In verse 17 of Romans 8, the
Apostle tells us that we are heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ. In our text this morning, verses
18 through 23, the Apostle describes for us the magnitude of our heavenly
inheritance. That's my subject. The magnitude
of our heavenly inheritance. Let's read about it in Romans
8. 18 through 23. 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 has 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, but we ourselves also which have the first fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption to wit the redemption of our body. In this passage,
the apostle writes by divine inspiration and declares the
great privileges and prospects of God's elect in Christ. As
he does, he seems simply to be carried away with a great tide
of grace. The greatness of the subject
he's writing about seems to just engulf his mind. If children
than heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. What
an inheritance that must be. We possess the inheritance, not
by our works, not by our worth, not by our merit. not by anything
we do or experience or by anything we do not do. We possess the
inheritance only by the merit of Jesus Christ, our intercessor,
only because of our union with him, who is the Lord, our righteousness,
who by his obedience unto God, by his death at Calvary, not
only put away our sins, but obtained eternal redemption. That is,
obtained eternal salvation for us. This inheritance is something
that Paul speaks of with such excitement. He describes it for
us this way. I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. This glory that Paul is
talking about. is not the glory that we will
experience when we leave this world in our last hour and drop
these bodies in the grave and enter into heavenly glory. That's
not the glory he's talking about. This glory that's awaiting us
is the glory that awaits us in the day of resurrection, when
Christ comes again and he raises us from the dead. And these bodies,
so natural bodies will be raised, spiritual bodies, these bodies
buried in the earth as mortal bodies raised, immortal bodies,
these bodies sown in the earth to corrupt these bodies of corruption
raised up in incorruption. And our God makes all things
new. This is the glory that the Apostle
is talking about. Now notice in our text, he calls
this glory by different names because no one thing can be compared
to it. No one thing is suitable to describe
it. In verse 18, he calls it the
glory that shall be revealed in us. That is the great glory
of God that's soon to be revealed in all his elect, showing forth
his praise, his honor, and his glory. It's called in verse 19,
the manifestation of the sons of God. The day when God makes
manifest who his children are. Oh, what a day that will be. He makes manifest who they are. to all wandering worlds and makes
manifest what they are, the perfection of his praise, the fullness of
his beauty, the work of his hands, the perfection of manhood in
Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse 21, he calls it the glorious
liberty of the sons of God. Oh, the liberty awaiting us,
the liberty awaiting us. And then in verse twenty three,
he speaks of the redemption of our body. This redemption of
our body is the final consummating act of adoption, the final consummating
act of God's saving grace, the final restoration of God's elect
from all the ruin of our father, Adam. This is that blessed hope. and glorious appearing of the
great God and our Savior, spoken of in Titus 2.13, for which we
are to live in constant expectation. Oh, God, teach me this. Oh, Spirit
of God, graciously compel me to live on the tiptoe of faith. Expecting the glorious appearing
of the great God and my Savior Jesus Christ the Lord. Daily,
constantly, hourly, looking for Him in expectation and hope. I repeat again what I've said
to you many times recently. In this book, in this book, in
this book, you will not find any man or any woman who believed
God, who looked upon that day with dread. In that great judgment day, Christ
will still be my rock in whom I hide. He will still be my righteousness. He will still be my redemption. He will still be my sanctification. That means there's nothing to
dread for God's people beyond the grave. nothing to fear beyond
the grave, nothing that we should not anxiously anticipate. Let us live in the constant expectancy
of our Lord's glorious appearing. This is that for which Peter
admonishes us to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto us
at the revelation of Jesus Christ. This heavenly inheritance is
an inheritance of indescribable universal greatness and glory. And this great inheritance to
which the children of God are all heirs by virtue of our union
with Christ is the subject Paul's dealing with in our text. Let
me tell you three things about it. Three things clearly set
before us in the verses we've read this portion of Holy Scripture.
It is an inheritance of such greatness of such glory, of such
magnitude that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared to it. Secondly, it is such a great,
great inheritance that it influences and affects the whole creation. The whole creation is waiting
for the manifestation of the sons of God. And third, this
inheritance is of such greatness, such glory, such magnitude, that
our highest and greatest enjoyments in this world can never satisfy
us. But we grow within ourselves,
waiting for the redemption of the body. How gracious, how good
God is to his people. He has so arranged things by
His eternal decree and by His omnipotent mercy that His children
can never be satisfied in this world. He won't allow you to be satisfied
with anything in this world. And He won't allow you to be
satisfied with yourself. as long as you live in this flesh.
All right, let's look at those three things together. First,
the glory to be revealed in us is of such greatness, of such
magnitude, that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared to it. Paul says 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. Paul here uses
a sort of spiritual arithmetic. In one column, he puts all the
things we suffer in this world. In the other column, he puts
the glory of our inheritance. And when they're all put together,
He tells us that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be put in the scales with the glory that shall be
revealed in us. And he shows us that by three
things. Understand this, without question, the sufferings of this
present time are great. They're great. I know, I know
that compared with what Christ suffered for us, compared with what many others
suffer in this world, compared with what we know we deserve,
compared with the glory awaiting us, our sorrows here are rightly
called our light afflictions. I'm aware of that. I'm aware
of that. But I don't suggest that you try telling a man who's
just buried his only child, that his afflictions are light. I
don't suggest that you try telling a woman who's watching her baby
die that her afflictions are light. But I recognize plainly
that the misery of this world, while it is great, the woes that
we have are often heavy, heavy burdens, painful beyond description. They're not anything compared
with the glory awaiting us. Now, I don't take lightly the
things that people suffer. I weep with weeping friends.
I just heard from a family this week whose son's in prison. I hurt for them. I have friends
who I have children who break their hearts. I have cherished
friends whose family is just an unceasing burden, let alone
the things that are much less significant, sickness, bereavement. But God's people have always
suffered such. Let me read briefly to you a
little something I read just this week again. Christopher
Love was a martyr. Listen to the words his wife
wrote to him just before he was executed. Oh, lift up thy heart with joy. When thou layest thy dear head
on the block, that thou art laying thy head to rest in thy father's
bosom. Now, my dear, I desire willingly
and cheerfully to resign my right in thee to thy father and to
my father. And on the day he was executed,
Mr. Love, as he was preparing to
lay his head upon the block said to a dear friend of his, or a
friend said to him, how does thou find thy heart? And Love
said, I bless God, sir. I am as full of joy and comfort
as ever my heart can hold. And the last words he was heard
to speak were these. Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. And he quietly laid his head
on the block, and it was severed with one horrible blow. Yes,
God's saints often endure great hardship and great burdens. But even the heaviest burdens
and woes of this world, we read here, are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. I recall years
ago, and this is just trivial compared to what I've been talking
about, But in the light of that, maybe we need a little triviality.
Shelby, myself, and Brother Ron Lumberg, and Brother Brent Seacrest,
and his wife, and sometimes Ron's wife could join us. We started
taking children to camp. We took 100, 150 kids for a week
to camp. And one of the camps we rented
was not really up to snuff. Things were pretty rugged, pretty
rough, and not what we expected. And we had invited brother Bob
Lucilius from out in Oklahoma to come and minister to us and
to the children for that week. And when Bob got there from Oklahoma,
I was just young, young pup. And I, uh, I couldn't have been
more than 22, 23 years old. And I started apologizing as
I'm so sorry for your quarters. So sorry for the way things are.
And I kept apologizing, kept saying it's all right. And finally
he shut me up. He said, brother Don, this is fine. All of this
and heaven too. all of this and heaven too, the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory that shall be revealed in us. So child of God,
when your heart breaks, when your soul is crushed, lift your
heart to heaven and anticipate the glory that awaits you. He's
telling us this is not a comparison to be made because our sufferings
here. Are just confined to this present
time. Our light afflictions, which
are but for a moment. But for a moment, you remember
the years of Jacob's service for Rachel? He served Laban 14 years. A slave to another man. 14 years
just to marry that lady Rachel. 14 years. And Laban deceived him on every
hand. And the scripture tells us in Genesis 29, 20, they seem
to him but a few days. When we leave here, all of this
we will see to be as nothing. A woman goes in travail. And gives birth. And the travail
is counted by a loving mother as an insignificant price to
pay to bring that child into the world. Our Lord Jesus suffered
all the horror of God's wrath. Do you remember, Mark, why the
scripture tells us he did it? For the joy that was set before
him. For the joy of saving his people. for the joy of bringing us with
him into heaven's glory. Our sufferings in this world
are just in this world. But for you who perish without
Christ, all the hell you think you endure
in this world are nothing. compared to the hell awaiting
you. God give you grace to flee to
his son. And then the apostle tells us
that the glory of our heavenly inheritance will be so magnanimously
great that it will remove from us every painful memory of sorrow
in this world. You think about the things that
make you weep. You think about the things that you want to pull your hair out.
You think about the things that make you so angry you want to
strike out at God. God forgive us. I'm just telling
you the truth. Things make you want to strike
out at God. I don't know how this is so, but I know this is
so. Those very things will make heaven
more glorious to you than it could otherwise have been. Our
light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work for us
a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. That's the language
of the book. The Holy Ghost tells us in first
Peter chapter one, The trial of your faith is much more precious
than gold that perisheth. Though it be tried with fire,
it will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Not your faith is more precious
than gold. Rex, the trial of your faith
will be found and to praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Such will be the joy of this
heavenly inheritance that it will erase from our memory the
few years of sorrow in this world. It will efface those things,
erase them from us, so that we will never look back upon anything
in time. with regret. I couldn't believe that if it
wasn't written in his book. God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes and there will be no more sorrow. We will never,
never, never, never again have regret or sorrow for anything. That's just beyond imagination,
isn't it? The first 17 years of my life, before God saved me, just before
I was 17 years old, there's not one thing I remember
I don't regret. Not one thing. I don't remember any experience
I don't remember any deed. I don't remember any word coming
from these lips. Anything performed by these hands
that I don't regret. Not a thing. And for my part. Most of my life
since then. Most of my life since God saved
me. For the things that go on in
me, for the thoughts of this depraved
mind, for the coldness of this icy steel heart. Oh, how I regret. How disappointed
I am with me. But in eternity, we will never
regret. Oh God, hasten the day. No more sorrow, no tears, no
pain for the former things are passed away. Here's the second
thing in our text. So great, so magnanimous is the
glory to be revealed in us that at the resurrection that glory to be revealed in
us at the resurrection so great that it influences and affects
the whole of God's creation. For the earnest expectation of
the creature waited, waited for the manifestation of the sons
of God. The creation is waiting, waiting
for God to accomplish this for the creature, the creation. was
made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had
subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself 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. Adam's sin and fall in the garden
didn't just affect the human race, bringing all men into poverty
under the sentence of death, spiritually dead, cursed, and
justly condemned. But it affected all of God's
creation. As a consequence of Adam's transgression,
the ground itself was cursed. so that it brings forth thorns
and briars. And man earns his bread on this
earth by the sweat of his brow because the creation is cursed. Adam's house cat became a roaring
lion. His pet dog became a ravening
wolf. The whole creation messed up,
just messed up under the curse so that the day is coming when
God will burn everything up and make all things new. This subjection
of the creation to the bondage of corruption was by the hand
of God, but it's not permanent. God subjected the world to this
bondage of corruption. In hope, in hope, this is what
that means. When we're delivered from the
curse of sin, God's creation will be delivered from the bondage
of corruption. The redemption of our bodies
in the resurrection will be the birthday of a new heavens and
a new earth by seeing everything in God's creation had become
in some way subservient to evil. But God won't allow it to continue
forever. He will when he completes our
redemption. completely restore everything
to himself. There is a day coming called
the time of restitution, when everything shall be restored
to God in perfect order, creation included. God will make all things
new. When the Lord God created the
heavens and the earth, Everything according to its nature displayed
his glory and when God gets finished with all that he's doing in this
world Everything in creation will be down to his praise and
his glory Everything now those things that
were created for the comfort of man God created the world
put Adam in the garden and he said I He said, you see the trees
and the fish and the sea and the birds and the air and the
animals walking on the ground and the flowers and the vegetation?
That's for you. Enjoy it. Enjoy it. But the whole
thing has become opposed to man. So that God says to his people,
I'll make a covenant. with the beast of the field.
Hosea chapter two, verse eight. I'll make a covenant with creeping
things for you so that those creatures that would destroy
us, God protects us from them. Everything in the world man takes
and uses in his lust, in his idolatry, and multiplies it or
gives it to Baal. And again, he tells us in Hosea
two, Sadly, man worships and serves
the creature more than the creator. Now let me tell you what that
means. It doesn't just mean that man takes a stump and carves
out an idol, or he takes some gold and shapes it into the form
of an idol. But he takes the creature and
sets his heart on it. and worships and serves the creature
more than the creator, so that fallen, depraved man ever puts
stuff in the place of God, heaping things and consuming things upon
his own lust. Every benefit of creation has
been employed by us to serve our own lust, to gratify the
passions of our hearts, greed, adultery, fornication, sodomy,
murder, rape, incest, all of these things, man does. And they're
as common as fleas or a dog because he worships and serves the creature
more than the creator. The creation itself had been
turned into a God to be worshiped. We live in that day. Every motel
you go into, Sometimes I go places folks put me in those high-dollar
motels. Normally, it's the stuff that
everybody else uses. When I stop somewhere, we try
to find the best price we can on a motel room. I'll tell you
what's universal with them these days. In order to save our planet,
if you wish to use your towels, just hang them back on the rack
as if you're going to believe that stuff. In order to save
their dollars, reuse your towels. But everybody wants to save Mother
Earth. Everybody wants to protect Mother
Earth. Now, I don't suggest that we
should abuse God's creation. But I am telling you, we're not
to worship God's creation. This is not mother earth. God created the earth and put
us on it to use it for his glory. Nature with fallen man occupies
the place of God and we worship and serve the creature more than
creator. And that's where all of this
earthy, earth living, earth worshiping nonsense comes from. Though creatures
have no intelligence, creatures made subject to vanity,
but in hope because this is just temporary. God in his infinite
wisdom saw fit to subject the creation to vanity in hope because
there is a time coming when he will deliver the creation from
the bondage of corruption. Now, notice the threefold description
Paul gives us of the inheritance awaiting us This blessed blessed
inheritance that's coming for us in the time God has appointed
He describes it this deliverance this way This is the goal of
predestination This is the object of providence. This is the thing
for which God made all things look at verse 28 Romans Romans
8 we know that all things are for which all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he, the Lord Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called, them he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he also glorified. Now here's
the glory that's awaiting us. It is the glory that shall be
revealed in us. God, the triune Jehovah, when
all this is done, is going to reveal His glory in me. And He's going to reveal His
glory in me in such a way as it could not otherwise be revealed. He's going to reveal His glory
in you, my brother, in you, my sister, in such a way as His
glory could not otherwise be displayed. Revealing His glory
in covenant grace in redemption, in regeneration, in preservation,
in sanctification, in resurrection, and in ultimate glorification.
More than that, the completion of God's work of grace is called
the manifestation of the sons of God. Listen to this. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons
of God. He did that in eternity. We were adopted in electing love. Therefore, the world knoweth
us not, because it knew him not. And then John says, Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. God has sent forth the spirit
of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, now are we the
sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. But when he shall appear, we
shall be like him. for we shall see him as he is.
And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself
even as he is pure. And then our ultimate salvation
is described as the glorious liberty of the sons of God. This will be our happy jubilee. We have been freed from the penalty
and dominion of sin by God's regenerating grace. At death
We shall be delivered from the presence and being of sin. But when Christ comes again,
when the jubilee trumpet sounds, we shall be delivered from all
the consequences of sin. We will sing the song of joyful
triumph. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God. which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, third,
such is the magnitude, the greatness, the grandeur, the glory of our
heavenly inheritance, that the highest, greatest enjoyments
in this world can never satisfy God's saints. But we groan within
ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our bodies, Verse 23, and not only they,
not only the creation. When I was in West Virginia,
when we lived there, I used to like to go out when we had the
first snowfall. I like to get out early in the
morning, just a daybreak, before anybody else had gotten out.
I'd like to walk through the woods and the leaves still on
the trees hanging heavy with snow, those trees would just
crack and pop. Sounded like cannons going off.
And I did that because I'd like to hear the creation groan. Groan. Waiting for the redemption
of our bodies. I was out in California years
ago, getting ready to fly out of Sacramento, and they had that
last big earthquake they had in San Francisco. Motel I was
in, things shook just a little bit. And turned on television
and saw what was going on. I thought the creation's groaning,
groaning. But we also like that creation
groan. First, the apostle says that
we who have the first fruits of the spirit groan within ourselves,
groan because of our sin, groan because of our unbelief, grown
because of our selfishness, grown because of our love of self,
grown because of our love of this world, grown because of
what we know we are. We grow. Long to be free. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? And then Paul
speaks of us waiting for our adoption. Again, we experimentally
were adopted in the family of God in regeneration, but soon
we shall enter into the full enjoyment of adoption in the
resurrection. And then the apostle describes
our resurrection, our entrance into heavenly glory with Christ
as the redemption of the body. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God has made unto us redemption. Redemption, I've told you many
times, like the word salvation, it's a huge word. It takes in
the whole work of God in bringing us into heavenly glory. This
redemption is talking about the resurrection. Christ redeemed
us at Calvary, but he's coming again to redeem these bodies
from sin. and from corruption and death. You're coming to redeem these
bodies from all the consequences of sin. One of these days, you're going
to come up here. My body will be
laid in a box there, I expect. And you'll probably shed some tears. Probably
some folks come just to be sure I'm in the box, but you'll probably
shed some tears. But the fact is there won't be
any need, because this body will be sown in the earth in hope
of this day of the redemption of the body when Christ comes
again. And he will raise us up in his
love. in His glory and that will be
the consummate work of our Redeemer. Then come at the end when He
shall deliver up the kingdom unto God the Father and God shall
be all in all. What a glorious hope is set before
us. Let us set our hearts Let us set our hearts upon eternity,
not on things on this world. Oh, that God, the Holy Ghost,
would enable me to live for eternity, constantly looking for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. The only condition
upon which we have right to claim this inheritance as our own is
by union with Christ. Only if you're in Christ, only
if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, only if Christ is in
you, is this inheritance yours. Be sure then you're in Christ. This great, glorious, indescribably
magnanimous inheritance shall be the glorious consummation
of redemption and the manifestation of the glory of God in us.