
hope? That is, what is it that we hope
for? What is it in which we hope?
What is the source or the origin of hope? Whence does it get its
being, this thing of hope in the breast? of a child of God. And then the question, what effect,
what part does it play in the Christian life? Is it an important
part? Does it have a heavy influence
upon the life of the children of God, upon those that are believers? Now, as to the nature of the
Christian grace of hope, It is interesting what I found in John
Gill that he makes the point that the very same word that
is so often translated hope in the New Testament is at times
the same word that is translated in other places as trust, so
that there is a connection or a relation. From the same Greek
word trust in such places as Matthew In John 12 and verse
21, in His name shall the Gentiles trust. That is, in the name of
Christ, our hope. In His name shall they trust
our hope. In John 5 and verse 45, the Lord
speaking to the Jews said, Moses, in whom you trust. You read Moses,
you have confidence in his guiding. Moses, in whom you trust, or
it could be hope. Again in Romans 15 and verse
12, we read, "...of the Gentile trust, or hope it might be rendered."
And then in 1 Timothy 4 and verse 10, "...because we trust our
hope in the living God." Either word is suitable in that play. Now there is an example of the
likeness of these two words back in Ephesians 1 and verse 12,
where there Paul speaks of the ones, quote, who first trusted
in Christ. And the margin has it, who first
hoped in Christ. He talks about those who were
the first to have hope in Christ or to have trust in the Lord. Now, how often does Scripture
mention this Christian grace of hope for our consideration? And the object of that hope,
such as Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1 and verse
27. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. The strong influence we mention
next, which this hope exerts upon the sons of God, in that
in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 3, everyone that hath this hope
in him of being like Christ and being the sons of God, such hope
exerts a sanctifying influence upon the children of God. The
person, therefore, who has this hope of being like Christ and
seeing Him in glory, also lives a godly life. The God of hope,
he is called in Romans 15 and verse 13, the God that is the
author, that sustains and is the object of all of our hope. Now, this hope, this Christian
hope, call it a grace if you will, is interwoven throughout
the Christian's life. It is a constant companion of
the faith of God's elect. It appears in conjunction with
the effectual call. It feeds off of the resurrection. knowing that our Lord is alive
from the dead. It believes God and hopes in
His promise. It is a comrade of patience. It endures through tribulation.
It abides delay, even if we don't see it quickly and immediately. It holds to the promises of God,
even before they are fulfilled or before they are brought to
pass. As for hope and its relation
to faith, consider that good statement in Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 1. Have you really thought about
this statement? Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, this is a rather
difficult passage to interpret and to explain, to put into words,
and that I think is seen by the various ways that it is rendered
in some version and explained by this expositor or that. The word substance there in Hebrews
11 and 1 is in the margin ground or confident. So that he is saying
faith is the ground or the confident. And the word that is translated
evidence comes from a word which the expositor John Brown says,
means to convince or to have a conviction. John Brown said,
fate gives reality to the things that are hoped for, just as if
they are real because they are true, because they are the promises
of God. To quote Owen, another one on
this point, fate gives those things hope for, a real subsistence
in the mind and souls of them that believe." For these are
things hoped for which are not yet seen or realized. But they are hoped for because
faith believes the truth of God and the promise of God and the
Word of God. So that there can be no genuine
hope in this sense in the Scripture apart from faith. Only believers
in Christ live in hope of everlasting life and in hope of salvation
and the promises and the glory, the happiness and such like.
Before we settle into our text, let's hear a few verses of Scripture
that speak of this hope as it dwells in and is operative in
the Christian. For example, 1 Peter 1 And verse
3 says this, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten
us again to a lively, literally living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. He hath begotten us unto a living
hope. by bringing Christ again from
the dead. In Colossians 1 and 5, for the
hope which is laid up for you in heaven. There is a hope that
the children of God cling to. And Paul said, laid up in heaven. Again in Colossians 1 and 23,
Paul tells them not to be removed away from the hope of the gospel. Colossians 1.27 is that text.
Christ in you the hope of glory. In Titus 3 and verse 7, being
justified by His grace that we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. In Ephesians 4 and verse 4, ye
are called in one hope of your calling. And there is a great
hope that is annexed to the effectual call of the elect of God. Then we might spend then a little
bit of our time on the words of Paul in Ephesians 1 and verse
18. Now this is part of Paul's prayer
for the saints in the Ephesian church. And among those things
that he prays for them for, to be blessed with is, that you
may know what is the hope of his calling. When Paul prays
for them, this is near the top of the list. That you may know
what is the hope of the calling. What all is involved. The hope
that is attached to your effectual call by Christ and by God. It is that hope that is annexed
or attached to the effectual call, being called there a blessed
hope that accompanies that great calling. Those called are called
in or unto upon the ground of hope. Those that are called have
hope begotten within them. First, calling is a favorite
word with Paul. It, of course, refers, as you
know, to that effectual divine summons which is irresistible. The irresistible call, as we
say. It is not an outward call. It
is not an oral call only. It is an inward call by which
the regenerate soul is called and converted, and the called
ones come to the Lord Jesus Christ, for it is a holy calling. In 2 Peter 1 and verse 9, even 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse
12, that it is a calling unto a kingdom and glory. And this calling has in it evidences
of our election, that those that are called are they that are
the elect of God. For only the elect are redeemed
by Christ. Only the elect are regenerated
by Christ. And only the elect, regenerate,
are effectually called and converted by the Spirit, so that one may,
in effect, know their election by their calling, and know both
of them by the hope that dwells within them. But in Ephesians
1 and 18, Paul would have them to know What is the hope of His
calling? That is, the Lord our Christ.
And for this He prays that the eye of their understanding might
be opened and enlightened. That the heart would be enlightened. That the Lord would so open them
and enlighten them as to cause them to perceive a deeper understanding
of the hope that they have or have been called to. Romans 1
and 6, the call of Jesus Christ, they are called there. Some expositors
see hope as having three aspects unto it, as it has effect in
the life of a Christian. First of all, there is the thing
hoped for. There is that which the hope
for. Secondly, there is the grace
of hope, that there is in us a real hope. to have that thing. And thirdly, there is the ground,
or the foundation, or the basis of the hope of the children of
God. But the thing hoped for, which
is carried by the grace of faith, or the grace of hope, must have
a sure foundation and a bottom. It must sit upon an unshakable
ground or foundation that our hope and our faith Thomas Goodwin
of Puritan wrote, Paul prays that they may have assurance
of their own interest in heaven and that they may see the good
grounds that there are for it. Another puts it this way, that
they may know that there is hope founded upon the most infallible
and the most certain grounds that there ever possibly could
be, that is, the will, the promise of God, and the death of Christ. The house of hope does not stand
upon sinking sand, but it sits upon an unsinkable, unshakable
foundation. And that is the promise of God,
the Word of God, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, divine
election, the sovereignty of God, and the resurrection of
our Lord out of the grave. One of the better examples of
hope that you'll find anywhere in all of the Scripture is that
concerning the patriarch Abraham. And especially what Paul says
about Abraham and about hope in Romans chapter 4, if you care
to turn there, and about verse 18, we read this, of Abraham,
who against hope, believed in hope. Who against hope believed
in hope that he might become the father of many nations. We notice two things here in
regard to Abraham. One of them is faith and the
other one is hope. The foundation of his hope and
the seeming hindrances to the realization of the hope that
dwelled in Abraham. Now let's look at Abraham for
a few minutes. His hope rested upon the promise
of the covenant God. It was directly from God that
Abraham received revelation and a promise and a covenant. And also, he received circumcision
as an evidence or in connection with that. And the promise was
not contingent upon the law as we read in Romans 4 and verse
17. And the God who promised such
a thing, Abraham believed, was able to quicken that which was
dead. And God was able to call those
things which be not as though they were or they are. Abraham's faith said this, God
had purposed what He has promised is certain to come to pass. And
His hope rested upon the faith in that. On the other hand, there
were the seeming hindrances to the realization of Abraham's
hope. That he should be the father
of many nations, and that this should come to pass. an heir,
and in that heir should his seed be called, and many nations would
therefore refer to him as their father." Now, in Romans 4 and
verse 19, we see what Paul means by against hope. In the 18th verse it says, Abraham,
against hope, believed in hope. Now, in verse 19 we have the
explanation. why Abraham hoped against hope,
and why it seemed that all was against the hope that Abraham
had and the promise that God had made. And what was that hindrance? Well, in verse 19, it was the
procreative deadness of both the bodies of Abraham and of
Sarah. We remember that Sarah, first
of all, even as a young woman and wife, was barren. Genesis
11 and verse 30. Then she became past the time
of life. Genesis 18 and 10. And still
no son. And no promised son. Still Abraham
believed that he would buy his wife Sarah, for God is faithful. That promised. And that hope
stood steadfast. The good patriarch Abraham did
both believe and also hope. And as one expositor on Romans
by the name of John Murray said, and I quote, faith and hope are
mutually interactive and complementary, unquote. Think of that. Faith
and hope are mutually interconnected. They are both Christian graces.
Both of them are the gifts of God in order to serve a purpose
in the life of the elect. Both stand upon the same bottom
and the same foundation, the Word of God, the promise of God,
and the covenant of God. Faith takes its wings from the
promise of God when it is applied to the soul of an elect. And hope rests in the expectation
of the fulfillment of that that God has declared and promised. Now with that, about Abraham
as an example, coming to our first text in Romans 8, where
Paul says in verse 24, we are saved by hope. But as the word far there indicates,
this saying does not fall out of the sky. It has some connection. It has some reference to that
that has gone before. In fact, it is a part of a logical
argument which the apostle is pursuing and a point that he
is making or pressing toward. Consoling the saints in their
suffering. At this point of the epistle
and this chapter, that's what he is doing. Consoling the saints
of God in their suffering. You have that in verse 17 and
18. And that consoling has two aspects to it. Number one, he
said, that suffering for the faith is to be a fellow sufferer
with Christ. That if we suffer with Him, suffer
with Him. A fellow sufferer with Christ. Verse 18, that present suffering,
he said, or not worthy to be compared with that glory that
shall be revealed to come in time to come in us." So, he says
suffering makes us, a fellow, suffer with Christ, and yet is
not worthy to be compared to the glory that is to be revealed
in us. Now coming to verse 24 and 25,
and Paul's discussion of hope, and please note the two words
hope and saved in that verse and see their relation. By hope
we are saved and it seems that they are right who do understand
the apostle to be saying it is in hope or with hope that we
are saved. We have in us a hope to be and
of a consummated glory. He calls this, in verse 23, waiting
for the adoption, the redemption of the body. Concerning hope,
Paul applies sound logic in verse 24, the last part, and verse
25, which will enlighten us as to the essence of this hope that
Paul is speaking of. First of all, he says, we in
hope are saved. that hope is an ingredient inseparable,
as Murray called it, in the Christian life. Then in verse 24, and the
last part, that hope is terminated. Our hope comes to an end. Hope reaches its goal. It is
realized when the thing hoped for is realized or attained,
or is reaped. When that which we hope for comes
to pass, hope is no more. Thus, hope, he said, that is
seen, when hope gives away to the actual evident, it is no
longer a matter of hope and of longing. For who is there that
hopes after he realizes what he has hoped for before? When
hope becomes sight and hope becomes reality, then hope is no more. On the other hand, in verse 25,
if we see not the thing that we hope for, here he speaks of
the object of hope, the thing hoped for, which is in verse
18, the glory to be revealed in us, and in verse 23 is the
adoption, then the hope of experiencing them helps the saint to patiently
endure. If he does not receive what he
has hoped for, he patiently endures until it is received. It might be well to make another
example of Abraham again, a passage from Hebrews 6 and 15 this time,
which says this, and so after he, that is Abraham, had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise." The promise was not fulfilled
immediately. The promise was not even fulfilled
in the first years after it was made. And Abraham hoped against
hope. But the hope and the promise
of God was an anchor and a buoy of his soul and an anchor of
patience for the old patriarch. And after he had patiently endured
year after year after year, enduring and patiently waiting and hoping. He patiently then, he obtained
the promise. And what Paul says in Romans
8, 24 and 25, was also true of Abraham's case. In that, before
he received the promise, he patiently endured. He patiently clung to
the Word of God. But after he had received the
promise, he ceased hoping for that particular promise because
it had been realized. For what does he hope for when
he sees what he has hoped for come to pass? Who hopes for what
has already been granted or been realized? So let's consider the
passage now in Romans 8 and verse 19 through 23 where Paul makes And this is kind of unusual for
Paul in that he makes the illustration first and then brings the reality
of the thing. But Paul in v. 19-23 illustrates some Christian
truth by referring to the experience of creation or nature. And in v. 23, he has the two
together when he writes, and not only they, but ourselves
also. We have here the firstfruits
of the Spirit, Paul has written. And we do a certain thing. We
groan in ourselves because, or even though, we already have
the firstfruits of the Spirit. We have the pledge and the token
of future blessings. having the first fruits already. The spirit, the earnest of the
spirit is already given to the children of God as a promise
that the rest of the glory of God will be bestowed. Now this
passage has its difficulties dealing with creation, partly
because of Paul's personification here of inanimate things. But as it turns out, by personification
of nature, Paul is able to run a parallel between nature and
the sons of God and compare one thing with the other. Paul tells
us three things that are true of creation, that is, of non-rational
creation, and which parallel the experience of the believer. Three things. Here they are.
A. It is subject to vanity in verse 20. It is subject unto
vanity. Verse 21, he calls it the bondage
of corruption. And then, also in verse 20, it
is not willingly subject on the part of creation, but it is on
the part of the one subjecting, the one doing the subjecting. It was not a willingness entering
the creation under bondage. And then see, it was subjected
in hope. Boy, this fits right in with
our text. In verse 20, the last part, by
reason of Him who subjected in hope. Or because of the One who
subjected. The subjection, in other words,
even of creation was in hope. Now, is it a problem for you
that Paul takes the liberty of personifying inanimate things? That is, he attributes feelings
to non-living material things. Such things he attributes to
them as emotions and hope and groaning, to be an anxious expectation
as expressed there in verse 19. Well, if that presents a problem,
let us remember that the Old Testament Scripture frequently,
on several occasions, do speak of inanimate things as if they
had feelings and emotions, as mourning under some judgment
of God, or on the other hand, praising God and that inanimate
thing. Here are some few verses that
might confirm that to be true, and I'll just read them in passing
to prove the point. Psalms 96, verse 11 and verse
12. Let the heavens rejoice, let
the earth be glad, let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and
all that is therein Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
before the Lord." Now there is ascribing feelings and such like
to inanimate things. Psalms 148 and verse 3 and 4,
Praise ye him, sun and moon, praise him, all ye stars of light,
praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters that are above
the heavens. Isaiah 35, 1 and 2. The wilderness
and the solitary place shall be glad for thee. The desert
shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. It shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice even with joy and with singing. Habakkuk 3, verse
10. The mountains saw and trembled. Jeremiah 4 and 28. For this shall
the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black. Jeremiah 12 and
4, how long shall the land mourn and the herbs wither for the
wickedness of them that dwell therein? Hosea 4 and 3, the land
shall mourn. So in all of these places, they're
doing what Paul has done, ascribing feelings and emotions to an inanimate
thing. But back in Romans 8, let's note
that the words, creature, in verse 19, verse 20, and verse
21, And creation in verse 22 are
all from the very same word. And all of them therefore could
be, perhaps should be, translated the same way, creation. How much of creation Paul includes
in this has long been debated among expositors. But it seems
the discussion of creation and the parallels that Paul draws
there are designed to emphasize and to illustrate what Paul calls,
in verse 17, glorified together. And in verse 18, the glory that
shall be revealed in us. Verse 19, the manifestation of
the sons of God. Verse 21, the glorious liberty
of the children of God. The earth was cursed for man's
sake, you know. Genesis 3.17 And such will not
end until what Paul calls in verse 19, the manifestation of
the sons of God. Let's get some parallels that
Paul has made in this place. First of all, in verse 19 he
said, creation waits, and in verse 23, we waiting. Creation waits, we waiting. Secondly, in verse 22, creation
groans. In verse 23, we groan in our
self. Thirdly, in verse 20, creation
is subjected in hope. And in verse 24, we are saved
in hope. Now granted, the description
of the experience of creation is poetical and it is figurative. Still, as John Brown put it,
the whole paragraph at the same time is a perfect, intelligible
representation of the truth that there is a further deliverance
and a further glory awaiting the saints of God." And of these,
they have a hope. They have an expectation, a promised
deliverance from all corruption in the world. And into the glorious
liberty of the children of God, a hope of not only seeing but
a hope of being with the Lord. A hope, an expectation that this
mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put
on incorruption. You will notice that Paul uses
the term adoption five times. He uses it five times all total
in the New Testament, and it means son-placing, or to put
among the sons. Adoption is the putting among
the children. He says here we're waiting for
the adoption, the son-placing. That is, he says, the redemption
of our body, or the body of us. Paul has already, in Romans 8,
mentioned both the resurrection in verse 11, and adoption in
verse 15 and 16, speaking of the spirit of adoption, whether
as being the spirit that applies it or that seals it, or that
witnesses our adoption are all free. And that the same Spirit
that raised up Christ from the dead will quicken your mortal
bodies by the Spirit that dwells in it. The hope of coming glory,
of being in heaven, of a blessed eternity, and departing and being
with the Lord, of having a body like unto His glorious body,
of being glorified, is gained for us by the death of Christ. It is kindled in us by the Holy
Spirit. It is a birthright of those that
are regenerated. It is an evidence by such that
they have the first fruit of the Spirit dwelling within them. Therefore, the hope of eternal
life abides in them. So the children of God are saved
in hope. They live in hope. They are begotten. unto a living hope by the resurrection
of Christ. We are not hopeless. We are not
those that have no hope. We have hope in Jesus Christ,
as seen by Abraham and by others. Thank God that there is in us
this blessed hope, not only the object of hope, but the grace
of hope, that we hope for that which shall be, and we have the
hope to believe that it shall be as a grace within us.